Most people that are serious about hockey have a synthetic ice rink either at their home or somewhere nearby. Being able to ice skate whenever you want to is a huge perk when it comes to staying in shape and continual self-improvement of the game. If you are planning to join millions of other hockey enthusiasts around the country and build your own ice skating rink at home, here is a plan of action to help you figure out where to put it, and how to put it together.
Table of Contents
Scope Out Your Options
The first thing you want to do before buying anything or putting anything together is to survey the area that you want to install a skating rink. The most important thing is that you have a flat surface to build on. If your service is not flat, or level, your whole rink will have problems. Take a good look at the area that you want to build, and make sure that it is flat and level.
Installing a Subfloor
There are some cases where you must install a subflooring in order to create a sufficiently hard surface to build your rink on. If you want to build your rink on a surface such as carpet, or grass you will need to reinforce the area with a solid foundation. In most cases, some plywood planks will do the trick. When you put them down, however, you must make sure that the pieces join together flat and without any raised, or sunk-in areas.
Measure Out Your Area
Once you have the area that you want to build your rink on settled and ready to move on to the next step you have to measure out where you want to put the rink. If you had to install a subflooring surface you probably already know the measurements. However, if you are not sure of the amount of area that you have to work with, measure it out and get the information. Keep in mind that when you multiply the length of the area by the width of the area you come up with the square footage of that area. If you are dealing with half feet and so on, convert the inches to feet and use decimals to get your answers. For example, 1 foot six inches would be 1.5 feet. If you have 1.5 feet long and 1.5 feet wide you will have 2.25 square feet, or two and a quarter square feet. In most cases, you will be working with a much larger area, like ten feet by fifteen feet.
Install Your Panels
Once you have your flooring area dialed in and ready to go, the next step would be to install the synthetic ice panels. You want to make the area hard enough to walk on, skate on, and even use a hockey balance board on. In order to ensure that your area is completely flat, you have to start installing the panels from the middle and work your way outward in a circular direction. Make sure that each panel is tightly fitted to the next so that they are flush and that there are no raises or crevices where the joints are.
Skate to Your Heart’s Content
When your floor is laid out and flat, double-check that it is a safe place to skate on without any debris or raised panels. Once you are sure it is safe to proceed, go ahead and skate until the cows come home. You now are the owner of a brand new skating area, use it as much as you want!
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