NYHJ’s Buyer’s Guide: Backyard Rinks

The popular smartphone app Pinterest was first published in 2010. On the platform, users can upload images, links or videos to things they have done or are interested in, sharing them with other users who can then save those links to boards they create. For example, someone who is getting married can search for wedding ideas, such as décor, and then save the ones he or she likes to refer to later.

One of the draws on Pinterest is the number of “do it yourself” crafts and projects, with users sharing things like recipes, decorating ideas and craft ideas. A search on Google shows a link to the site that says, “17,359 Best Recycled Pallet Ideas and Projects.”

“Our hope is that when we show you the right idea you go out and do that thing,” Pinterest CEO Ben Silberman said in an interview with Fortune in July 2015.

While the rest of the world tries (and many times does not succeed — also known as a “Pinterest Fail”) to make their own chocolate lava cakes in a crockpot or turn an empty wine bottle into a snowman decoration for Christmas, the hockey community has had its own DIY project, long before Pinterest encouraged people to create them.

“In Minnesota, outdoor rinks have been popular forever. It’s where hockey started. You threw your blades on your boots and went on a lake and skated,” said Jim Stoller, creator of NiceRink. “There’s a tradition built in putting your rink together and flooding. It’s more than just a do-it-yourself trend. It’s a do-it-yourself memory maker.”

Stoller said his business evolved from the plastics company his grandfather owned in 1948.

“I was building my own rink and wanted to make it easier for myself and decided to make a product for everyone to make it easier,” he said. “It was so you didn’t have to build it; you could just put it together.”

To build your own backyard rink, Stoller detailed several steps.

First, the size and slope of the area need to be measured. Stoller said knowing the slope was one of the most important aspects of building the backyard rink.

“If you have a slope and deep side, you have to support that deep side,” he said. “Boards will move. All of a sudden, they have 18 inches of water, the board tips over and they have Niagara Falls flowing into their neighbor’s yard.”

The process of making the rink should start in the last couple weeks of October, putting up the brackets and boards. Then, you play the waiting game. Stoller said it was best to wait until the temperature was consistently low, where the nights are in the low 20s and the days don’t get warmer than the mid-30s. Once the temperature reaches that stage, it’s time to put down the liner.

NiceRink provides liners, as do other companies, such as Blue Lake Plastics.

Chris Kerfeld created Blue Lake Plastics in 2007, selling sheeted plastic to farmers. Business didn’t die, however, when the weather turned colder.

“They wanted a liner,” Kerfeld said about how his business grew. “They started Googling poly and asked if we would cut them a certain size. We went from zero to seven thousand hockey customers in nine years. There’s nothing scientific about it. People in the past have bought it at Home Depot, where you get a single layer and it breaks easy. People asked for higher quality (plastic).”

According to Kerfeld, having a strong quality liner makes the job of building a rink much easier.

“It’s a lot of work to build the rinks,” he said. “(You put) the liner in and you pour the water in; if the poly cracks, it leaks your water, and you have to start over again.”

Stoller said once the rink is filled with water over the liner, it typically takes about five days for it to freeze properly and it’s time to skate and enjoy.

“You’re suddenly the most popular house on the block,” he said. “When you have a 20-degree day and no snow, you get some immediate friends, that’s for sure. It’s also, in this day, nice to have your kids in your backyard.”

Building the rink once is nice, but Stoller said it was a project that becomes even easier as the years go on. Not only is the physical labor easier because you are already familiar with it, but he said the only piece that should be routinely replaced — in most cases, annually — is the liner.

“Shoveling snow is the biggest deal, keeping the rink clean,” Stoller said. “If it stays cold and there’s no snow, you can resurface and skate. It makes life a lot easier.”

Stoller said NiceRink even has a team of installers that can put the rink together for you, if you choose.

However it gets put together, whatever the size of the rink, Stoller is sure that having your own backyard rink will provide plenty of incredible memories.

“For us to be out there under the stars with the snow falling, shoveling, having a good time, you have the hot chocolate and the fire pit, when you experience that, there’s nothing like it,” he said. “It’s so pure. It’s like therapy. Even when you’re resurfacing it and the kids are in bed, it’s so quiet, it’s like ice therapy.

“Being the hockey family we are, the feedback we’ve gotten, a lot you may need a box of tissues. Giving skating and outdoor skating the experience is a passion,” he added. “There’s been great connections we’ve made. They maybe haven’t built a rink, but they still message us. They say, ‘Hey, passed a rink today and thought of you and the memories you gave our family,’ and that’s a big deal.”