How to use Rock Salt
As winter prevails and temperatures drop below zero, roads and driveways become icy and hazardous for both humans and motors. When weather conditions have the potential to become so severe, it’s always practical to take precautions to avoid icy conditions in your driveways.
Rock Salt is a great gritting salt! It is a natural substance made up of sodium and chlorine elements (sodium-chloride) and will easily de-ice most frozen surfaces, so you can enjoy the winter months with ease and avoid any dangerous falls. However, it is important to note that if the temperature falls below -8ºC, then rock salt may lose its effectiveness
In this article we will explore our top tips on how to use rock salt effectively for gritting.
Prepare Before Icy Conditions
If you can, treat your ground before the snowfall, as this can prevent snow (includes freezing rain/ice) from settling or ice from forming. Rock salt is known to have a lower freezing point than water and therefore reduces any chances for moisture to freeze on gritted surfaces.
Furthermore, when you lay rock salt out on your driveway before freezing conditions, snow or when the snow has settled, rock salt will melt away the ice before it settles and will make it much easier for you to get your vehicle out.
Shovel First
Whilst salt is a great to de-ice frozen surfaces, using too much salt can cause a lot of damage to your concrete, grass lawns and even metals. It is, therefore, advisable to shovel the snow or ice first and use as little salt as possible. Also, we advise you use gloves to protect your skin from the salt and cold weather. Remember, safety first so be careful!
Apply the Rock Salt
When the salt is applied, the ice will begin to melt away quite quickly, however you might find deeper fragments of ice where it will take longer to melt. Our tip here is to just be a little patient and let the salt sit on these areas to melt before moving onto the section.
Use a Garden Spreader
Investing in a garden spreader can make it easier to spread salt rather than manually spreading the salt with a shovel or scoop. The key benefit to this alternative is that it will give you great control over the amount of salt being spread.
Clean Up Afterwards
You’ve gritted your driveway and allowed maximum traction during the snowstorm. However, afterwards, it’s really important to dispose the salt you used as it doesn’t disappear itself. You can simply sweep it up. If you don’t clear it up, salt will melt into nearly lakes, streams or wetland and can cause a lot of problems to the environment, especially to the aquatic life. To aid you in clearing your rock salt afterwards, take a look at a wide range of cleaning garden brooms, which will certainly make it easier for you.
We hope you now have a better understanding on how rock salt is a great substance to melt ice and aids us to carry on with our daily activities during the icy winter months. A final top tip we leave with you is we recommend buying the salt in bulk to help save you some money! You can view our range of rock salt at great prices here.
