I finally had a moment to take some photos of our Backyard Ice Rink this year ( or should I say front yard ice rink ). Everything came together quite well, and even though it is our 3rd year with the rink the boards are holding up quite nicely. It’s been a goal to try and expand the rink each year I put it up, but I never get to doing it. The rink size is 18′x26′ and is perfect for little kids, or even adults just messing around. The rink has nice high boards on one side so you can take shots without worrying about pucks flying around the neighborhood. Overall it’s been a good year for the rink, other than the January thaw we had. And this year a lot of the kids are coming out to use it which has been nice ( considering the effort involved putting it up ). Even our 4 year old has started wanting to put his skates on, and it’s fun getting our 10 month old out there on the sled.

Not much changed with the rink this year other than how I attach the supports to the frame. It’s been my goal to reduce the amount of work required to put the rink up, and this year I permanently added 2×4 blocks on each side of the supports that attach to the 2×12 framing. A tie piece goes from block to block locking in the support. I will be leaving the 2×4 blocks on the 2×12′s after I disassemble, and next year I’ll already know exactly where the supports go, and can quickly attach them by screwing on the tie down pieces only. I still have yet to figure out a better way to attach the boards to the supports without screws, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out at some point.

This year I also purchased a new white tarp for the liner which has worked wonderfully. The ice on the silver tarp wouldn’t hold up so well with a few days of above 32 weather, but the white liner seems to do the trick. It also looks sooooo much better!

The last time I had the rink up 2010-2011, I purchased 1/2″ foam pipe insulation to cap off the boards. It definitely didn’t have enough depth to fully clamp onto the boards, and most of the pieces flew away that year. I purchased some 1″ foam pipe insulation this year which did the trick nicely. In heavy wind however some sections would still come off, so I finally stapled it down, but overall a great addition for safety with the kids.

Photos of the 2012-2013 Backyard Ice Rink:

Here is a photo of the Rink going up, first sheet of ice frozen. I wait until I have my first sheet of ice before putting up the boards. I use the ice to get the boards nice and level.

Cheers,
Morgan