Hopeful in Whitby, Ontario

[chrisp]

Just built a 24 x 24 feet rink - boards and liner - and flooded last night before I found this website. First off, I underestimated the slope of my lawn and had to raise the boards a bit on one side. Now my concern is that I did not fill deep enough - it's about an inch and a half at the shallowest point. I left it over night and it is partially frozen (probably about an inch thickness). Any advice as to how to increase the depth. Should I flood again I can probably get the hose under the ice at a corner but not sure if that would be good idea? If only I'd found this website earlier I would definitely have filled deeper...

[Joe]

Hi Chris - welcome!

The reason I advise to fill all at once is because there is a risk in dropping the hose back in now that you have some ice formed. If you put your hose in and start to fill, the water will find its way under your slab, then lift it up like ice cubes in a glass of soda. Because ice can be sharp, there is a risk that your liner will get damaged. What you can do, if you only have a few inches, is gently break the ice all the way around your boards, about a foot in. This frees up the ice block to float free of the liner, and should all you to drop the house and increase your height.

I've skated on as little as 2" (not by choice...I did the same thing in my first year), but you tend to lose it very quickly in late February.

Good luck!

[chrisp]

Thanks Joe,

It was pretty warm here on New Year's Eve so I was able to make a couple of adjustments and get to a depth of about 3 inches at the shallowest point. Bit of a disaster, though as there is a tiny hole in my liner close enough to the edge so that I was able to get underneath it but not close enough to be able to get it above water level. I figured I may as well do what I could with it so I put some duct tape underneath and a clear plastic suction cup thing over the top. It seems to be holding pretty well at the moment but I'm not sure what will happen if it freezes and thaws. It's at a shallow point so I'm hoping that it'll be frozen solid soon and stay that way but we'll have to see. In any case, now I'm just waiting for the ice to get thick enough to get skating - at about 1 1/2 inches right now.

Cheers

Chris