Salting and ice management

Why ice is the dangerous half

Nobody is hurt by six inches of fresh snow. People are hurt by the quarter inch of clear ice that forms overnight after a thaw, on a walkway, in the dark, at the exact spot where a downspout discharges across a path.

That is why we quote salting separately from plowing rather than bundling it in. Bundled ice management gets applied on a schedule; separate ice management gets applied where conditions actually call for it.

Where we treat

• Walkways and front paths - the highest-risk surface on almost every property
• Steps and porches - where a fall does the most damage
• Approaches and entries - the transition where people change direction and pace
• Driveway aprons - the low point that collects meltwater and refreezes
• Any spot with a known drainage issue - if a downspout crosses a walk, that walk ices first, every time

Materials, and when they stop working

Rock salt is effective, economical and the right answer most of the time in Macomb County. Its limitation is temperature: below roughly 15°F it stops working properly, and below 5°F it is close to useless.

For those nights we use treated or blended material that stays effective further down, and on freeze-thaw cycles we can pre-treat before the event so ice never bonds to the surface in the first place. Pre-treating uses less material and works better than trying to break a bond that has already formed.

Concrete, pavers and salt

Worth knowing if we also built your hardscape: rock salt is hard on young concrete, and any concrete in its first winter should be treated with a non-chloride product instead. Properly manufactured concrete pavers handle salt well - far better than poured concrete - which is one more reason we prefer them for driveways and entries in this climate.

Over-salting damages adjacent lawn and planting. More is not better, and we apply what conditions need.