Easy DIY ice skating rink Practically for free (simplified version)

 

This is everything you will need to build yourself your own ice skating rink. Super duper simplified! If you don't want to spend a ton of money on building a frame then this is something you may want to try.  It's so simple a kid could make it, if they had a lot of determination. 

 

 After 6 or seven years of doing it the hard way, I've learned a lot of the do's and don'ts so you don't have to. 

 

If you have land, dirt, and time, and lots of tires, then you'll be able to make your own.

 

1.  First you will need lots of old tires. And when I say lots. I mean lots. I got a bunch from my dads old stack yard where he had collected quite a pile. 

2. Second you will need a white ice skating rink tarp. You can buy them online. Just do a google search for ice skating rink tarps. Here's a link. But there are lots of places to choose from. https://www.icerinktarps.com/ice-rink-liner-tarps

Generally, the more expensive they are the thicker the tarp will be, and the longer they will last. Also, what size you choose will determine how many tires you need. The tarp will be your most expensive purchase for your rink, and the cost of the water to fill it. That aside, ice skating is a pretty awesome activity to do in the winter and worth the expence. 

Next you will need a shovel. 

A rake.

Bricks, or something to hold down the edges. 

Water, 

A hose.  

And a few buckets.

Before you start building, you will need to establish where you want your rink. You'll want to choose somewhere that you would want to be skating outdoors in the cold. Think about wind chill, think about placement of the sun. Where it will be shining on your ice. Things like that. 

Once you've chosen your spot. Make sure it's level. If it isn't, you'll be sad, and the more water you will need to fill your rink up. And the more water you need, the longer it will take for it to freeze. I eyeball leveled mine. Raked, and dug old weeds and dirt out. It was a very unlevel piece of land until my sister and I dug it out. But it was worth the extra trouble. 

Next, this is where I would normally tell you to build a one to two foot dyke of dirt. My ice rink tarp is '50x30' feet, so that's a lot of edges to build up. I normally use dirt for the edges. But this year I got fed up re-leveling my rink, and fixing the edges that my goats (who I let pasture in the summer) demolished all my hard work. So every year it would take me and my sister a goodly amount of time and effort to fix.  

Filling the rink with water. You can see where we didn't get the ground perfectly level.

So this is where the tires come in. Instead of making edges out of dirt, you stack the tires in an even line, after you measure your ice rink tarp's dimensions (take into account that you will need a couple feet for the edges, and overlap)  

Depending on how simple you want your rink to be, you can just line your tires in an nice even line, and then lay your tarp down, or you can fill your tires with dirt, to make sure they are immovable.

I decided to fill mine with dirt, while I was re-roofing our chicken coup, and dug out chicken poop dirt, and filled the tires with that. 

 

After you have your tires how you want them, wait until you get a nice forecast or your gut tells you that its going to freeze hard. 

Then put out your tarp, and fill it with water. If you have extra tarp overhang, put bricks down, or more tires on top of the other tires to makes sure the wind doesn't blow the tarp back into itself. (I've had that happen)

It took about from 2:00 PM to about 6:00 AM to fill a fifty foot by thirty foot tarp. Depending on your leveling job, you may have better luck than me, and the less water you will need. 

It also took about four days for the water to freeze enough to skate on it. 

So there you have it. 

You may want to try it. It's tons of fun. 

Some tips that you may want to note is that snow really turns the surface of the ice into alligator skin, and extra slushy. So you may have to scrape it off with a snow shovel. I had to do this yesterday with my rink. It snowed, and made it super slushy. I had to wait a day for the ice to freeze hard enough for me to shovel it off. 

Then in the night I got a hose and resurfaced the ice with water. 

Make sure to drain the hose after you use it, so you can do this again if the surface of the ice gets unskatable.  If you don't have a hose, use a bucket, and dump water on your ice. That is your best Zamboni

My simplified rink may not sound that simple, and it is lots of work, but if you love ice skating, its worth the time and effort. There's nothing like being able to skate under the stars, or in the open air of your own backyard. 

You can put lights up so you can skate at night. And plug in some music, and skate to your heart's delight. Especially considering lockdowns, it's a great way to get some much needed space, for yourself and your kids.