Postby Joe » Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:41 am
I wouldn't do it. Think about how heavy a shovel-full of snow is. 5lbs? 10lbs? Dunno. Then multiply that by 100. Doesn't sound so easy to pull that much weight off, and then if it's too heavy to pull off, what do you do? Shovel off the top of your protective tarp? Risk getting it stuck in your snowblower? Might this protective layer freeze to your ice? (Answer: yes, it might). It's a good idea in theory, but it would take more than just draping an extra liner of your ice to make it work.
One solution that has potential are those mechanical in-ground pool covers. I used to clean pools for wealthy folk, and make of them had this solar cover that had tracks built into the top inside of the pool. You'd press a button and the covers would roll up onto a spool at one end, out of sight. Of course, if you're going to build THAT kind of thing around your backyard rink, you might as well start looking into inexpensive roof systems.
I'm Joe from Backyard-Hockey.com and EliteRinks.com.
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