In building your rink you need to determine what you are going to use for your boards and how to brace them. One of the biggest parts of picking your bracing is measuring your slope and knowing if you have to hold back a lot of water or not. This was one of of the toughest things for me, I knew I had about a 18″ difference from highest to lowest corners and wasn’t trying to bust the bank. You have three choices: build braces, buy braces or simply use stakes or rebar. I suggest you really dig into these options. If you are handy give the build option a whirl. The NiceRink brackets are a really great product and can work with plywood as well.
Build Option
This options is where you can really get creative with your build. The options are endless and below are a few examples of bracing.
 Small brace with rebar |  Tall braces with rebar |
Buy Option
The brace below is a major brand producing an amazing product.
 NiceRink bracket |
Wood Stake Option
This is the simplest option but you need to be careful when it comes down to your slope.
 Simple wooden stake |
Sport Court/Pond/Lake Rink Build
If you happen to be building your rink on your sport court, pond, lake or some other body of water, you can still build boards. You can go about this using two methods previously discussed. You can build your braces or you can buy your braces. If you go the build route you would build just like we showed above. On the other hand, if you want to buy your braces both NiceRink and IronSleek have a version of their brackets that can be installed on flat surfaces like a pond or sport court. Each bracket also allows you to reinforce with a stake or rebar.
