Barry Fallowfield's Backyard Rink - Howard's Corner of the Web

"We held a "grand-opening" for our neighbours yesterday (Jan 11) which was well attended. The ice was very smooth and it held up just fine to the 3 hours of constant use.

This is my second year building a backyard rink. This year's version is 40' x 60' (almost twice as big as last year). It took lots of water but judging by our neighborhood skate yesterday it is well worth it. There is a fair slope to the yard so it is about 20 inches thick at the far end which is required to have a couple of inches up near the house.

I installed 4 500 Watt lights on top of 4x4x10 foot posts to light it up for evening skating. It is great and gives us a chance to get the two boys (4 and 6) out after dinner. I purchased (actually, my nice neighbours purchased) a single sheet of 5.1 ml rink poly as the base. It is fairly expensive (> $250.00), so we decided to wrap the plastic underneath the boards. The thinking was that by doing so, we shouldn't have to worry about ripping the poly when we shovel the ice. I won't get into details, but would not recommend this method. I should be able to reuse this plastic next year, but after that I will just plan on purchasing new poly each year. The boards are 5/8 plywood held in place with numerous 2x2 stakes driven into the ground. You can see some fence posts in the photo which were used to provide extra support where the water pressure is the greatest.

I've referenced your site on numerous occasions since I started my research last year. The information and tips have been invaluable and I thank you and your contributors for making this information available.

Next year, I plan on raising my boards higher above the surface as the boys will be stating to shoot and play hockey."

Nice Rink Barry. Looks like a great party. Thanks for the pic.