survive a thaw

[kostitsyn76]

Hello

I skate on a traditional style rink, no boards or liner.
It has survived to minor thaws.
However this week in mid north ontario temperatures are going to be
Around 10 degrees celsius for 3 days straight day and night. I think that's
Around 50 degrees farenheit.
A method I use is I leave a snow fall on the ice or if no snow fall I manually
Shovel snow on to the ice to insulate it. Once temperatures reach just freezing
Again I shovel the snow off with a plastic shovel. Then take a metal shovel
And scrape off a thin layer of rough surface which the snow being on the ice creates.
As the ice is soft from the thaw it is easy to scrape the layer off.
Let the ice freeze solid again, re surface and skate away.
However with this thaw coming being so extreme I nd with potential rain
I am wondering if anyone has some tips or if I should stick with this method.

Thanks all

[Joe]

Not sure you'll find many folks here using your old-school, no-liner method (which is great if your climate supports it), but I'd say your best bet is to increase shade. Hang a tarp, do whatever you can to keep the sun off the rink. Otherwise, if what you've been doing works, keep at it.

[kevmac]

I used to build the non-tarp traditional old school rink right on the grass. Typically I would use the exact same method as you did, leave the snow on the ice as insulation and then resurface once the cold weather returns. If you have enough of a slab, even 10' weather won't melt away that ice in a couple of days since the hours of sun are so short. Keep monitoring your ice and the weather, if it gets cold enough at night don't be afraid to patch any holes.

Good luck. You'll be skating again by mid next week!

Kevin

[kostitsyn76]

Thanks kevin and joe

So thanks for the advice. Going out for final skate tonight before thaw. Good site here, I call it my support
Group to my girlfriend. For people with the same strange disease that causes them to be outside in freezing
Weather late at night. Or wallking around with a bucket of slush patching holes and manically shoveling
And scraping all for that hour or two of ice time. Blasting bb's off the pipes and crushing one timers.

What is some advantages of liner method might make the switch next year.

[kevmac]

Main advantage to having a liner - you don't lose any water; whatever water is in the liner stays in the liner (provided there are no holes).

As I said before, I've down the old school version of packing snow and watering it, allowing it to freeze and repeat until there is ice forming on the top. This is a lot of work and I found myself up at 2 or 3 in the morning when it was -15'C in order to build up the ice. Typically, I wasn't skating until mid January and this definitely shortens your season. Since moving to a liner, I have skated prior to Christmas every year that I've had the liner. If you followed my post in the 'Show off your Rink' section, you would have seen that I skated on November 30th this season. This would never have been possible with the 'old school' method, although kind of unheard of in Eastern Ontario any other year as well.

My suggestion is go liner and you'll never go back.

Kevin

[jdpinckney22]

Main advantage to doing a liner, more reliable, easier maintenance and I would think, set up (I can't imaging shoveling all that snow to make the banks!) longer skate season. Longer skate season is enough reason for me!

[kostitsyn76]

Will go liner next year. Longer skating season is enough reason for me.

In any case here is a play by play by play through the thaw for anyone who may come across this on google needing advice.

Day 1: went for a long skate last night.with all the effort put in for a traditional rink you will want to reap your spoils as much as possible. Weather got up to 7 degrees celsius today according to my rink side thermometer ( which I recommend as a good purchase). Came home at three noticing damage. Weather predicted 5 hours of minus 1 degree celsius between 2am and 5am went out with slush bucket in last hour of sunlight to assess damage and repair.
The snow banks boarders have regresed significantly exposing the edge of me ice slab. Looks really ugly. Every dark blemish on my rink such as leafs or dirt has caused the sun to melt a deep hole. Picked out the leafs and dirt patched hole with slush ice was so soft walking on it made in dents patched those with slush. Probably losing layers of ice due to heat. They must be replenished. Was un able to insulate ice with snow. No snow fall and snow to dirty to manually insulate which would further compound my problem. Seeing a high of plus 2 degrees celsius tommorow with minus 2 low. Will have to replenish snow banks and water lightly 2 or three time to rebuild what was lost.

day 2 of thaw tommorow and weather will get twice as warm by Saturday... with rain... doom music.

[kevmac]

Chin up! Typically, January always has one of these warm spells (usually it's later in the month) but it is usually followed by frigid cold. I checked my local before I went to bed was calling for +11'C on Saturday, today it has been downgraded to only +6'C. Overnight temperatures are supposed to hit -8'C so if you have a similar situation as Kostitsyn and leave near Ottawa, I might suggest you flood a wee bit tonight. :-)

[kostitsyn76]

Back again.
S
Thanks for the support kevmac. I checked out your rink pictures. Wow. One day maybeor me I can have one like that. . Will post pictures of mine and the damage tomrow. You will probably laugh but I have no kids it is for me to wire some shots, teach the girlfriend [url][/url]how to skate ( just bought her nicer skates than I have! .. and pink hockey tape) also my nephew and brother. Those super high boards around the net are awesome on your rink. If your on this site next year I will be seeking advice on building a big awesome rink.

Don't mean to bore all you nhl quality rinkers but..

Day 2 of thaw:

Crazy wind storms last night. A night mare for me because it blew all sorts of debris onto my ice from large debris to small debris. Weather said plus 2 celsius today. Ended up being plus 12 according to rink side thermometer. Next w days will not see a freezing temperature day or night. And this time the weather is actually predicting plus 12 which could mean plus twenty with sun warmth on my rink side thermo. Anyways much more shrinkage of side snow banks really ugly looking backyardis almost green except for rink. Really worried. Went out in last hour of sunlight again,
temperature was 0 celsius! Damage was immense with all the debris blown onto it by the wind I was out there more than an hour with a slush bucket and even tweezers to pick out the small debris that had boared a hole in my ice then patching with snow. Temperature flucuated always close to zero so went out at 9 o'clock when it was minus 1 celsius and did a light water so not to form shell. Ice as kevmac suggested. Of course that watering is purely preventetive as it will without a doubt be melted away tommorow. Also my ice is shaded by a large shed most the day. The right side of the ice however doesn't receive shade until late late afternoon that side of the ice is bad. I can't walk on it. Can't insulate because of dirty snow. Unfortunatley that side may be lost and have to be repaired once freezing again. Day 3 of thaw tommorow it will be worse but Saturday is the end all I don't even know if my rink will make it. Having just bought girlfriend awesome skates and having put hours of work into this that will suck. But deoing everything to prevent it besides the rink master kevmac is optomistic although girlfriend is pessimisstic lol will try to post pics tommmmorow. Have a good day all.

[kevmac]

We have faith in you! Do not let Mother Nature win. As long as you have a semblance of a base after the thaw is over and it starts freezing again, you can build it up with the gradual addition of water.

Keep us posted and we will lend suggestions where possible.