Back yard skating rinks - anyone done one?

I'm looking to put up a backyard skating rink for the boys (9 and 12 yo) this winter and wondering if anyone has any experience and advice to offer.

I'm thinking the kits might be easier, and after looking on CL may be more economical, but not sure how well they work.

Any advice or info on your experience with the kits would be appreciated.

Thanks, Joe

we sort of had one growing up. It was nothing planned.. we just a large low area in the yard that would flood and freeze

Ours was the same. Ice isn't hard to come by in Ottawa...

We would level and pack down the dirt in the garden, then build up the ice layer by layer.

We lined the edges with 2x8's after a couple years of trying to find out where the puck went.

Our house had frost-proof outside faucets, which allowed us to flood the rink every night. It did require regular maintenance like scraping and flooding - you dare not leave snow on it or it would wreck the ice.

We eventually moved further south and it doesn't get cold enough long enough where I am now.

Fond memories, though!

you can buy kits to flood your yard?

I used to open the hose, put water on the yard, and let it freeze.

If you don't want to lay out plastic, just pack down the snow real well. My back yard is shaped like a bowl, so the snow helps level it out. Spray lightly with a hose, let freeze, spray again, let freeze. Eventually you get to a point where you can add large amounts of water. You have to be careful the water doesn't melt a hole in the ice where everything can leak out. Helps if you run the water slowly thru a couple hundred feet of snow spread out on the snow. We try to build one every year for my daughters birthday in January, complete with paper messages cut out of construction paper embedded in the ice. My daughter says she wants a snow cannon and a huge snow/ice house for this winters birthday. Off to Utube to figure out how to make one.

None of the kits I've seen are big enough to bother with. Stake down some wood, pack the snow to get it fairly watertight/smooth and start layering on the ice. Maintenance is the big thing, you have to keep it shoveled to keep the surface nice enough to skate on. Don't try to get it too thick to start with as you'll be adding water/thickness through the winter.

My neighbor has had a backyard rink every winter for the last 5 years or so. Lots of plywood and plastic all home made. He even has floodlights rigged up for night time hockey. If I think of it I'll ask if he will let me take a pic or two when its ready and post it here.

With our mild winters the last several years, the ice hasn't always been the best.

Decent book on the subject: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/home-ice-jack-falla/1110793728

Book goes over a bunch of rinks, from full out with lines and the whole nine yards, to "turn the hose on for a couple hours".

As a side note, the ability to build an outdoor rink using nothing more than a hose should be a requirement to have an NHL franchise.

Keith Tanner wrote: As a side note, the ability to build an outdoor rink using nothing more than a hose should be a requirement to have an NHL franchise.

That sucks for about 50% of the NHL franchises that don't get freezes... sorry CA, OK, FL, and so on.

mndsm wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: As a side note, the ability to build an outdoor rink using nothing more than a hose should be a requirement to have an NHL franchise.

That sucks for about 50% of the NHL franchises that don't get freezes... sorry CA, OK, FL, and so on.

Yup. Can't play ice hockey without ice, it's in the name!

Seriously, Nashville?

Thanks for the feedback.

I had always seen them done with plastic,never just slowly layering on the ice over the yard.

I think I will need to go the plastic route, though. The slope of the yard and a January thaw would probably wash everything away if not contained.

My dad used to build one for us growing up, no plastic and some pallets at one end of the yard.

If we had snow, it would involve wetting the snow and then packing it all down with our boots to build the base,

With no snow, my dad would rig up a the hose with the spray nozzle set to mist on a ladder, and let it run while moving it around once a base was built up in that area (this obviously only works when the air temp is below freezing) - similar to how a ski hill would make snow, but it was wetter and would pack itself down. So it took more water, but was less work then when there was a snow base. It also really helped to build up the low part of the yard so the rink was more level.

Spraying a layer of water at a time to build a base seems like a lot of work compared to the way my dad used to build them - fine to resurface, but would take a while to get a base built up.

Keith Tanner wrote: Yup. Can't play ice hockey without ice, it's in the name! Seriously, Nashville?

Hey, now. I'm quite happy that I have a hockey team here in North Carolina. There are quite a few people from the Northern climes that relocated down here like I did.

the local parents always used a big tarp and 2x4s and built the ice up layer by layer. After skating all day a fresh coat of water would have the ice smooth for the next day without having to use a Zamboni.

Once we were old enough to head out to the local pond the backyard rinks stopped happening.

Admit it. This is just a bad excuse for a new zamboni.

Hmmm...zamboni...teaching the boys to drift the lawn tractor....

The tractor, some old gas grills, a plastic water barrel, propane tank, and misc. items from the hardware store...

The rink is going to be the easy part...