Backyard Ice Rink Instructions

Ice skating is an enjoyable year-round activity, thanks to indoor and outdoor ice arenas. However, because you need to pay for most of these arenas, ice skating or ice hockey can become pricey. In the winter, ice skating on ponds and lakes becomes dangerous when the temperatures don’t remain cold enough to keep the ice frozen. For a solution, you can design an ice rink in your own backyard that is free and available anytime you want to skate. These directions are for a 16-foot by-24-foot rink.

Things You'll Need

  • Four stakes
  • String
  • 10 eight-foot, pressure-treated wooden boards
  • Prime-guarded decking screws
  • Drill
  • Large tarp
  • Stapler
  • Decomposable material
  • Garden hose
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Instructions

    • 1

      Find the flattest piece of land you have. Place stakes in the four corners of where you want your rink to be located. Connect all four sides with string and measure the height between the string and the ground at each stake to see how level the ground is. Continue doing so until you find an area with the most level ground. Later on in the process, you can use decomposable material to fill in unleveled space under the wooden boards.

    • 2

      Set up three eight-foot, pressure-treated wooden boards side-by-side along two sides, which will form the longer sides of the rectangular rink. Set up two eight-foot boards on each of the shorter sides of the rink. Align all of the boards so that all touch one another, including in the corners.

    • 3

      Attach each board to the one next to it by drilling prime-guarded decking screws into the boards. These prime guard versions will last longer in the pressure-treated wood. If there’s any space between the boards and the ground in unleveled areas, stuff leaves, hay, dirt or any decomposable material into these gaps. This will prevent the tarp from stretching into this space and tearing.

    • 4

      Lay the tarp down flat on the ground inside the rink. Once the entire rink area is covered, overlap the boards with the tarp and staple the tarp to the outer side of the boards all around the rink. If there’s enough tarp left over, lift the boards off the ground and tuck the tarp underneath the boards to keep it in place.

    • 5

      Fill the rink with water using a garden hose--it's a good idea to wait to do this until the temperature is expected to drop below freezing. You should fill the rink to a depth of at least 2 inches; this will hold the weight of a 300-pound person. When the water freezes, it will expand and become deeper. If you want the ice thicker, remember that the thicker the ice, the longer the water will take to freeze.