Do you put salt down on snow or ice to melt it around your front door, porch, steps or driveway? Where do you get it and how do you use it?
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debtahals wears a curiosity COAT
ANSWERS: 5
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You can get it at any hardware store or building supply like Home Depot. Lots of grocery chains carry it as well during snowy times. I don't have to put it out here. The building management takes care of it. But when we had a single family residence, I used it mainly for ice busting. It's cheaper and friendlier to your plants to shovel the snow, but rock salt is great for eating through glaze ice that can be so dangerous to walk on and so hard to shovel.
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I usually do NOT use salt at all, if I can avoid it. I keep the snow and ice cleared away from the door, porch, steps sidewalk, and driveway by shovel as much as possible. Then I sand and ice for traction. The first time the sun comes out, the light will melt any remaining ice as it heats the exposed asphalt and concrete and the darker sand on the ice. This gets rid of the rest of the ice and snow in these paths. Rock salt has this nasty habit of increasing my work and expenses over time as it eats up concrete pretty badly, making me have to remove damaged sections and pour more concrete in the future. You can buy salt pretty much anywhere during the winter months in the colder lattitudes. Hardware/lumber stores, grocery stores, drug stores, Walmart, and so forth. Just scatter it by hand over the snow or ice. You knot have to cake it on.
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I don't see that much snow to worry about putting down salt, here in the south. But many hardware stores carry rock salt and you spread it around like you would if you were feeding chickens (just a dusting over the area you want cleaned off). If you use it make sure you wear gloves as it can dry your hands out pretty quickly.
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I have some rock salt I picked up at home depot. I also get sand from the city yard. I use the sand for the driveway and the rock salt for the stairs and around the entry, it doesn't track like the sand does.
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No longer an issue living in Florida--Not a thing I miss about North Jersey. My father used to use something called urea--it'a a salt, but not sodium, I don't remember where he found it. When we lived in an apartment in Clifton, N.J. , the landlord had an attitude;"the good lord put it there-he can remove it". The salt melts the ice, but only when the sun is shining. Yes it will eat thruogh the wood in time. Be careful, if the melted ice doesn't melt away, or dry up before the sun goes down, you could have "black ice"--a slick sheet that is even more dangerous than the stuff you are trying to clear.
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