Rock Salt

[kevmac]

I was reading some of the forums posts at the 'rinkwatch' site (I know! I know! There is only one true backyard hockey site :-D) and someone mentioned that they use rock salt in order to get rid of bumpy ice. I thought, "Holy crap, the last thing I would ever allow to come close to my rink is salt!" I would rather spend hours upon hours of flooding the rink at -20' in order to get rid of the 'bumpy' ice instead of subjecting my ice to an agent that directly melts ice.

I am not condoning the use of salt on your rink but I guess if you had really really bad (and it would have to be really bad IMHO) ice and you monitored it extremely closely, I guess you could use it to soften the crappy ice. Has anyone ever tried this (please don't unless you can prove me wrong) with success?

Again, my own personal PSA - please don't use salt on your rink.

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Related story:

There is a local community outdoor rink that is made on a gravel parking lot. A couple of years ago, there was a tremendous amount of snowfall and my friend who lived nearby & also owns a snowplow business was driving by. There were a lot of local kids trying desperately to shovel the rink. They waved down my friend and pleaded with him to plow the rink so that they could finish shoveling and go for a skate. Well, not even thinking and wanting to make the children happy he obliged and plowed the rink. Needless to say, road salt from the underside of the truck and the plow was now scattered across the ice surface and the snowbanks. The kids may have enjoyed that afternoon of skating but shortly thereafter, the ice was pitted and soft from the salt and eventually got worse.

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The thought of salt on your ice scares the crap out of me so I felt obliged to share.

[Joe]

Yeah, I'm with you. At my skating party Saturday, I spread some rock salt on our porch stairs, as they had gotten icy...and I was freaking out about it getting stuck to my boots and tracking it out onto the rink, so I rinsed them off first. Like you, I'd rather skate over bumps or resurface than introduce salt. The salt basically bores tiny holes into your ice. Not sure how it would get any bumps down evenly - it would just pit the bumps where the salt was.

[mbalcs33]

I agree, you'd have to apply the salt with some kind of laser surgical accuracy. I would be inclined (and I'm not) to use table salt instead of rock salt, in small quantities, to "soften" offending bumps. Then apply a coat of water a short time later to dissipate and dilute. The salt should no longer be an issue once completely dissolved.
That being said I think the first law of backyard rink maintenance, like medicine, is do no harm. I wouldn't trust myself carrying a quantity of salt onto the rink, especially given my state when I'm usually working on it - after a long day, tired and possibly a beer or two under my belt.
I've found the best remedy for bumps is a good hard skate with plenty of stops and starts, a hard clean with metal rimmed shovel, and a coat of water from the homeboni.