Salt Sense:
Choose Radiant Heated Driveways and Avoid the Pitfalls
and Hidden Dangers of Snow Melting Products
In winter
months, rock salt and other snow melting products
present an array of hidden dangers. Not so
with radiant heated driveway systems. If you want
more bang for your ice-melting buck, and greater
peace of mind, you might want to consider radiant heat
as a safer, more permanent
snowmelt solution for your driveway and
those well-traveled sidewalks bordering your
home.
Salt and snow
melting products must be purchased in advance of
inclement weather. Most distributors recommend
that you not only pre-treat surfaces for enhanced
performance, but that you participate in
“early-buy” programs to ensure you
get an adequate supply at a competitive price. On
the other hand, heated
driveways are activated by a snow
sensor before a snowstorm to keep pavement
warm, clear and safe, with little effort.
Then there’s the danger of using the
wrong snow melting product, or misusing the
correct one. If you are having to use excessive
amounts of an ice melting product, there’s a
chance you are using the wrong one. Climactic
variables such as temperature can also dictate
just how well these products work. For example, you may
be spending more on calcium chloride than is
needed to respond to specific weather conditions,
when a less expensive rock salt “blend”
would be more efficient. In contrast, radiant
heating systems are durable, reliable, and
consistently and efficiently melt snow, every
time.
Because salt
attracts water, it can cause concrete that makes up your
drive and walkways to become more saturated than they
otherwise would. The extra water, in freezing
conditions, creates pressure within the concrete
matrix, causing the surface of the concrete to fail and
spall or flake off. Heated
driveway systems can be installed in a
variety of medium without harming these surfaces.
Some
manufacturers warn that oily-like residue from
snow and ice treated with calcium chloride
actually creates a slip and fall hazard! The excessive
application of rock salts can also create a
slippery situation akin to walking on marbles!
Radiant heated driveway systems create no slippery by
products or unexpected hazards.
Why bother to
sort through perils and pitfalls of snow melting
products when you can install a radiant heated
driveway? Once installed, a heated driveway
requires no surface pre-treating. The initial cost is
offset by low operational costs, and the
elimination of all those fancy snow melting
blends, and the damage they are inflicting. You
don’t even have to follow the weather. Heated
driveway systems are fully automated,
utilizing sensors sensitive to temperature and moisture
changes to trigger operation of the system before
snow can accumulate, eliminating the potential for
slippery conditions, and any worries you might have
about safety.