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Sat, Dec 24, 11 at 13:22
| Our Chicagoland winter has frequent freeze-melt cycles. Years ago I made the mistake of putting de-icing whitish tiny pellets sold in a plastic jug on my garage's concrete. The concrete chipped off. My neighbor has a very steep driveway - they put lots of de-icing salt, with rapid deterioration to their driveway.
I found a good site which lists what types of de-icing are safe for plants, sidewalks, and driveways. Another mistake I made was to use a garden fork to bust chunks of ice, thus poking holes in my driveway. So far we have a very mild winter, but not for long ...
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Here is a link that might be useful: Salt, Fertilizer, or Ice-Melter?
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by compogardenermn 4- Twin Cities MN (My Page) on Mon, Dec 26, 11 at 8:55
| I found some flaws in the de-icing article. First, Sodium Chloride (NaCl) really only effectively works down to about 15 degrees F surface temperature, not "even on the coldest days". I suppose the article could have been written in a warmer state then Minnesota, so this may be the author's "coldest days"... Second, another option not mentioned is Magnesium Chloride (MgCl). It works to down around -10 degrees F surface temp. The thing with Mag Chloride though is you can practically hear the skin on your hands cracking and fissuring if you handle it enough. It is also hydrophillic (moisture attracting) so if you dont store it in an air tight container, you will end up with one solid slimy rock. Fertilizer will work too, but as with the salts, it all flows downhill until it reaches your local lakes, rivers or ponds, which has obvious pollution problems associated with it. Would you wantonly throw fertilizer into a lake or river? Did you also know that one teaspoon of salt will pollute 5 gallons of water to the point considered "impaired" by federal standards? If you apply one 50lb bag of salt- you are putting enough chlorides into your local water to pollute around 10,000 gallons of water! (These numbers come from the Winter Parking Lot and Sidewalk Maintenance Manual produced by the MN Pollution Control Agency and Fortin Consulting) With any de-icing product, you are accelerating the freeze/ thaw cycle on the surface you are treating and if said surface was not properly constructed or cured- you can really do some damage. Personally, at my house we dont use any salts (our driveway is relatively flat and we are pretty young and nimble), but its understandable if you have sloped driveways or walks or have problems walking from handicaps or age. At work, we use quite a bit of salt because lets face it in our modern society with everyone looking to sue everybody else- we need to use it as a "lawsuit avoidance" tool. We have a lot of turfgrass and shrub dieback in the spring every year because of it. My advice is to use the least amount you can that will still be effective if you must use salts, use sand or buck up and realize its winter and walk with a purpose... |
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| The article mentions kitty litter only in passing. That works not so much as an ice 'melter', unless its in the sun and takes advantage of absorbed heat, but really helps with traction. There are kitty litters, and then there are other kitty litters - you're after the ones of baked and expanded clay that stay as hard pellets when wet and don't dissolve into mush, which tracks into the house. Its also cheap and AFAIK, doesn't mess with the soil. |
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- Posted by Strawberryhill none (My Page) on Tue, Dec 27, 11 at 12:14
| Thank you, compogardener, for the info. on salt in fertilizers. You are right, urea salt index is 74, ammonium sulfate has a salt index of 88, ammonium nitrate of 104, and potassium chloride of 116.2 - compared to sodium nirate of 100. I didn't know that 1 teaspoon of salt pollutes 5 gallons of water. Thank you, david52, for info. regarding baked and expanded clay kitty litter - I'll shop for them to get ready for the next ice storm. |
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| I recently bought this product as I want to do all I can not to use any salt or salt like product this winter. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Instead of salt
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- Posted by Strawberryhill 5a IL (My Page) on Tue, Dec 27, 11 at 21:44
| Thank you, Rouge21, about Ecotraction (a mineral) - I got to find it at HomeDepo! |
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