Mark and Dana Greenlaw's Backyard Rink - Howard's Corner of the Web

"The rink is 24 x 46 and is framed with 16" boards of 3/4" plywood. We had to build the walls 16 inches high to accommodate a 12+ inch grade difference between high and low points in our yard. We made side braces using 2 x 4's joined to form an L shape, and re-enforced them with deck braces. We placed the side braces every 4 feet, as it needs to hold almost 16 inches of water at the deep corner. We used 12" lag bolts to serve as stakes to hold the braces in place, as these were cheapest thing we could find. We used 8 mil thick plastic sheeting for the liner, which we got from Home Depot in a 100' x 20' role. We cut it in half lengthwise and joined it down the center with white duct tape. We experimented with many types of glues (glue gun, silicone adhesive, vinyl adhesive, liquid nails, etc.) but nothing held when we tested it in the cold, so we took a chance and just went with the duct tape, which has worked well so far (and survived initial freeze, full thaw, then re-freeze). We've had the rink up for a month now, and feel fortunate to have good success on our first attempt, thanks in part to the information and other designs we saw on your website.

One tip is that when we got some large bumps on the rink from snow falling from trees during the last freeze, we smoothed them out with an iron. My wife was not too happy about using the iron for this purpose, and my neighbors probably thought I was crazy out ironing the ice with a 50 ft extension cord, but it worked great removing the bumps on the ice. Now our ice is great, with the help of the 0 degree weather we are having now. It was a little hard on the iron, so I will probably buy a new one and keep the old one for this purpose."

Great job guys. Thanks for the pic.