 Rentals
Adopt-a-Rink Suggested Maintenance Procedures
The following information outlines the general procedures required to
flood and maintain a hockey rink. There
are three steps to cleaning and preparing a hockey rink
for skating:
Flooding
This is a very critical process and if not carefully done can cause
a great deal of unnecessary work. Rinks each
have their own respective personalities. Some are easier
to develop than others. The first step is to insure
the
rink perimeter is well sealed to prevent water from
migrating to other areas and freezing. This can be
accomplished by banking snow or dirt to seal all voids.
Once completed, you are ready to begin flooding.
Before beginning, please insure your water source is an approved
source. There are numerous water valves
on each school, but not all of them are safe to use.
Connection to the wrong source can disable the fire
sprinkler
system, drain the building heating system, or drain
the domestic hot water system. The fire hydrants at
schools cannot be used without a permit and approval
from AWWU, and there is a Municipal charge for their
use. The Anchorage School District cannot authorize
the use of any fire hydrants.
The Anchorage School District currently has four elementary
schools that are not served by AWWU. If
adopting one of these rinks, limit water usage to no
more than ninety minutes. Bear Valley, O'Malley,
Huffman, and Ravenwood have their own water wells.
If restraint is not exercised, too much water can be
drawn from the wells leaving the facility water and
fire fighting reserves drained.
The critical item to remember when you are flooding is to develop
the rink slowly. If the rink surface is flat
and level, flooding five or six times will usually
produce the desired 4 to 6 inches of ice. The rink
should be
flooded with approximately one half inch to one inch
of water at any one flooding. This process of bringing
the rink up in a series of layers assures that no voids
occur in the ice which can break through under the
weight
of a skater and result in injury. Don't be in a hurry. The process of flooding requires approximately 6 to
7
hours to develop a safe foundation.
It is necessary for the temperature to be below 25 degrees Fahrenheit
for a minimum period of three days
prior to starting to flood the rink.
Blading
"Blading" (sharp blade) of hockey rinks is accomplished after
the rink has been flooded and been allowed to
freeze hard. The process requires a plow blade with
a sharpened edge. It is used to scrape the ice and
remove
residue. This process actually shaves the ice.
This procedure is normally done just prior to hot mopping.
Hot Mop
This process involves spreading a thin layer of hot water over the surface
of the ice. This is best accomplished
through the use of a vehicle mounted tank and spreader
bar. Hot water for mop operations will not be
provided by the school. Hot water heaters are of an
insufficient capacity to produce hot water for hot
mop
operations and school needs.
Snow Removal
The hockey rink will require snow removal after each snowfall. A 4 X
4 with a snow plow and blade attached
or a large group of people with shovels will be required.
Extreme care must be taken throughout the snow
removal process. Vehicle operators must remember they
are operating on ice, pushing loads of snow at
elevated speeds. Chains or studded tires destroy the
ice. Stopping and directional control with normal tires
is
very difficult and can be dangerous.
Snow must be hand shoveled around the edges to remove
it from packing against the boards, as a plow will
not
pick it up. If this is not done, a hard ridge of
snow will build against the edges posing a hazard
to skaters.
Once the snow removal operation is begun, all snow
must be removed from the rink. If it is stacked on
the ice
and left for later removal, it will set up like concrete
requiring heavy equipment to remove it. Snow must
also
be moved far enough away from the rink to allow for
the handling of additional snowfall stockpiling.
Lighting Control
In most cases rink lighting control is accomplished through the District
energy management system.
Elementary rink lights are generally programmed to
turn on at dark, and off at 11:00 PM daily. We
encourage you to perform your rink maintenance during
these hours. If lighting is required at times other
than
this, arrangements can be made through the Maintenance
Department. At least five days notice will be
required to make an adjustment to accommodate your
specific need.
Facility Access
Elementary school closure normally occurs at 11:00 PM. It is
encouraged that rink maintenance be
scheduled during hours when the school is staffed. If it is necessary to enter the school boiler room
to turn on
water for flooding operations, close supervision is
necessary. There are numerous pieces of expensive electronic
and mechanical equipment inside of the boiler room.
Please be very careful.
If access to the school is required during other than
normal hours, arrangements can be made to obtain
keys
and security instructions from Stan Syta, Operations
Director, at 907-348-5122. You must pick up keys
and security
codes in person.
Conclusion
These procedures appear relatively simple, but unless you have flooded
a hockey rink before, the process is a
long and tedious one. Hockey rinks need to be built
slowly to prevent overflooding of adjacent areas, and
to
ensure the safety of all who use the rink.
Thank you again for your willingness to donate of your
time and resources to help the youth of our
community.
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