All it takes is an afternoon with nothing to do, hockey in the blood, and some PVC
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Everyone laughed at us the day my brother and I decided to buy nearly 40-feet of black PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipe, a few plumbing supplies, some PVC glue, pipe cutter, and some brand new mesh. But once they saw what we had created in an afternoon with nothing more than good old Canuck hockey blood coursing through our veins, they were more than envious.
What Canadian father, mother, brother, sister, et cetera wouldn’t want to spend a few quality hours one Saturday afternoon building a hockey net? I ask you, “who?”
Unlike most Do-It-Yourself projects, it’s questionable whether you actually save money when taking on this labour of love, and Canadian pride — some mass-produced street hockey nets are pretty cheap and require far less time to construct. The cost of a good homemade net will run you somewhere in the range of $75, while one purchased at your local sports store will set you back between $40 and $200.
Keep in mind you can’t say, “I built that!” when it comes out of a box, pre-cut, waiting for you to assemble it. You can’t play a solid game of street hockey and hear the praises heaped on you by local street hockey fanatics, with one of those generic nets.
First and foremost come the supplies. You can find them across Canada – your best bet is to cash in that Canadian Tire money you’ve been saving for a few years. If you have enough, the cost will drop substantially. It cost us a whopping $20 to build a net that supplied the local hockey crew with a place to shot the ball for over a decade.
The supplies
4 10-foot long 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe ($25) |
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*all prices are approximate
Most professional (or should I say, standard) hockey nets come in two dimensions: 72” (NHL size) and 54” frames. Some are collapsible which makes for easy storage, however, a homemade frame, unless you’re creative, is not collapsible. That said, a bought net restricts those who play to two dimensions, but you can add and subtract PVC from a homemade net in order to compensate for growth and increased skill levels. According to the NHL’s Rulebook regarding Goalposts and Nets:
The goal posts shall be of approved design and material, extending vertically four feet (4') above the surface of the ice and set six feet (6') apart measured from the inside of the posts. A cross bar of the same material as the goal posts shall extend from the top of one post to the top of the other.
To begin the process you have to be familiar with a hockey net, the way it’s designed, to say nothing of its purpose. Once you’ve decided on a net size, it’s time to start cutting the PVC. You must compensate for the size of each elbow and sleeve in order for your measurements to work. A 72” net would require you subtract the elbow measurements, normally 2” each, which would turn your 72” wide net into 68”, and 48” height becomes 44”. You decide on the depth of the net, however a recommended depth is approximately 36”.
Read the instructions that come with the pipe cutter, as well as the instructions
that come with the PVC glue. Remember to dry-fit all parts before using glue
– you don’t want a lopsided net. The rest is entirely up to you! It’s not that
hard just follow the numbers on the Diagram 1, and Diagram 2
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Diagram 1 |
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Diagram 2 |
- Photography by Sam Iatesta
- Images and photo manipulation by Antoine Tedesco
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