How to Keep Your Backyard Skating Rink Smooth

Once you finish building a backyard skating rink, you, your family and your friends should have hours of enjoyment throughout the winter. Though few people expect backyard rinks to exhibit the same smoothness as indoor arena ice, it's possible to attain smoothness in your ice without significant difficulty. You can keep your backyard rink ice smooth through a combination of using the rink wisely and maintaining it correctly.

Instructions

    • 1

      Avoid using the backyard rink during mild temperatures, when your skates can do significant damage. Though a semi-warm day may be ideal for skating or playing hockey, the heat of the sun is already softening the ice. When skate blades dig through the soft ice, getting the ice surface smooth again will be more challenging.

    • 2

      Clear the entire ice surface prior to flooding it. If the rink has a buildup of snow, it will freeze during the flood and turn into bumps. Use a metal shovel or ice scraper to grind down these bumps. Dips and holes in the ice surface are fine as they will simply fill with water as you flood.

    • 3

      Flood the rink nightly by pouring water from a hose directly on to one corner of the rink, letting the water migrate over the entire rink's surface. Many people use a sprayer nozzle to mist the rink, but doing so causes pitting and a rough surface because of the many drops of water hitting the ice from above.

    • 4

      Use warm water to flood the rink, if possible. If you don't have a hose that allows you to adjust the water temperature, fill some buckets with warm water from your bathtub and slowly pour the water over the ice. The warmness of the water will, on a small level, melt imperfections in the ice and freeze smoothly.