Are you looking for a new way to get your children to play outside during the winter season? Have you ever thought of designing and building your own outdoor rink?
Follow the steps below and you will have an ice rink in your backyard in less than 24 hours, not to mention tons of fun with the whole family.
Here’s a quick method, at virtually no cost, that does not require laborious work or complex assembly of boards. Needless to say, the only thing that’s required is that you reside in a location that’s cold enough for water to freeze quickly, making the ice strong and stable.
Make sure that you get to work on a cold day, preferably around -15°C, and that there is about 1 foot of snow where you plan to build your ice rink, which should be flat and relatively even:
- Tap the snow across the entire surface of your future ice rink using a hand roller, a shovel or even snowshoes until you have a compact surface approximately 4 inches thick.
- Use any remaining snow to prepare solid boards for the rink before watering the selected area. In addition to acting as boards, these banks will help keep water in the desired location before it freezes.
- Once you have tapped the snow, water the surface area for about 15 minutes, until it’s completely flooded.
- Keep on watering the surface once every 30 minutes for 4 hours.
And there you go!
Further maintenance consists in watering the ice rink on a regular basis, depending on the temperature, in order to fill holes and cracks left by ice skate blades and keep a smooth surface.
The team at Alu-Rex wishes you happy holidays and a great winter season!
*Before getting ready for your ice rink project, we strongly advise that you check the current regulations in force in your municipality to confirm the compliance of your project.