This winter we have faced a lot of snow. More then what we are used to and what some of can handle. But no matter if we only receive 1″ of snow or 12″, this article will help you decide what product to use to fight the snow and ice.

Most commerical snow removal business’ and even your township will apply salt to the roads to help make your commute easier. But are they helping or hurting? Let’s take a look..
Salt (sodium chloride) is cheap, and very easy to come by which makes it everyone’s first pick. Plus it’s immediate thinking for most. They see a snow storm coming, they run to the grocery store for bread, eggs, and salt. Yes salt helps to break down the ice and make it safer, but the long term damage is less then helpful. 
Do you have a concrete walkway or pavers? If you said yes to any of this, beware. Salt breaks down the composition of concrete and pavers making the material more porous and over time cracking the product, chipping it and causing you expensive repairs down the road.
Do you have a lawn or landscaping near your salt application area? Sodium and chloride are both harmful to lawn and plants when dosed in large amounts due to it’s toxicity. When the salt dissolves, the ions separate. When they are absorbed by the plant or lawn it decreases its ability to be able to absorb the important nutrients such as potassium. Depleting the lawn or plants nutrients will not be something that you will see over night, but by spring it will have a burnt effect to it. Many people account ‘winter burn’ as being the one to blame, but in the end it’s due to the harmful salt application from months before.  The way to counteract is to apply high amounts of fertilizer to the damaged lawn or plant costing you more money!
Fact:Back in history people would spread salt through enemies fields to detroy their crops in biological warfare. Why use this near your landscape?!
Do you have  pets?
When you walk your dog in a salt applied area you will notice a change in it’s pace or way of walking, that’s because the salt is burning it’s pads, similar to the feeling of us getting salt in a fresh cut. Afterwards your dog will try to stop the burn by licking it’s irritated paw causing ingestion of the salt which will can cause vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, excessive drooling, coma and in some cases, death.

The best way to avoid salt effects?

Don’t use it. Thankfully there is a safe and effective way to break down snow and ice. Apply calcium chloride before the snow storm comes and it will prevent the snow from sticking to the ground and turning to ice making your shoveling much easier! After the snow stops, and the shoveling has been done, apply another application of calcium chloride to prevent your wet driveway being iced over from the wind and cold temperture. You’ll be safe, your landscape and hardscape unaffected, and your pets will be out of harms way.

The benefits of Calcium Chloride:

·Effective in -59*F temperature
·Not harmful to pets, children, landscaping, or hardscaping
·Melts ice quickly and effectively

The only difference you will see is a slight increase in your upfront cost. A 50lb bag of salt costs $10-$12, where a 50lb bag of Calcium Chloride costs $13-$15. So for a few extra bucks at the beginning but no extra costs due to using harmful product, this was a no brainer. Buy Calcium Chloride.