heattrak to smooth huge ridges?

[skate_ma]

Have widespread ridges over more than 1/2 my 32x64 rink. basically didn't remove snow in a timely fashion and weight of it pushed water up around edges and onto surface - mostly at deeper end. shallow end is 4inches and deep end 12 inches. unfortunately got snowblower onto surface and was essentially removing snow and slush, leaving a completely decimated surface. surface was slush and re-froze with imprints of snowblower, footprints, and large chunks. disaster. scraping and using hot water probably not feasible. today temps in teens but later should get just above freezing and tomorrow near 50, they say, here in massachusetts.

question: anybody use the "heattrak" mats designed to be laid down on walkways to melt snow? seems I could drag the mat around slowly and melt the ice ridges down significantly (or good enough pre-rain). not keen on electricial contraption on ice but it is designed to be used with snow/ice and has gfci.

If not, any other suggestions for widespread ridges and general disarray? lesson learned on clearing snow early and often but in the meantime I need solution. thanks!

[kevmac]

Water is the quickest and easiest solution to most rink surface issues.

Flood your rink, let it freeze, skate on it, repeat each step as necessary.

[Dale]

Hate to say that I agree, but I was there 2 weeks ago. See one of my earlier posts. I scraped it as best as I could and flooded it again. It improved noticeably, but was still choppy. Skated again and flooded again. Still a few high spots, but much, much better.

[skate_ma]

Thanks guys. I get it.

The heattrak thing seems like a terrible idea, now that my initial panic has subsided.

I did end up flooding, letting it freeze, then attacking high ridges and chunks with a tool sort of like the floor scraper (its a heavy iron tool used to remove manhole covers back in the 50's, acquired by my grandfather somehow - it was awesome for the job). Then I shoveled off the ridge debris and flooded again. Thanks to silly weather, temps rose from 15F to 53F for one day here in Boston and returned back to 11F today - causing a great melt/refreeze.

It's much better, but choppy. Plan to skate, repeat...