How to Use Ice Melt On Your Driveway & Walkways

Winter is here and so is the cold, harsh, icy climate that comes with it. You likely wake up to see that your car has iced over when you need to get to work in the morning. But what about your driveway? What about the walkway to your car? You don’t want to slip and fall on the hard ground, or worse, have someone in your family be injured. But what can you do? There is ice melt you can try.

What is Ice Melt?

Ice melt, or ice deicer as its sometimes called, is a material that lowers the freezing point of water below its normal 32°F. This works to break the physical bond between a buildup of ice and the ground. This will make the ice easier to melt and remove, and even work to prevent future ice and snow build-up for the rest of the day. It may turn the snow and ice into slush at first, but that can give you greater traction than hard ice as you shovel it all away.

Ice melt contains sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride. The exact proportions of these chemicals vary between product brands. When you have a container of it, it looks eerily similar to salt, but don’t try to taste it or let your pets have it. It cannot be consumed and shouldn’t have a lot of contact with your skin.

Like rock salt, ice melt is corrosive to concrete and metal so be sure to wash your car after the ice melt is washed away and to clean off your concrete. You should also wash the paws of any pets you have because it will get between the pads of their paw and irritate their feet.

Tips for How to Best Use Ice Melt

It’s easy to say that you should pour ice melt on your driveway and walkways when there’s snow or ice. That would help, but it wouldn’t be the most effective way to use ice melt by far. You want to take advantage of the fact that ice melt will still work even if the outside temperature is far below the water’s normal freezing point. It works even when temperatures drop below 5°F. To do this, you can:

• Use Protective Gloves: Calcium and magnesium chloride products are not safe for prolonged skin contact. Also, if you can, wear ice cleats or overshoes that will keep ice melt from getting to your shoes and potentially damaging them. Also, be sure not to wear footwear covered in ice melt indoors. The material may end up damaging your floors.

• Lay Down Ice Melt Before and After Snow: You want to lay down the ice melt before it starts snowing to keep as much of the snow from sticking to your driveway and walkways as possible. If you don’t get the chance to, you want to lay it down as soon as it stops snowing. If you do it while it’s snowing, the ice melt may not be able to melt the layer of ice on the ground before it’s all used up melting the snow falling on it.

• Shovel Slush and Ice Melt Away: Once the ice melt has done its job and it's no longer snowing, you want to make sure you shovel your driveway and walkways. This is especially true if you have a concrete driveway. If you don’t, the ice melt will damage the concrete over time. Forgetting once or twice won’t do much, but letting ice melt constantly sit and dissolve into your concrete will make the material breakdown and fall apart far faster than it normally should.

• Don’t Use Too Much Ice Melt: Less is more with ice melt. Excessive amounts won’t thaw ice faster or thaw more ice overall. You want to use half a cup of ice melt per square yard. This helps reduce how much ice melt you need to shovel away afterward.

• Store Ice Melt Properly: Ice melt absorbs moisture even from the air. It will degrade, clump, and harden if you open the packaging and leave it outside. So once you’re done with it, you should store it in air-tight containers away from moisture, air, or sunlight.

Contact Pioneer Landscape Centers for Ice Melt

Pioneer Landscape Centers offer multiple different types of ice melt. If you have different needs for snow and ice at your home, our different products can help. We have rapid thaw to help you with early morning commutes, and sand/salt mixtures that can lessen the active corrosiveness of the ice melt, giving you more time before you have to shovel the snow away.

For more tips on how to best use ice melt and where to get it as it snows more and more, contact your local Pioneer Landscape Centers. We’re happy to help.