How quickly will rock salt melt ice?

Question

I have an inch-thick of snow/ice on my walkway, that I would like to melt/shovel before a meeting at my home tonight....

Answer 1

Unfortunately, ice melting agents seem to be exponentially less effective the thicker the ice they are dumped onto is. Dilution is the major factor. Ice agents actually are most effective at releasing the bond between pavement and ice. This is why pretreating is often the wisest route.Also try to avoid letting aie build up more than one storm cycle. Barring that, I have learned a few techniques which seem to work. The first is obviously only try to clear as much area as you will need. If you only will have foot traffic, don't try to open the whole driveway.Go for a 3-4 wide swath. Try to stay towards the middle if you have turf on the sides as salt,calcium,etc, destroy grass..I put piles of salt every so often rather than try to coat. This keeps the salt concentrated and help brine reach the pavement and start to move faster.Piles left high and dry can be moved ahead to icy areas.The bad news is that it won't really do it alone (without 1700 pounds of salt) You will have to chop (vertical strokes) to hasten the release. And moving already loose ice aside prevents needless dilution.So, go dump piles (about 1-2 inches deep every 3-4 feet of walk. Go do something else for 45 min to an hour and then git er done!

Answer 2

Rock salt will normally melt snow and ice as long as the temp is not below -5. You will have to worry about it re-freezing.
Have you thought of pouring down some sand or cinders for
for better traction? Kitty litter works good too.

Answer 3

Rock salt doesn't work too well (if at all) when it's colder than -10C...
The warmer, the faster it works... it might melt enough that you can break up the ice and shovel it away as opposed to just sitting back and waiting for full melting and no effort; for that you might need days.

Answer 4

Your interior of sight food market could desire to have rock salt. i understand that the trick to creating sturdy ice cream is getting a sturdy brine began. i'm uncertain if sea salt will try this interior the splendid time. We made ice cream a pair of weeks in the past and used Kosher Salt, I had a poor time getting the ice/salt combination remarkable. next time i'm going to be utilising rock salt.

Answer 5

Depends how much... Douse it with salt, and an hour or two later you should be able to shovel much easier if the salt has penetrated through that inch.