Treated Salt

[River Hill]

I have a question regarding treated salt in parking lots. I am not talking about pre-treatment, but using salt after plowing operations. I am in the MD, and most of our snow storms are right around the freezing mark. We do get some that are in the low 20's but not that often Would using a treated salt with Magic or Caliber M2000 be worth it in this situation or do you think with the temps around freezing I should just save my money. I think most people over apply salt and I do it as well. It seems customers like to see those white residue lots when they dry and hear the crunch of salt in their shoes. I think it makes them think they got their moneys worth.

[HerkFE]

My two cents....

With temps around freezing your salt is working its best. The main advantage I could see to using treated salt in your scenario would be to use it as a pre-treater. Keep the precip from bonding to the pavement. Here's an example.... This storm that passed through here the last couple of days was really a PITA. Temps near freezing, snow, sleet, rain. Basically a nasty combo. The first day we didn't pre-treat because we expected rain first and didn't want to lose the Magic to the rain. The second day (today) we did pre-treat and even with the rain we still saw great "release" of the snow/ice/hardpack/nasty stuff. It was a very noticable difference. We will defintely pre-treat even if there is a chance of change-over precip. Once you've gotten used to scraping clean to the pavement it really chaps your hide when you have to keep going back trying to clean-up ice!

You may be able to get the same results pre-treating with salt, I don't know... What I do know is that today we used about 8 yards of treated salt and we have about 8 acres of parking to look after. We also pre-treated with liquid and that was about 150 gallons or so. We had an inch and a half or so of snow followed by about one half inch of ice and then rain. It was a mess! But, llike I said, no ice bonding to the pavement so cleanup was a breeze! Our competitors across the way went through about 5 yards of sand followed by 5 yards of straight salt on their 2 acres lot and theirs still has ice packs.

Treated salt and liquids works for us....

Good luck!

[nsmilligan]

As a Caliber user I think your biggest advantage would be reduced ice control costs, happier customers, and lower insurance claims. The best part, is you won't hear the crunch of salt under your feet, because if you do then your not being friendly to the environment, but you will have better results, particularly with refreezing, and the residual effect of Caliber. We had a very busy Jan, record low average temps, daily snow showers, but the treated salt kept my lots generally bare ( no sand required), but when the temps broke and we had a few sunny and no precp days, then 4 days later had a dusting of snow, and about freezing temps, I didn't have to treat my lots like everybody else, the residue took care of the snow, and my lots still had a white sheen.
Bill

[MDsnowPRO]

River Hill- I have been pretreating my rocksalt with magic for over a month now. At first i was only using it when temps were low, meaning below 25 F closer to 20 F. I continued to treat the salt in these last two "warmer" storms. And what I found was the amount of salt i was using was cut down by aprox. a third. You can use less salt when you treat it meaning its more effective. Also we tried spraying it on sidewalks BEFORE it snowed, effectivly pre-treating them. I found that it made a HUGE difference as the snow feel it just melted. I mean more that an ice fell and melted, i compared the untreated areas and the difference was amazing. Also you don't have to worry about plowing it away like rock salt. If ya have anyother ? about the stuff let me know.
-Nick