4 Ways To Keep You From Slipping This Winter

If you live in a high snowfall region, then you know what it takes to maintain a snow-free driveway or steps without damaging the concrete or asphalt. Maybe rock salt is your go-to solution, but you need to be careful with it. Although it is a popular choice, it’s not the best way to melt the ice. In fact, it’s one of the most damaging options you can choose. Therefore, to save you from its damaging consequences, we have discussed four safe ways to prevent dangerous slip and fall accidents.

Before we talk about the four ways to make your driveway less slippery, let us talk about why you should stop using rock salt immediately. Using salt to melt ice, pits the cement used for our walkways, steps, and other concreted areas. Once the cement pits, it will eventually crack or cause potholes in your surface. Salt, when comes in contact with metal in your patio furniture, can corrode and rust it. Moreover, salt is slightly acidic, and the acidity breaks down the chemical bonds essential for the concrete’s strength. Another thing that makes the situation worse is that most concrete in driveways is reinforced with steel. And salt corrodes steel. 

Ice Melt For New Concrete

Four Ways To Keep You From Slipping This Winter

1- Add traction

You can use sand, kitty litter, or any other traction agent to add friction and prevent slipping. By adding traction, you can immediately access the road or sidewalk. Using traction agents helps, but you may still have to clean the driveway post melting of the ice as it may stick to the bottom of your shoes and create a mess. 

2- Seal the concrete

When the water seeps through cracks, pores, and crevices in the concrete, the real damage happens. As the temperature drops again, the seeped water refreezes and exerts more pressure on the top surface. It results in the widening of gaps. Covering the cracks with a sealant prevents the moisture from getting in.

3- Use a good ice melt for concrete

The best way to make sure that your concrete doesn’t get crack and develop flakes is by using a driveway ice melt that is salt-free, chloride-free, and acetate-free. Most of the ice melt in the market have chloride or salt in their composition. But a few of them are made of natural ingredients like urea and glycol. Since they don’t contain corrosives or salts, they act gently on the concrete. They can work at low temperatures and are equally effective. Another good thing with salt-free deicers is, they come with the preventive Teflon effect. This effect creates an invisible layer on the deiced surface after your floor is free from the snow, which makes it easy for shoveling also. This brings me to the next step.

4- Pre-treating the surface

Before the snow hits the ground, pre-treat your concrete with the above-mentioned driveway ice melt. Such ice melt prevents the snow from sticking to the surface. This process minimizes the quantity of ice melt post-snow. 

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