Backyard rink on concrete, a driveway or a tennis court
A paved pad has one thing a lawn rarely has: it is flat. That saves water and lets you use short boards. The hard part is the boards, because the usual stakes and brackets want soil. This page covers the options the sources describe, the water and boards for three common pads, and the spot where the liner leaves the pavement.
Holding boards without drilling
I found little written down for bare concrete, and most of it comes from one seller. Iron Sleek sells rink kits and parts, so read its advice with that in mind. Its hard-court post says:
- Grass on all sides is the ideal. Then the brackets go into the lawn around the pad and nothing touches the surface.
- Sleepers. Lay a board on the court, fasten it with the seller's hard court bracket, and "reach back with sleepers to spike down or secure against fence". The post says to find a way to either sleeper back to something secure or weigh down the rink.
- Sandbags are the last resort. The same post calls them the least preferred method. Freeze and thaw can make the boards drift, which can overstretch the liner, and the bags are heavy to handle.
- Tall boards need more. It says a hard court bracket alone is not enough for the pull of a 42 in board, and points to its outrigger kit. That kit's product page says "No Cuts and No Drilling" and mentions 4 ft backboards. It does not say which surfaces it suits.
The sources do not say how much weight holds a given board, so I have no number to give. Short boards push less than tall ones, which is one more reason to keep a level pad shallow. The bracket count guide shows how the spacing changes with depth.
A second report is a family in Lake Placid who poured a 15 by 30 ft concrete pad, put two-by-six mini boards around it, laid a heavy tarp and flooded it with 3 in of water, as told by Adirondack Life. The article does not say how the boards were fastened, so it shows the size works but not the method.
Why a level pad needs less
On a slope, the low end sets the board height and the water depth. On a flat pad every point has the same depth, so the boards only need to cover your water plus a couple of inches. Take the 15 by 30 ft driveway with 3 in of water. Level, it needs 842 gallons. On a yard that drops 4 in along its 30 ft, the same footprint has 7 in at the deep end and needs 1,403 gallons, with a tallest board of 9 in. The slope guide has the full table.
One check before you trust that: paved pads are often crowned or pitched for drainage. Lay a straight board with a level on it across the pad. If you find a drop, measure it and enter it as a slope.
Water and boards for common pads
Level pads, US gallons at 2, 3 and 4 in of water. The board column is one course of 12 ft boards with a stake every 4 ft, from the boards materials list. The lumber size covers the water plus 2 in of board above it.
| Pad | 2 in | 3 in | 4 in | Boards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 x 30 ft driveway | 561 gal 2x6 |
842 gal 2x6 |
1,122 gal 2x8 |
10 boards 24 stakes |
| 36 x 39 ft half tennis court | 1,750 gal 2x6 |
2,626 gal 2x6 |
3,501 gal 2x8 |
14 boards 38 stakes |
| 36 x 78 ft full tennis court | 3,501 gal 2x6 |
5,251 gal 2x6 |
7,002 gal 2x8 |
20 boards 58 stakes |
The tennis court rows are the 36 x 78 ft court and half of it. Stakes need soil, so on bare pavement read that figure as the number of fixing points you need (sleepers, brackets or weights). A full court takes many hours of hose time, see flooding a backyard rink.
Where the liner meets the lawn
Iron Sleek warns that the edge of a court can be sharp where it meets the grass, and says its 8 in LPS, a liner protection strip, handles that. Whatever you use, nothing hard should sit under the liner where it folds over the edge. Old carpet or foam, which the lawn guide mentions as padding under a liner, is one idea. I found no source on whether ice or brackets mark a court surface, so check with whoever owns or maintains it first.
Worked example: the driveway
- Pad: 15 by 30 ft, checked with a level, no drop found.
- Water: 3 in, the depth the Lake Placid rink used. Fill: 842 gallons, about 2 h 48 min at 5 gal/min.
- Boards: 3 in of water plus 2 in above it is 5 in, so 2x6 (5.5 in) is the smallest that fits. One course of 12 ft boards is 10 pieces.
- Liner: with 12 in over the boards, 33 x 18 ft, rounded up to whole feet. Buy the next size sold, see liner sizes.
- Fixing: whichever of the options above fits the site. The calculator says nothing about whether boards will hold.
Try your own pad: the 15 by 30 ft driveway in the calculator, then change the size and depth.