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.