Guy Gallant's Backyard Rink 2005/06
North River, NS Canada
50' x 100'
|
Guy writes: "Hi Howard, Last time we submitted, was in 2004. Our rink then was 40'x 50', but we quickly out grew it...so we moved up to a 100' x 50' rink last year, this is our second year for this size. I have sent along some construction pics as well as I know I enjoy seeing how others have built their rinks. In our case the extra length caused a fair bit of problems as we needed the "deep end" to be around 38" because our yard is not flat. This meant a lot of cribbing and reinforcing. We needed to drive fence post every 2 ft. Our "shallow end" is around 6" deep and is made from 2x8 on edge. We always use a liner as our weather in Nova Scotia is fairly erratic. from -15c to +10c in the same days sometimes, so a water reservoir works best for us. One solid piece is also the way to go (no seaming here). Our plastic is silage cover from our local Agromart and was $229 (a good deal I think) and is one solid piece of 5.1 mil. plastic. One draw back about a liner type rink is, if it snows before it is completely frozen it will make quite a mess as you can see. ( we thought we lost it), but once the ice is around 4" thick it will take the rain and snow and be ready after one night of freezing temps. We use 5 - 500 watt halogen lights for night play. This year we also added 4 ft back boards ( I just got tired of puck retrieval last year). The sides will always be low for snow removal. We also are lucky enough to a have a small second ice surface (our pond 25' X 100' or so), that the kids can use until the rink is ready. This year the pond was open on Dec 8th and the rink was up on Dec 21st. Again all the hard work is worth it when you see the kids having fun. Thanks for the great site, its very inspiriting to see all the dedication out there." Great job Guy. Thanks for info and the detailed pics. |
Top
Last Updated on November 17, 2006.