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shats44 · 05-23-2015, 07:00 AM,

Hi guys. Am Victor from Botswana. Been looking all over for the roller skate forum. I want to open a rink here in Botswana (Africa) and been offered a community park. So am planning on doing an outdoor rink. Any ideas on what to use in terms of flooring and any other things? I have been offered a space of about a 1000m2. Please advice. Thank you...

**Zenocc** · (This post was last modified: 05-28-2015, 04:30 PM by Zenocc.)

If outdoors it must be made to take the weather. Mainly UV and water. If you can, put a wall around the entire rink, with strategic entrances and cut away spots in the wall. There are ways to build a rink where the walls reduce accidents. I'll post a picture here in a few minutes of how I think a rink would best be constructed.

Basic Rectangle

Basic Oval

These represent the basic setup for a rink and I would make one to corral trafic on and off the floor. with the ovaled setup the wall would be constructed in such a way that normal skating direction(counter clockwise) couldnt run into an open gap and hit the corner of a wall. Also to get on the floor you would have room to get some speed before being dumped into traffic. Roller magic in South Amboy, New Jersey has a design similar to the one I illustrated in the oval, but there are other breaks in the wall.

Facebook post link

https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/story.php...7715503260

Pardon my atrocious MS paint skills.

***Reserector*** · (This post was last modified: 05-28-2015, 04:24 PM by Reserector.)

I have skated on concrete that was smoothed like a floor, using rotating finishers. The surface is very smooth, and works with most rink wheels.

Cracking may become a problem, but only if sections of the slab sink or rise. Gaps can be calked, but transitions are a game stopper.

There are a lot of rinks here in the states with coated concrete indoor floors.

In my profile picture, I am resting on a wall at an outdoor skateboard park. The polished concrete there was great to skate on as well.
Their biggest design problem was drainage. That may be a consideration for you as well. If there are skateboard park designers available to you, you may want to seek them out for their knowledge.