Making your own outdoor rink

[jtmiller]

Im in the uk and ive not known anyone whos made their own outdoor rink....im.going to try this year on our lawn...i have the materials...
Our climate isnt ideal our winters arent harsh!! As a rule each year we may get 2 or 3 occassions 3/4 days tops were the weather is at 25f maybe every ten years we may get a few days at 20f at nighy...but lets work on 25f for 3nights and 30f during the day...i think looking online per day 24 hours i may get 0.75 inch of ice meaning i need 3 cold day in a row....for 2 inches...can you skate on 2 inches
And does anyone know if i fill up with cold water 1 inch over 2 days that could freeze top to bottom then if i add 0.25 inch of fresh cold water on top every 5 hours x 4 times in a day after 1 day i could have 2 inches maybe...is layering the ice a good idea and also if the 1st inch of water i put on hasnt fully frozen its full depth when i start adding new water on top after 24 hours will that stop that 1st inch fully freezing? Does that 1st inch have to full freeze 1st??

If i was in north america none of this would matter you d fill your rink and it would then freeze in time but il only have 3/4 day window to maximise.my depth of ice for this to work



I cant skate by the way haha

[Pengwin7]

Frozen water (ice) atop a solid outdoor surface grading can be as little as 2".
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/i...ds-d_1566.html

Professional rinks are actually as little as 1"-1.25" because the base (concrete) is strong & smooth & perfect. (Also, conditions/temps are kept "ideal" - which you can't control outside.)
https://www.dish.com/dig/sports/ever...-the-nhls-ice/

For a frozen lake (with liquid water below the ice surface), you need 4"-5", it's a different set of engineering principles.
[Key engineering metric here is called: "Allowable Bearing Strength" - which is a function of the Atop-Item (you) "footprint" (or "Bearing Area") and the density of the material, and then what's below it: air, water, etc. can also be a factor in supporting... or not]


It's one thing to be optimistic... but the effort to truly put together a nice ice-skating surface should give you a certain reward factor.

If I was to try to build an ice-surface, I'd estimate I'd need about 6-8hrs to pull it off. (beyond planning, purchasing, and gathering of materials)
For that, in return I think I'd want a minimum of one-full-week with it in perfect condition for a 45-60min skate each of those 7 days.

Good luck, take some pictures if you give it a try.

[2014olympicgold]

My friends do a rink every yr at someones house who has a ton of yard space for the last like 10yrs. The issue in Canada is it gets too cold, so the ice chips when you carve hard. So we ended up trying to layer the ice, and did once every week a hot water flood, which was hard.

Being close to the freezing point, the issue might be sun during the day, but it could end up working as a good kinda flood device. We had 1 week of below freezing is what we aimed for to get a good bit of ice going. 3-4days might be optimistic, try it out though.

The benefit of layering your ice is you can paint some lines in between layers. We had a center ice line, and goal lines.

Attached is where we were like 4yrs ago. Every yr we just kept expanding.

Screenshot_20191119-151408~2.png

[jtmiller]

Il defo take pictures.....il foing to trail run it in the next week or so to.check my lawn is as flat as it looks and that i wont have any areas of lawn the crown leaving my less than 2 inches of depth as just going t9 use 3x2 5m lengths of wood so 3 inches us max heigh

Will only cost £90 which is $115 f9r 6 lengths of 5m 3×2 and a 10m x 5 m white tarp and some reinforcement barr to stop it bowing

Should only take 1hr to put tigether the leave the hose on it...i.dont mind if i only get one day to skate...to pull it off in the uk will be worth it....may.not happen this winter...whos knows...praying for 3 ideally 4 days of 25f for it to have a chance!!!