How to Treat a Sloped Driveway in the Winter

Even a slight slope can be hard to navigate in winter weather.

While it's important to quickly treat snowy or icy areas around your home in the winter, it becomes even more imperative when you have a sloped driveway. A large or small incline is an open invitation to slips and falls on the slick surface and can result in serious injuries to you and your loved ones. By properly treating your sloped driveway, you'll reduce the risks and provide a surface on which visitors to your home can gain traction even in the worst of weather.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Snowblower
• Backpack or hand-held sprayer
• Liquid de-icer

Instructions

1. Remove the snow from your driveway with a snow shovel or blower. Work from side to side rather than up and down the driveway. By working side to side, you'll reduce your risk of falling by walking across the slope rather than up and down.

2. Fill a backpack or hand-held sprayer with liquid ice melt which is typically made with sodium chloride or calcium chloride, the same ingredients commonly found in solid forms of ice-melting products. You can purchase liquid de-icer at home improvement and hardware stores. Read the instructions to determine the amount needed to cover the area of your driveway. Avoid over-applying the product and use it only as directed. Liquid ice melt works better on a slope than salt nuggets or other dry ice-melt products that may simply bounce off the drive and roll down the slope.

3. Apply the liquid ice melt to the entire surface of your driveway. Use a back-and-forth sweeping motion and apply a thorough coat to the surface. Work from side to side until the entire driveway is covered.

Tips & Warnings

• Always use an ice-melt product even when it seems there is a sufficient coating of snow to provide traction. Temperature variations may cause the remaining residue to melt and refreeze into a sheet of ice overnight.

• Remove thick layers of ice with a snow shovel once the liquid de-icer has had time to weaken the ice, and reapply the de-icer to prevent further ice accumulation.

• Rinse your sprayer thoroughly after each use of liquid de-icer.

• Keep pets and children away from areas that have been treated with a liquid de-icer.

References

• Icenator Liquid Deicer: Using Liquid to Melt Ice
• Grounds Maintenance: Deicers...and the Degrees They'll Go To