The Backyard Mini Ramp

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     Well, after all of these years a dream comes true for this skateboarder. I finally have my own backyard mini-ramp! Max and I built the ramp over the past two weeks. So far we’ve had a few sessions on it and it is a blast! It’s 3′8″ tall, 25′ long, 12′ wide, has a 7′ transition, and 8′ of flat. Also has a 2′ deck and a 3′ deck. More about the construction after the jump.

In building the ramp my main concern was the sound. My neighbors are fairly close and mini-ramps are loud so I was a little worried. I looked into different soundproofing options: carpet pad, bales of hay, mass loaded vinyl. The thing with sound from a mini-ramp is two-fold. The first noise is the ramp surface itself and the second is the coping. After all of my research most soundproofing ideas turned out to be cost prohibitive and didn’t seem to have the right bang for the buck. So what we did was brace underneath the ramp to keep vibrations down. After that we closed in all open spaces in the back and side of the ramp with 3/4″ ply. Then we built 10′ tall sound baffles (similar to highway barriers) and used sound absorbent sheeting that you can find at Home Depot. It seemed to do the trick fairly well. Ramps are noisy and unless you build them inside they’re going to make noise. Good, solid construction will help along with a visit to let your neighbors know that they can approach you if it’s a problem. We also instituted a no-skating-after-dark rule.

For the construction of the ramp it was a pretty standard mini. We cut the templates from 3/4″ ply using a 7′ transition. All of the 2×4’s were drilled in 8″ on center. For the surface we put down 2 layers of 1/2″ ply (staggered so the seams wouldn’t be laying on one another). Then we topped it all off with 3/16″ Masonite, aka hardboard. For the coping we used 2″ outer-diameter steel pipe and just drilled it on. To do this you take a drill bit that’s about the thickness of a screw and drill straight down through the pipe and through the other side so you have two holes. Then the top holes you simply use a slightly larger drill bit so you can fit your drill bit through. Once you can do that just screw the coping on.

The key to building a good mini-ramp is planning. The main things that need to be in proportion are height, transition, and flat-bottom. You don’t want less than 8′ of flat bottom. And if you only have 8′ I wouldn’t build it higher than 3′8″ (this assumes you are using a 7′ transition). Transition is also very important. A lot of people get this wrong and make their transitions too tight. It might look mellow as a template, but everything changes when you surface it and add coping.

And our last important point on mini-ramps: coping. This is another element of a mini-ramp that people mess up. You only want the coping to stick out at the most 3/16″ (unless you like the gnar). You’d be surprised how much moving coping forward or back 1/16″ can make. When adding coping it’s best to have it out too far rather than too deep. If it’s too far take it off then take a circular saw and cut the top back a 1/16″ at a time. If it is too deep add some shims until you have it right.

If you have any questions about building mini’s please post a comment and I’ll answer you in the comment thread.