Ice Making Procedures

Preparatory Stage

  1. secure enough volunteers working in teams of 2 (one using the hose and the second guiding it back through the hole into the basement) to cover all the various types of flooding…the more teams and volunteers the better but ideally 5 teams of 2 with a couple of volunteers to cover for absences will allow teams to work every other day

  2. liaise with arena manager to determine when cold brine will be sent over from the arena (generally it is around the 22 nd of September)

  3. setup the ice making schedule but be flexible as ice plant problems and warm air temps can affect the start times

  4. about 1 week before planned start, put on the float shoes (running shoes on Styrofoam) and look over the sand looking for any repairs that need to be done including divots and high spots and add sand (use commercial mortar sand from a bag) or back-rake sand to smooth out unlevel area

  5. unravel all hoses and lay out neatly in the basement and find the spray nozzles and sprinkler (attached to Styrofoam float)

  6. fill the lawn roller with water and roll out the sand walking the roller up and down to compress and level the sand, overlapping successive rolls

  7. 2 days before brine is scheduled to be sent over connect the oscillating sprinkler to the black hose and walk it out to the far end and turn on the water in the furnace room soaking the sand for about 2 hours, move the sprinkler up to a new area of sand for the next 2 hours and so on, it will take 5 moves and 10 hours of watering to soak all the sand

  8. do a line and tape inventory making sure you have sufficient quantity, including 4” hogline, 2” centerline (dividing each sheet), and 1” back of house black fabric tape

  9. anything needed can be obtained by ordering from Thompsons Rink Equipment in Manitoba…go on-line to order and wool yarn (black centre of each sheet and red or blue 4-foot lines) can be obtained locally from Walmart, wool is also used to line up the back of the hacks

Ice Making 

A) Light Fast Sprays

  1. let the wet sand freeze solid for 1 day before light fast spraying

  2. light fast (almost a mist) sprays (about 30) are applied continuously every 10 minutes for the entire day ideally building a thick frozen crust on the sand

  3. about 5 sprays per hour for 6 hours straight is the timing.

  4. set-up 3, 2-man crews to spread out the work for the day

  5. call PK Ice Services (519-669-5004) to arrange for ice painting (generally about Oct 5, 6 or 7), also liase with the Scott from the arena as painting both ice surfaces can be arranged for the same visit (possibly)

B) Shower Sprays

  1. increase the water volume to a quick spray which is about the same speed of application as a light fast spray but at the next heavier setting on the spray nozzle

  2. these take about 1 hour to freeze between applications and schedule 4 of these each day for the next 2 days

  3. on the third day, increase the water volume on the nozzle to the next setting and do a fast shower and walk at a brisk pace when applying for 2 applications then slow down your walk to a slower pace and allow more water to accumulate on the sand, these we call a slow shower and do 2 of these making 4 applications for the day (2 fast and 2 slow applications)

  4. repeat on the 4 th day another round of 4 slow showers

C) Flooding

  1. remove the nozzle end and add the hockey stick and hose to start the heavier flooding process which builds ice much faster

  2. walk at a slow walking pace keeping the hockey stick blade on the ice and be sure to flood all areas overlapping where possible as you walk backwards

  3. reassess your time schedule at this point and make up flooding teams for the next week, if you are ahead or on-time 2 floods per day will be adequate but if behind schedule a third flood can be scheduled which take 2 hours between applications to freeze

  4. continue flooding twice or 3 times a day for the next 7 days building up ice before it is painted

D) Painting

  1. the day before PK Ice Services visit, scrape the ice before they arrive which removes any impurities and prepares the ice for painting

  2. speak with the arena manager to lower the brine temperature as low as it can go which will prevent bleed-outs and paint runs 
    especially if it is a warmer day

  3. lay out tarps along the carpeted end of the sheets to prevent paint on the carpets

  4. make sure to have someone available to help the technician from PK Ice Services

  5. ideally the temperature of the slab should be 20 degrees or colder as the painting is exothermic raising the ice temperature when applied

  6. consider postponing this process if the day is extremely warm or the arena cannot lower the temperature of the brine as it can cause bleed-outs and the paint will have to be redone

  7. PK will mist spray the surface over the paint to help seal it in but it’s not enough and you need to shift back to 4 light fast sprays for the next day then 2 fast showers (increasing water volume) the day after and 2 slow showers which will seal in the paint before resuming flooding using the hockey stick

E) Preparing for House Templates, Ads, Lines and Hacks

  1. do 3 more heavy floods after all paint sealing is done (morning/afternoon/evening)

  2. redo the team work schedules at this point as you should be somewhere about Thanksgiving

  3. the day before freezing in house templates move them and all ads to the ice surface to allow them to cool down

  4. move squeegees and pump sprayer out to ice 

  5. Jet Ice, the maker of our house templates has a You-Tube video on how to apply these and is well worth watching

  6. holes for the centre pin need to be drilled by measuring using tape measure to find the exact centre of house

  7. working with 2 or 3 volunteers, and after drilling the centre hole place a 3/8 metal pin through the centre of the house to anchor it at centre 

  8. working in halves lift up the first half and spray enough water down to allow houses to be very wet

  9. work using the squeegees to flatten and prevent puckers by pulling the squeegee and water over the house towards the edge

  10. you are trying to minimize high puckers and pleats from forming—it will be impossible to get the house completely flat so don’t waste too much time worrying about it as water will cover them eventually

  11. get the house template as flat as possible

  12. do a quick spray over everything to freeze it down

  13. lines, tapes and hacks can be done the same day or the next day after the spray and you should have at least 2 volunteers to assist

  14. follow curling standard placement of all demarcations, lines, hogs and hacks and you can find these on-line and freeze these into place using the pump-up sprayer followed by 3 or 4 quick light sprays being careful not to pull these lines off by pulling the water hose across their surface

  15. have a helper guide the hose backwards avoiding all lines and tapes if possible

  16. freeze in all 4 hacks (be careful to get these measurements correct) using the 3 pump sprayer applications

  17. freeze in all ads, club logo and maple leaves inside the house centres

F) Final Floods

  1. arrange for at least 3 or 4 more heavy floods to give sufficient ice over all houses but continue at least until everything is covered and at least one good flood after that for good measure

  2. pebble and scrape the ice at least 3 times

  3. move the rocks out onto the ice and let them cool down the day before use and turn on the dehumidifier a day before checking the rock speed

  4. check to see what the speed of the rocks is and if you find them slow pebble and scrape twice more

  5. known as “green ice”, new ice has impurities that need to be removed and is usually slow and requires many pebbles and scrapes to improve speed

  6. you should see speed improve leading up to your opening game