Backyard Rink

Cool. Thanks! Maybe next year.

Came home from work and shoveled a dusty inch off. Laid down a heavy layer. Let it sit for 4 hours and added another quick layer. It’s getting better. Might head out tomorrow night with a scraper.

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First skate!

First skate for us on the pond

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First skate tonight Baxter,MN.

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Wish I could find my pictures. I flooded inside my pole shed one year and had an indoor rink. It was pretty sweet.
DT

futurepoorperson wrote:

First skate tonight Baxter,MN.

Ice looks great. A few bumps, just like mine. One more flood and mine would’ve looked like indoor ice. Now this snow has got me worried. Hopefully it isn’t too wet and it comes off clean.

How’s everyone’s ice holding up with the storm. You guys motivated me. Liner going in morning and filling.

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Got plenty of ice. Just waiting for all the slush around edges to firm back up. Probably gonna take the weekend to get it back to prime condition again.

Nothing above freezing in sight. No big snows. Weather looks perfect.

I’ll be shoveling snow off tonight & flooding tomorrow night. Gonna take a couple days to bring back.
With the warm temps it melted down the high ridges nicely, was excited for a nice rink……but the wind, rain that turned to ice , then into snow created a monster.

Yeah procrastinating this time may have worked out in my favor. Week looks good to make some solid ice.

Time lapse of the resurfacing ritual.

My rink went south on me. Had it filled a day befor the snow storm, snow had too much weight and water came up around the edges and absorbed into the snow, then the warm weather started to melt it, then the rain and windy came. Crap all over the ice so after the rain n storm blew threw me and my oldest son broke out all the ice and removed it. Still had plenty of water in it. I did have to remove some leaves the next morning from the continuing wind that night. Now I have good clear ice going again and should be good now. Glad we put in the hard work to remove the junk ice for a new start. I did however break my Beckman net in the removal process, but hey they make more nets.
Wallster ><((((>

Funny. I was using a landing net to remove tumble weeds as mine was freezing. Didn’t ruin it though. The hand made Zamboni is the shi!t. Takes a couple laps but it’ll even things out faster than hosing.

biggill wrote:

Funny. I was using a landing net to remove tumble weeds as mine was freezing. Didn’t ruin it though. The hand made Zamboni is the shi!t. Takes a couple laps but it’ll even things out faster than hosing.

Yeah it sure is. Are you using hot water also? I am so picky,that I use my leaf blower or broom to take all the shavings left from skating befor I zamboni. I Think the boys are going to be able to hit the ice today. Looks to be almost solid this morning.
Wallster ><((((>

Yes, hot water. Well, actually warm because my water heater isn’t quite big enough to cover the entire rink so I chained the hot and cold together.

Once it gets smooth enough I may be able to use less water altogether and use just hot.

Well I had a disaster. After filling for 20 hours I woke uo to a breach in the boards. 3 of my neighbors now have outdoor rinks as well.😂 Reinforced the breach and started over. Looks pretty good now. Might need that Zam Matt.

tswoboda wrote:

Anyone here do a backyard rink with no liner or boards?

Can confirm spraying water on snow makes ice. 24’x26′ and the “boards” are actually iced enough for pucks to bounce off. Pretty amateur compared to the other rinks on here but the ice is great and it’s plenty big for these goons.

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Awesome. That’s all you need for those guys at this point. How old are they?

I’m having a hell of a time convincing my 3-1/2 year old boy to put skates on.

biggill wrote:

Awesome. That’s all you need for those guys at this point. How old are they?

I’m having a hell of a time convincing my 3-1/2 year old boy to put skates on.

The boys just turned 2, so still at the age where they do whatever I tell them. But they do seem to love it.

Daughter is almost 3-1/2 and I can agree it takes more coaxing to get her out there.

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Awesomeness.

Nice USPHC hat too. My wife stole mine just like that and thinks it’s hers now.

tswoboda wrote:

Pretty amateur compared to the other rinks

Wouldn’t that technically be a “front yard” rink?

gimruis wrote:

Wouldn’t that technically be a “front yard” rink?

LOL true, so can I say it’s the best frontyard rink on this thread? Or do I have to make a new thread… don’t want to get off topic here

This thread definitely motivated me to make the rink, and I even used the skater trainer plan from the link Matt posted. I’m sure I’ll expand to the backyard like the big boys once my squad outgrows the frontyard mini rink.

Thanks for the extra push to do it. Got pretty good ice but this week with the warm weather made for some work. Labor of love I guess😂 something about fresh ice.🤷‍♂️

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No practice for a couple days so its practice at home. This is why you build outdoor rinks. Build it, they will come
Wallster ><((((>

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This is my first year with a backyard rink so I am not an experienced rink builder.
I poured a 20×35 backyard rink in Northern Illinois last week (8 inches at the deepest point and 3 inches deep at the shallowest).

This morning I checked and there was approximately 1-2 inches of ice formed. We had about 3-4 inches of snow today. It has formed a “slush” over the top. I can’t shovel the rink because I am likely to break through the ice.

It looks like we have more snow on the way overnight.

Has anyone come across this issue? Is it best to just leave it be? Does anyone have advice based on experience with this type of problem?

J

No expert but not much you can do at this point until you have enough ice to walk on.

Jay serk wrote:

This is my first year with a backyard rink so I am not an experienced rink builder.
I poured a 20×35 backyard rink in Northern Illinois last week (8 inches at the deepest point and 3 inches deep at the shallowest).

This morning I checked and there was approximately 1-2 inches of ice formed. We had about 3-4 inches of snow today. It has formed a “slush” over the top. I can’t shovel the rink because I am likely to break through the ice.

It looks like we have more snow on the way overnight.

Has anyone come across this issue? Is it best to just leave it be? Does anyone have advice based on experience with this type of problem?

J

I have had this happen. I shoveled off as much as I could from the edges to allow for the ice to continue to freeze on the sides. If it can build ice on the edges it will help stop the water from coming up around the sides. The weight of the snow pushes up water around the edges. Once you get enough ice to walk on it and clear it, do so. Then you can reasses the ice after that. Might only take one hot water zamboni to fix, or may take a small layer refreeze. Let us know when you get to that point. Good luck and don’t worry, its fixable.
Wallster ><((((>

Thx

Your advice on what WILL happen is really what I needed confirmation on.

I’m gonna hold and just throw a small layer over top once it is ready to walk on. It will cost me a day or two of skating time, but in these parts if I get 5-7 weeks of skating I will be ecstatic.

J

Jay, ultimately you’ll need to wait for a good 3-4” of ice to get out there again. Get as much snow off as you can easily and you’ll have to flood it again. Make sure you do it right before some cold weather without snow in the forecast.

Warm wet snow is your enemy. I like to let things firm up for a couple days after a wet snowfall. Luckily up here we don’t see that too often after the new year.