Hey guys! My name is Jim and I hail from Central Illinois, me and a pal are working on giving an outdoor rink a whirl and hoping to make all my friends and neighbors eat their words! Just hope that the crazy prairie weather cooperates this winter!

Good luck Jim! What materials are you using? Have you built it yet?

In the middle of planning it out, enjoying looking through this site and forum learning!

I'm thinking of using 12" OSB framed out with 2x10's and anchored/braced by rebar for the boards and then a white tarp. Because I'm worried about the weather cooperating I'm thinking of starting pretty small to see if this works out here in Central IL!

Looking for any and every bit of suggestions and info as I can get!

Not sure what you mean by using 12" OSB and 2x10's...most use one or the other, either plywood or dimensional. Maybe I didn't read that right.

Have you checked your slope? I'm in new england where exactly nothing is flat or level, so you may be luckier in the midwest. But 12" tall plywood or 2x10 lumber doesn't give you much board height, and not having enough board height to contain your water is the single most common rookie mistake. Grab some string and a line level and make sure before you go too far.

Rebar is a good idea for bracing, especially since it's already (almost) January and most other bracing methods don't penetrate frozen ground.

I read all about the slope and already prepared to do that, I don't want to make the mistake of not having tall enough boards.

I meant OSB or 2 x 10's, really excited and typing a bit too fast!

Luckily, the weather has just started to be really cold so the ground is just starting to freeze but I prefer the idea of anchoring with rebar much better! I also work in one of those big box stores, so going to speak with some of my co-workers in the lumber dept. and getting input from them.

hey Jim, I'm also from Central Illinois, about five minutes south of morton. We have been skating on our rink for a week now and its gonna get real cold this week, so it looks like you are in luck. I had to make my dad eat his words about our rink this year too, pretty fun actually. cheers and welcome, jesse

Glad to see another Illinoisian on here! We're starting construction on Friday, I'll be posting pictures!