How To Install Synthetic Ice Panels
3 min readSynthetic ice is one of the greatest ways for hockey players and other ice skating enthusiasts can continue to practice ice skating at home during the pandemic lockdown. If you have chosen to take the steps that it takes to install a synthetic ice rink in your home or somewhere like it, good for you. You are about to get a valuable asset that will keep you healthy and strong for years to come if you continue to practice regularly.
Table of Contents
Scope out Your Rink Space
The first thing you need to do is determine where you are going to install your skating area. You have to make sure that you place your panels on a flat, hard surface that will allow you enough room to move around on. If you want to install synthetic ice in a small area for stickhandling exercises, that’s great too, but if you plan to ice skate, you should consider how much space you want to give yourself so that you can freely skate around without injuring yourself of putting holes in your walls.
Measure Out Your Space
Once you have a great place to install your flooring, measure out your area and get the square footage so that you know how much flooring you will need to create your space. The way to find the square footage of an area is to measure the width of the area, and the length of the area. Multiply these two numbers together and you will get the square footage. Remember that if you measure in inches you will have to convert your inches to feet so you know an accurate number.
Start From the Center
Once you have everything measured out and you have acquired your synthetic ice flooring, you can begin to install the panels. Lay your first panel down in the center of your area and build your way out. If you try to build from the outside in, you will more than likely wind up with a huge gap in the center. Although if you perfectly measured each and every inch from the starting point out it would be possible to fit all of the panels in perfectly, just save yourself a lot of trouble and start from the center. Lay the first panel down, then attach the next one via the tabs on the side and make your way outward in a circular direction. Be sure to push the tabs and the edges securely down flat on each panel so that the end result is a nice, flat surface without any dips or raised edges.
Inspect Your Flooring
Once you have all of your panels down and snug, go back over your flooring. Get a rubber mallet in case you run into any raised corners that give you trouble. If you come across any edges that don’t fit correctly tamp the edges down with the rubber mallet. If there are dips in the flooring present you may need to remove the area that the dip is in and find out what the problem is.
Get Ready to Skate
Once you have gone over your flooring area and confirmed that there are no problem areas, the next step is to put your ice skates on and take them for a test drive. If you don’t have a pair yet, simply visit Skates.co.uk and order a great pair online. If you have never skated on synthetic ice before, you might find that there is a bit of resistance and some drag. It is OK, though, you will get used to it soon enough. Although they have been able to get really close, scientists have not found a way to completely mimic ice. However, if you are totally against the synthetic ice thing you can always stay in shape and hone your balance skills with a hockey balance board. Whichever you decide to go with, as long as you keep up practicing, you will be alright.
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