For New Englanders, backyard ice skating rinks are like the swimming pools of winter — and often more sought-after

When the sun goes down in the winter, Sarah Maguire sends her husband Ryan outside to their Milton backyard skating rink to perform what she calls “ice maintenance.”

With their yellow lab, Sully, by his side and a beer in hand, Ryan brings their “mini Zamboni” — constructed out of a mop with a hose attached — outside to smooth on a fresh coat of ice by spraying water onto it to freeze overnight.

“He’s crazy about the ice maintenance. Friends of ours are always calling each other for tips and tricks. ‘How’s your ice surface?’ laughed Maguire, principal of the Aranson Maguire Group real estate group at Compass. “It’s like a cult.”

The rink carries an element of nostalgia. For Ryan Maguire, growing up in Arlington it felt like everyone had a handmade rink crafted out of plywood, even if the backyard was the size of a postage stamp.

“They tell stories about being out there from the second the sun came up to the second the sun went down. So when we had kids, he was always like, ‘I want a rink,” said Maguire, who now has a son, Liam, 11, and a daughter, Mollie, 8, who both play hockey.

When it comes to luxurious backyard amenities, gourmet outdoor kitchens scream wealth and glamour. Smart technology with sound and lighting is ideal for entertaining, and the summertime staple — a swimming pool — has always served as one of the most coveted backyard amenities by kids and adults alike. With a price tag that can rival a college education and a level of maintenance that can only be described as nonstop, it’s a hefty commitment. But for New Englanders, whether they’re obsessed hockey parents or just eager to embrace a time when screens didn’t rule the world, a backyard skating rink is a popular option.

In the beginning, Maguire was advised by her father, a criminal defense attorney, to get legal sign-off from parents before any child set foot on their rink. He drafted a hold harmless agreement and had Maguire ask them to sign it.

“He was like, ‘You are going to get sued,’” Maguire recalled.

That fell by the wayside after two years, but the Maguires beefed up their homeowners’ policy to protect themselves.

Maguire’s friend, Erin Carrick, who also lives in Milton with her family, has been setting up a rink for nearly 10 years. Her husband used to build a homemade one with wooden boards and steel rebar pins before using a popular company called EZ ICE, billed as the “60-minute backyard rink.” EZ ICE has a corporate address in Waltham but has seasonal staff in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Montana.

Four years ago, Jesse White, a Marblehead insurance broker and self-proclaimed “hockey guy,” was delighted when his then 4-year-old son Will started to get interested in the sport. White found a used 800-square-foot EZ ICE rink on Facebook Marketplace for a few hundred bucks. Now, he assembles it with his three children every year with the help of the family’s French bulldog, Ulysses.

“We’ll haul the pieces out, and they kind of click together. It goes together pretty quickly,” said White, who confirms assembly takes about an hour. After putting in the tarp, they run the hoses overnight to freeze the rink. “And hope and pray for some cold weather.”

When Lindsey McCarthy, a real estate adviser with Coldwell Banker, moved from Swampscott to Marblehead, her husband was hoping their new yard would be a bit flatter to accommodate their EZ ICE skating rink.

“My husband was like, ’Oh no, we got to have a flat yard.’ He wanted it flat for our rink,” McCarthy recalled, laughing.

While some, like White, find bargains, that doesn’t mean everyone’s looking to go light on their backyard rink. Maguire has seen families that have rinks that light up from underneath the ice or feature the logos of their children’s hockey teams inscribed on the ice in color. She cites a friend of her husband’s who was tired of dealing with the warm winters and purchased refrigerating machines for around “$50,000 each” for his regulation-size backyard rink that works all winter long.

“His rink was absolutely insane,” said Maguire. “Some people who aren’t used to this think we’re crazy, but there are people who are even more nuts.”

EZ ICE said that rinks range from roughly $2,500 to $50,000, depending on size and features. It also offer synthetic ice for year-round use. While the company declined to share its revenue for 2024, CEO Mike Morris told the Globe via email that it’s been “an amazing start to this season.”

Like swimming pools, buying a home with a skating rink in the backyard can be an acquired taste. When McCarthy was selling their Swampscott home — which had an existing rink — she wasn’t exactly sure if it was a selling point, but she didn’t think it hurt.

Maguire, for one, said she hears families speak of backyards for rinks more often than swimming pools.

“I can’t tell you how many times I hear … ‘Oh, this is a great yard for a rink. We could definitely do a rink here,” said Maguire. “That’s definitely taken into consideration more so than ‘This is a great yard for a pool.’ I never really hear that. It’s more, ‘This section is super flat, we could put a rink here.’”

The flatness of one’s yard does come into play when filling up the rink. Drainage can also be a bit challenging.

“In addition to having a relatively flat, open space to build your rink on, you should also have a drainage plan when it comes time to remove the rink and the now-melted ice, so it doesn’t cause complications to your house or surrounding landscape,” said Marblehead-based landscape architect Will Gardner.

McCarthy learned that the hard way her first year, when her husband kicked one of the boards out, only to see a neighbor rush out to tell them that water was flowing heavily into the street.

“If one of the boards kicks out, then you can flood your whole street,” said McCarthy. “We didn’t really think of maybe there was a better way to do it.”

While families often get the rinks for their kids to enjoy, the parents enjoy them, too. White admits he finds peace on the rink after a long day.

“I go out there when my kids go to bed and skate around for an hour,” said White. “My wife’s like, ‘You’re really going out there by yourself right now?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, gotta do it!”

Megan Johnson

Correspondent

Megan Johnson is a Boston-based writer and reporter whose work appears in People, Architectural Digest, The Boston Globe, and more.