How To Deal with Salt and Salt Damage

Salt Hitting the Pavement by the Ton

Salt does a great job melting ice and snow to keep pavement safe. The unfortunate twist is that the same chemistry breaking down ice has a destructive impact on our plants. So the question is, how can we keep surfaces ice-free without sacrificing the landscape?

What does salt do?

1. Salt is naturally occurring, in the world around us and in our bodies.
2. Salt makes snow and ice melt and colder temperatures, but it also absorbs moisture powerfully, even pulling it out of plant tissue.
3. When poured down all winter for ice control, it moves from pavement to the soil where it displaces nutrients necessary for plant life.

Sunlight on the Snow

What can you do to address salt damage and – ideally – prevent it from happening?

1. Review winter salt usage. Apply enough to melt ice without leaving a residue and limit where you apply it.
2. Though more expensive, consider salt alternatives like calcium chloride or magnesium chloride that melt more effectively without applying as much.
3. Flush salt-saturated soil in the spring and provide plenty of water for salt-stressed plants to compensate for their desiccation, or water loss. While irrigating, be sure the soil is well-drained to carry away the salt.
4. If there is a concentrated salt spill, gypsum can help neutralize it and allow a dead spot in your turf, for example, to recover quickly.
5. Plant salt-tolerant species in areas adjacent to salted surfaces. In addition, pile salt-soaked slush away from plants during the winter.
6. Protect plants, particularly evergreens like arborvitae, from salt and salt spray with physical barriers like burlap. Addressing other stress factors too will help your landscape deal with all kinds of damaging factors that come their way.

You can read more in an excellent release (PDF) by the Tree Care Industry Association, the organization that established the accreditation guidelines we follow. In our own snow services, we strive to limit plant damage because it’s best for the landscapes we serve year round.

Snowy Branches in River Hills

 

Our Snow & Ice Services

A Direction You Want to Avoid

In Wisconsin, we get plenty of winter weather that serves as a badge of honor or a burden. At our company, snow provides us with another service opportunity.

• Snow plowing: our plowing customers are clustered into dense routes, often working for neighbor after neighbor. While our service area is more limited, our response times are excellent.
  • Residential: we pair up a driver with a shoveler to take care of the driveway, walks, sidewalks, patios, etc. all together. Many of our snow plowing customers date back 15-20 years and keep returning because of our value and quality of service.
  • Commercial: the bigger trucks in our fleet appear as the snow begins falling to keep commercial clients open for business and minimize the potential for liability. Separate snow blowing and shoveling crews work quickly to open sidewalks and keep customers in compliance with the city requirements for clear sidewalks.
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  If snow never fell on pavement...

  Salting: for light snows and following up after plowings, our salt crews work to apply enough salt to keep surfaces safe. You can count on us to be responsive and attentive to your needs.

• Snow removal and hauling: some properties have very limited space for storing snow on-site, necessitating snow hauling or simply moving it around on-site. We frequently work around schedules to move snow during the day (for apartments) or at night (for offices, etc), whenever the parking lot is not being used. Even private driveways can get buried in snow, making it difficult to see or store additional snow.
• Roof and gutter snow and ice: severe damage occurs when snow melts on a roof and forms ice dams that can easily spread under shingles. By removing snow on a regular basis and melting the ice with calcium chloride, which is safer on metal and melts more effectively than rock salt, we can spare your roof from leaks and permanent damage. Many times this is a temporary solution to prevent further problems until the roof and gutters can be repaired in the summer.

We hope you enjoyed a mini-tour of our snow services!