Hey All,

All my life I've wanted to have a backyard rink, but growing up in the outskirts of NYC, in a middle class home, the property sizes didnt allow it. I've since grown up, gotten married, bought a house in NJ with a nice sized backyard, and convinced my wife to let me build a rink in it. It's a dream come true, but I don't want it to turn to a nightmare, so I'm counting on all of you for tips on how to make this as perfect as i expect it to be.

I've already done all the preliminary work, and discovered that I have a 6" pitch in my yard. I plan to flood 3" on the high end and 9" on the low. I want to do this as low cost as possible without really skimping on the project. My rink will be 20' x 40' which I'm thinking will be large enough for a nice little 2v2 game.

I'm trying to decide on OSB, 2 by wood, or plywood. I'd love to spring for the Nicerink boards but if this all goes well this year, maybe I'll do that next year. I think I'm going to over prepare for uneven grounds and go with 18" boards on 3 walls and 10" on the 4th wall, where skaters will enter the rink.

My biggest question right now is this. My yard is surrounded by 60-80 foot trees. Lots of leaves and a pain in the ass to maintain in the fall months. Judging by last years winter, the trees are never really bare, they're constantly dropping leaves. When I flood the rink, is it a bad idea to throw a clear tarp over the whole thing to avoid foreign objects falling into the ice? Or will that insulate the rink?

First off, I think the plan is great. For price, OSB is best, but it may not last more than a year or two. Plywood is a bit more expensive but you could get a few more years out of a 3/4" sheet than the OSB. And 2x will last you quite a while, and you can stack two 2x12's on top of each other to get a 22" high wall (since 2x12's are really only 11" high). Iron Sleek makes a good extension bracket for this.

As for the clear tarp, I wouldn't bother. First off, you'd be price-conscious on boards but then basically have to buy two liners (one to hold the water, the other to be the clear tarp). Doesn't really make sense. Then there's the chance the clear tarp drops onto the ice and melts there, giving you a huge problem. And lastly, I like to think that leaves and acorns and whatnot gives my ice character. Yes, it can be rough, but a good hockey stop will dislodge (or demolish) a leaf, and backyard ice is never going to be as smooth and sexy as indoor ice anyways. I say let the leaves fall, and do your best to get them off your ice. As you get towards late February, the sun will melt the leaves into the ice, but that's the extent of the damage they'll do. For most of us, by mid-season, we have pine needles and leaves and crap baked into the different layers of ice that has formed. I think it's kinda cool.

Thanks Joe,

I've seen you help countless people, and I can say that I feel completely comfortable with any suggestions you make. For my rookie rink building session, I'm going to follow the How To for building a rink for $250. Mine might come out to be a little closer to $300 but if it's a complete failure, I'll feel a lot better about wasting $300 than $800+.

I'll be posting all my work as I progress. Thanks again!

Those trees and the fact that they are rarely bare will actually help extend the life of your rink. Shade is one of the best friends of ice, especially in late winter/early spring. Just be diligent with a quick shovel/scrape before a resurface and it shouldn't be a real problem.

Best of luck
Kevin

Two days with temps as low as 29F in the morning. This is getting exciting, unfortunately it's supposed to be 50-55F tomorrow and up over 60F this weekend. Still about 3-4 more weeks away from flooding.

Yea, I'm assuming I wont be able to flood until the middle of December, maybe not even till January, but lets hope for December.

Danny, the leaves bug me too. I'm rigging up a net this year to keep them out. It might be a total failure and waste of time but if it works out I'll post some pictures.

Danny - I agree with Joe's suggestions that you don't let the prospect of leaves/twigs keep you up at night - there are much worse things that could happen - like miscalculating the grade of your yard.

One suggestions for you if you decide to go down the 2 X wood frame path. I used these:



to provide some support for the boards. I ended up going with the 24" version, pounded them in so that they were flush or below the level of the 2 X 12 boards (don't want anyone falling on one that is above the board line) and then attached them to the boards with some 1 3/4" screws. I typically used 1 every 4-6 feet in the shallow end and doubled up in the deep sections.

@Lbruski - I was going to go with 2x2x24" wooden stakes for support, and attach them to the boards. They are pretty inexpensive, and seem to be widely accepted as proper supports.

Another question I just thought of, I plan on mowing the grass one last time before the rink construction. I'll probably just run the mower right over the leaves as well, giving me a lot of lawn scraps. Would it be a bad idea to save these scraps to use as fill for the uneven bottoms of the board? Seems more cost efficient then going out and grabbing a couple bags of soil, but i also realize theres the risk that there could be small twigs that might puncture the liner. I haven't gotten my liner yet, so I don't know what to expect as far as durability. Will a small twig be enough to ruin my winter?