You can take advantage of several road management solutions to keep roads, walkways, parking lots, and other surfaces safe and clear from snow and ice. Knowing the options available to you helps you decide what kind of treatment would work best for you and your contracts. These are the different snow and ice management solutions that are available to you:

Road Salt

Road salt is a specific kind of salt added to roads to either melt the snow that has formed or prevent snow from piling up. Road salt will need to melt into a brine before it can become super effective. If salt is added in liquid form or as a prewet solid, it can begin to act immediately.

The objective behind using road salt is to prevent or destroy any bonds that could be present between the road and the snow. The road salt will lower the freezing point of the water. But as the road salt brine becomes diluted, the freezing point of water will rise. At this point, you’ll need to add more road salt. Ensure that you have bulk road salt in your landscaping supplies kit. Bulk salt is one of the best de-icing products that you can invest in for your snow and ice management business.

Treated Salt

Treated salt is essentially rock salt that has been coated with liquids, such as calcium chloride, to enhance its performance. When additional liquids are added, the treated salt becomes more effective at de-icing than typical rock salts.

You can get treated salt infused with liquids that inhibit corrosion, modify viscosity, increase the melting speed, and much more.

Brine

After a snowstorm, you could find the roads and sidewalks around your home packed with snow. Brine is a combination of water and salt that you can spread on roads that are filled with ice. Brine can also be used before a snowstorm to prevent the formation of ice. The brine helps lower the freezing temperature of ice. This makes it less likely for the snow to adhere to the road or pavement surfaces.

Pre-wetting and Pre-treatment

You can add rock salt, or even sand, to the roads and sidewalks around your clients’ property if you know a snowstorm is coming. When you pre-treat the surfaces, then snow is less likely to adhere to those surfaces. This helps in preventing the need to shovel away large piles of snow later on.

Sand

Sand can’t actually melt ice, but it does have an effect on the ice. Sand helps to create friction, which can prevent ice from building up. By itself, sand can’t affect the freezing temperature of ice. But you can add sodium chloride to the sand before adding it to the snow. This way, you can ensure that the snow is melted but also that there is traction on the road surfaces.

Ice Melt/ Liquid Ice Melt

Ice melt is actually a combination of magnesium chloride and calcium chloride pellets, as well as sodium chloride. The combination of these chemicals enables ice to melt away faster and has a longer-lasting effect. The ice is being melted thanks to both the brine that’s formed by the salt, as well as the heat released by the other chemicals.

Calcium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Potassium Chloride

Calcium chloride helps dissolve ice at lower temperatures. It has the ability to trap moisture and can suppress dust particles as well. This helps in reducing dust on roads.

On the other hand, potassium chloride is not as effective in lower temperatures. It needs to be mixed with other materials if you want to use it to melt ice or snow. However, using potassium chloride is safer than using just sodium chloride.

Finally, magnesium chloride is prepared by evaporating the water found in lakes. Sometimes, your magnesium chloride will also come with pre-wetting agents. When this salt is dissolved in the snow, more heat is released. As a result, snow or ice can melt really fast.

Depending on what you’re looking for, there are several snow and ice management solutions available. Contact FSI Landscape Supply today for more information!