How to Apply Ice Melt
During the winter months, slip and fall accidents are responsible for 300,000 major injuries and 20,000 deaths every year. An effective accident prevention program should include ice melt application on all walkways and driveways to prevent the build-up of ice. Ice melt application is easy and is well worth the small time investment. The ice melt, before it completely dissolves into the water, will provide a small amount of extra traction while it is working. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Snow blower or snow shovel
- Granular fertilizer spreader
- Sand (optional)
Instructions
-
-
1
Shovel or snow blow all walkways and driveways to remove as much snow and ice as possible before applying ice melt.
-
2
Fill the hopper of a granular fertilizer spreader with ice melt and open the feed rate setting to fully open.
-
-
3
Walk at a medium pace (approximately 3-1/2 miles per hour) while spreading ice melt over concrete surfaces. This pace will provide adequate ice melt coverage (an ideal spread rate is ¼-½ cup of ice melt per square yard).
-
4
Remove slush and melted ice from the concrete surface after the ice melt has had time to work so there is no chance for the slush and ice to refreeze.
-
5
Reapply more ice melt as needed to decrease the chance of more ice forming on treated concrete surfaces.
-
6
Rinse the tools with water after ice melt has been applied to decrease the likelihood of corrosion.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Ice melt can also be applied by hand with a plastic or metal cup.
Mix ice melt with sand in equal parts (pound for pound) to provide extra traction if required. Spread the ice melt and sand mixture as described above.
Do not use ice melt on concrete that is less than one year old.
