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What is the life expectancy on the synthetic ice sheets?

I'm told it depends on a ton of things, but the quality of the brand you buy is paramount. I ordered Can-Ice and I'll let you know how I like it when I get it. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks from my order and I don't have a tracking number yet. Getting pretty pissed off. But I'm told with Delta on the rise, many people (me included) figure seasons are in jeopardy so everyone is trying to get in-home training going so it's in very high demand.

All that said, I'm told it largely depends on how often it's used. If your kid is on it for like an hour/day, you should 6-8 years per side of the sheets. That also depends on what you do underneath the layer of "ice". If you put it down on rough gravel or rough concrete, expect that 2nd side to be in rough shape when you flip it. If you put down on plywood (marine/pressure treated) or use sand as a base layer or cover the base layer with something like filter fabric, expect it to be in new/great shape when you flip. If you've got multiple kids skating on it all day long, having scrimmages, starting/stopping really hard, expect 3-4 years/side. Some people flip every year to keep the 2 sides pretty even. That sounds like work to me. But I get it. People move the tiles around, as a lot of kids get into a routine on the smaller space, so certain tiles get more wear than others. Like everything, there's a FB group for synthetic ice rinks that is full of people with great advice. Although I found some on there are rather hoity-toity, saying you "have" to put it down on professionally poured concrete, have full boards all around... It's definitely not as down to Earth as the other regular backyard rink groups I'm in, where people tell you to do whatever you can to get the kids skating this year, and add on each year or whatever works for you. Some people put the tiles/sheets down on the garage or basement floor. Some have it in play rooms. I'm putting it outside where my regular rink went. The cost will cut me to about 40% of the area I had, but if we can skate every single day instead of praying for cold on days that we aren't that busy, it's worth the size reduction. Plus the kids get better practice in tight areas, turning, stopping, etc. For some reason full sprints weren't exactly popular with the kids who skated on my regular rink when it was 75' long. Can't figure out why.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Synthetic ice should be here Tuesday! Now I just have to build the base!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

My synthetic ice adventure continues. I had planned on building an outer frame, filling the whole thing with stone dust, putting down filer fabric to protect the bottom of the "ice" and that was it! So easy.... But nobody will drive on my yard with a truck. I keep explaining that I'm probably putting an addition on the house next year in the area they'd drive over, so I really don't give a shit about the grass. Nobody cares. They all say they'll get stuck. So I'm back to wood framing, which means more work to level it. I just spent as much or more on pressure treated wood as I would have on the stone dust, and now I have to build a huge frame and then lay 3/4" plywood on top. Wood is still expensive as hell.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Pictures please! This sounds awesome!

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

I have to take some as I go along. That's one thing I never do. I should have taken pics this morning, as the day started with me going to move the old PVC shooting board out of the way and finding it covered in fox shit.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Today started even better. Raking leaves out of the area and the wooden rake handle broke. I literally throat punched myself. That was after staying up literally half of last night arguing with myself over how to do this stupid rink. Guys wouldn't deliver stone dust to back yard so I thought I'd build it patio style. Realized I'd be in for like $2-3k doing it that way, which is of course why I'd gone with the stone dust idea to begin with. Also don't want to dig/pour 15 footings this time of year. Fuck that. So I'm going to risk killing my Tacoma by putting a tarp in the bed and picking up a yard of sand at a time to drive into the backyard myself. It'll take all day one of these days but there's no fucking way I'm building a patio style rink. Fuck that. This is all after I bought enough 2x4s and some plywood sheets yesterday to do it. I hope Home Depot takes returns on this much wood! Bet they'll hit me with a restocking fee or something.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I think this rink is cursed. I've had so many weird things happen while working on it. Best ones:
Pulling clumps of mud from the sand pile after being wrong on the depth of the skidsteer... only to find one wasn't mud, but a turd. Thanks dogs.
Seeing some weird purple rubber band in the sand and pulling it out... only to find it was entrails. I flung them into the vacant yard behind our house, ran in and scrubbed the shit out of my hand in water as hot as possible.
Stepping on the head of the rat that the entrails probably went to. Having found that outside the rink makes me wonder if I'd tossed the head out earlier, not realizing it was a head. Some days were cold enough that everything was frozen... Or maybe some scavenger ate the dead rat at the rink? Either way, fucking YUCK!
I wore an old pair of Crocs (went to beach for a week and forgot my Keens so I bought some $5 Croc imitations) so I wouldn't leave tread prints in the sand. Kept working in them excitedly as I got to the point of laying the synth ice down. Damp synth ice sheets and imitation Crocs do NOT mix well. Except as job security for a chiropractor. Fell on my ass twice. Shit is way more slippery than ice in that scenario! At least I didn't drop a sheet onto myself. Although I should shut up, as I have one more sheet to cut/install.

I have to remember how to post pics on here so I can show you guys. I'm pretty psyched about it. Of course, now that I'm just about done with the ice we can use any day of the year, it's about to be in the 20s (F) and my kids will probably say it's too cold out to use.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Oh man

Pics are pretty simple, just a straight upload. There is a max size though so you might have to resize them.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I thought they had to be hosted in G-Photos or some shit like that. My old Photobucket acct went dead when they started charging. Cheapity cheap!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I think I was using imgur but you can upload directly here.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Trying some pics.


Compacted sand with the strips of filter fabric on the 2 long sides.


All the sand covered with filter fabric (taped seams since it was windy as hell).


Bird's eye view (literally from a tree ) where my lights used to be for the old rink. Going to add corner posts to the new rink and put the lights there.


The nets pretty much fit on the corners, off the "ice". Going to lay down some pressure treated plywood or thin PVC sheeting so nobody tears the fabric and fucks up the sand level.


The 2 goals are on the side away from the house. I'm going to add boards behind so we don't spend half the day looking for pucks. And that's my defenseman in the middle.


And my butterfly goalie, Woody.

More photos to come, but I wanted to share these.

Skated a bit yesterday. Everything in your mind is telling you that this isn't possible and don't do it. It's a bit tough to get moving due to initial friction, but once you're moving it's pretty ice-like. Puck moves better than I'd thought it would.

In addition to the boards, I plan to build benches in the 2 corners near the pool fence, for tying skates. Behind the benches will be storage spaces for obstacles, sticks, pucks, etc.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

That's amazing! Hard to believe that it would be so ice-like!

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

It really is amazing. Both Miss18.2 and I had the same thought before skating on it, "this can't be done. This can't work... It's PLASTIC!" It also leaves a very slight blue shmutz on your blades after skating, almost like ice shavings. It's kind of damp or oily though, so it won't blow/fall off. You have to wipe it. Maybe that's because it's brand new and has been sitting outside for a month? We'll see.

Found out you should use white tape on your stick blades. I left black marks all over it. So I'll use my old Home-boni with Simple Green one of these days to clean the marks off.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.