Salt and Plow Shoes: Your Best Friends This Winter

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Pre-salting with salt and plow shoes 2

Commercial properties often struggle with heavy snow on roads, sidewalks, and parking lots. Snow plowing and ice control in and around commercial properties are of utmost importance this winter. Not only does it ensure proper operations but it also helps you avoid any irreparable damage to your property.

This winter, two of your best friends are salt (pre-salting, more importantly) and plow shoes which, for some reason, people are still apprehensive of. We’re going to talk about both in detail in this article, along with some tips and tricks to better manage heavy snowfall and ice damage around your commercial property.

Whether you’re looking for commercial snow removal Rochester MN or St. Paul plowing for the winter months, you should devote your research only to reliable service providers. 

street worker shovels snow from the sidewalk

Salt for ice

In the winter, ice is a problem for any property or business owner. Many people think that salt does not work on ice, but it does.

Salt makes the ice thinner and more fragile so that when you drive over it, it breaks into small pieces and slides off your tires.

The right amount of salt will depend on how much ice there is, how hard the snow is, and how you drive (ie: if you have studded tires). The amount of salt needed will vary from car to car depending on these factors and the type of salt you use. The best way to know how much salt to use is to do some testing with a sample size of ice. You can do this using a graduated cylinder or a large spoonful of water in a glass jar before adding any salt. 

The salt tends to break up when hitting an object, but this is not always desirable. In some places where there’s a lot of traffic on the road, you may want less salt for your pre-salt because too much raw salt can cause problems for cars and people who are near it.

You need to use enough salt so that it doesn’t melt all at once when hit by a vehicle or other object moving at high speeds, but not so much so that it causes too much damage when hitting something else.

Plow shoes

How do plow shoes work? Do they make the process more efficient?

Plow shoes are an important part of the plowing process. They help the blades push the snow off of the driveway, curb, and sidewalk. In addition to helping you clear the street, they also reduce traction on wet surfaces and reduce wear on parts like rims and tires.

If you want to make sure your plows are working efficiently as well as protecting your streets from damage from passing plows, then try some plow shoes. Plow shoes come in different shapes and sizes and can be attached to the front or rear axles of tractors or snowblowers so they move around during operation and help clear areas faster than regular wheels would alone.

Plow shoes work by digging into the ice, increasing water pressure, and causing the ice to crack. This makes it easier for plows to push through the snow and ice.

The amount of salt you need depends on the temperature. The colder it is, the more salt you need because there is more ice and snow. Salt also works more slowly at lower temperatures because there is less water underneath the surface.

Most plows use salt to melt ice and snow on roadways, but some also use it to melt standing water in front of driveways and sidewalks.

You should think about hiring commercial snow removal services. Such contractors provide emergency services to protect your property from extensive ice damage.

Pre-salting with salt and plow shoes 2

Final verdict

Does pre-salting work for ice? How much salt do you need for a parking lot?

Pre-salting is applying salt before a storm to prevent ice from forming on your driveway, sidewalks, or parking lot. It can be done at any time during the winter season but is most effective when temperatures are cold. The salt will freeze as soon as temperatures drop below freezing so it’s best if you apply it in fall or winter when it’s coldest out. If you wait until spring or summer to apply salt, it may not have enough time to freeze before melting begins again (especially if there has been a lot of rain).

Pre-salt is a layer of salt that covers the ice before it gets plowed. The purpose of the pre-salt is to help melt the snow, so it can be plowed more easily. It also reduces the amount of abrasiveness that the plow shoes have to deal with.

2-2.5 pounds of salt for every 1,000 sq. ft. of snow or light ice is the recommendation in most places. The amount will increase depending on how cold it gets. As a general rule of thumb, the colder it is, the more salt your parking lot, sidewalk, or road is going to need.

Weather conditions and the type of salt you use also influence the efficacy. In some situations, a remarkably lower amount of salt might be sufficient to clear large areas of snow whereas, in some extremely cold weather conditions, you might end up requiring double the recommended amount.

You can choose professional contractors like Earth Development Inc to take care of your winter snow management needs. So, you shouldn’t worry about all the stuff that without their help you would have to manage yourself. 

Salt and Plow Shoes: Your Best Friends This Winter was last modified: by