In the winter season, the best way to spend the weekend fun and with health benefits is to go to the rink. On such sites there is entertainment for lovers of skis, skates and even sledges. It is not difficult to find an ice platform within megacities, but what should residents of small towns and villages do? The answer is simple - to build a skating rink with your own hands. What you need to know to cope with this task and how to care for the finished site? We will talk about this in our article.
Determine the type of future rink
To build a skating rink with your own hands, you need to decide on its location. It can be any frozen pond or courtyard on a suburban area. Based on this, we can conclude that the rink is of two types:
The first option is preferable in that you do not need to spend a lot of time to create it and wait until the water freezes. If you want to ride, you just need to clear an area of suitable size and make sure that the ice is thick enough.
To build an artificial ice rink, you need to put a lot more effort and have sufficient time. The selected location should be near the water source, be reasonably flat and spacious. Now consider the order of the work that needs to be done to create both options for the ice platform.
Rules for the arrangement of the ice rink in the pond
To ride in frozen ponds was completely safe, you need to make sure that the ice thickness is at least 15 centimeters. To do this, you need to cut a hole in the deepest place of the river. If the ice ax is not at hand, you can determine the quality of ice by color - it should have a bluish or greenish tint.
If the pond is frozen enough, you can begin to equip the arena for an active winter holiday. To build a skating rink (natural type), you need to perform the following work:
- Clean the area of the required size from snow.
- Make small holes in the corners of the plot. This will prevent crumbling and deformation of the ice in the event of a sharp drop in air temperature.
- Inspect the cleaned surface for frozen debris, sag and other defects. Large bumps and bumps can be cut with an ax, and cracks and hollows can be closed with snow.
- The rink thus obtained is ready for use. However, it should be remembered that the thickness of the ice in a natural body of water can constantly change, so before each operation it is necessary to make sure of your own safety.
Rules for creating an artificial ice rink
The territory for the arrangement of the ice platform should be spacious enough, located away from the carriageway. For comfortable riding, the dimensions of the site should be about 20x15 meters, while its shape does not matter much. Private arena can be round, oval and rectangular.
You can build a skating rink with artificial ice right near the house or in any free and level place, most importantly, follow the basic rules during work. Namely:
- The ice platform can not be equipped in the immediate vicinity of the buildings, since during the spring thaw there will be a high probability of their flooding.
- The air temperature during pouring the roller should not be higher than -10 degrees. It is advisable to carry out work in calm weather, since bumps can form on the surface of the ice due to wind.
- During the marking of the site from all sides should provide free space (about 1-2 meters wide) for storing snow.
- The height of the ice in the ski area should be at least 10 centimeters.
- If snow falls between the stages of filling the rink, it must be removed before installing a new layer.
- The soil, on top of which water will be poured, should freeze by 5-7 centimeters, otherwise its heat will not allow the water to freeze.
These are general recommendations for arranging a place for a winter holiday, and now we turn directly to the technology of work.
Foundation preparation
To build a skating rink near the house, you need to carefully prepare a site for it. The selected area must be cleaned of snow and debris, mark on it the boundaries of the future site. Along the perimeter of the ice stadium, it is desirable to make bumpers that will hold water inside the ice rink. Their height should be twice the thickness of the ice layer. To create boards, you can use wooden boards, gravel, sand or frozen snow.
If there are recesses on the surface of the earth, they are covered with soil or rammed with wet snow. Bumps and pebbles must be completely eliminated. If desired, metal or wooden panels can be installed at the edges of the stadium . They will prevent the loss of the puck during the game of hockey and will act as a support for vacationers.
To make the pastime on the winter playground as comfortable as possible, you can build a skating rink under the roof, and build walls along the edges of the arena. This will allow you to ride freely during heavy snowfalls and winds.
The process of creating an ice arena
In order to build an ice rink (covered or uncovered), you must have a long hose and a spray nozzle. Pouring water in one continuous stream is extremely undesirable, since in this case the degree of freezing of the surface will be different, and the roller will turn out to be of poor quality.
If the diffuser tip is not available, you can use a regular snow shovel. It is tied to a hose so that the flowing water falls on the metal part and splashes over the entire area.
When all the necessary tools are ready, you can begin to fill the rink. The work is carried out in the following sequence:
- With the help of a scattering nozzle or a garden watering can fill snow sides. They should freeze well, after which you can proceed to the next stage.
- Water is evenly poured from the far edge of the site, while the hose is positioned at an angle of 25-30 degrees to the ground. Water is sprayed with fan movements. In the process, you need to ensure that the entire surface of the earth is equally wet.
- After the site is covered with water for 6-7 centimeters, it is left for a couple of hours for solidification.
- Before pouring the next layer, the ice surface is checked for holes and cracks. Identified defects are wiped with wet snow, after which a second layer of water is poured. The work is repeated until the thickness of the frozen liquid reaches 15 cm.
Arrangement of the roller on a dirt surface
If you decide to build an ice rink on the ground, then pay attention to some nuances in working with a similar base. Since the earth has the ability to absorb water, the site must be properly prepared before pouring liquid. This can be done in two ways:
- thoroughly compacting the soil;
- using waterproofing materials.
In the first version, work on the arrangement of the ice rink begins in the fall. The territory cleared of garbage is carefully tamped with a garden roller or trampled underfoot. In this condition, the site is left until the ground freezes by 7-10 cm. After that, they start pouring water.
To equip the waterproofing layer along the perimeter of the site set wooden sides. A dense film is fixed inside the future skating rink, which is fixed by overlays from the outside. Water begins to fill at an air temperature of -1 degrees.
How to make a skating rink on uneven areas?
As it has already become clear, the basic condition for arranging a quality site is an even and clean foundation. But what to do to those homeowners who have a lot of bumps or are generally on a slope? How do they build a skating rink? There is only one way out of this situation - arrangement of a snow pillow.
This method of leveling surfaces is based on the use of a large amount of snow. It is poured into all the recesses and carefully tamped according to the marked level. At the edges of the site set fences that prevent the spreading of water to the sides. The minimum thickness of the snow cushion is 10 cm. The base is considered ready for pouring if it is capable of supporting the weight of an adult.
Care
As you can see, building a skating rink near the house is quite simple, but you should remember that if you want to use it throughout the winter, you will have to look after it periodically. After each use, it is recommended to grind the ice, close the cracks that have appeared in it, excavate it and add a new layer of water. After heavy snowfalls, the site must be cleared to prevent ice melting under thick snowdrifts. Depending on the intensity of use of the roller, its surface must be periodically updated and polished.
Finally
An independently equipped skating rink will require some troubles and time-consuming, but they are not comparable with the pleasure that all members of your family will have while relaxing in their own ice arena. If you do not want to bother with constant snow removal, you can build an indoor ice rink. He is much more unpretentious in leaving, in addition, riding on such a platform is comfortable even in heavy snowfalls.
In addition, the skating rink can be equipped with a resting place and lighting devices can be installed on its territory. And if during the pouring of the last layer of ice into the water add a small amount of water-based paint, then your site will acquire a special colorfulness and personality.