21 Nov Winter Deicing in Omaha, NE: Expert Tips for Keeping Commercial Properties Safe and Slip-Free
As a commercial property manager, you know winter brings more than just frosty mornings, it brings the challenge of keeping your parking lots, walkways, and other outdoor spaces safe for tenants, employees, and visitors. Slip-and-fall accidents, vehicle mishaps, and liabilities are all heightened during the snow season.
At Sun Valley Landscaping, we’re committed to helping property managers like you confidently navigate winter’s challenges. Our best practices for winter deicing ensure that your commercial property remains safe, accessible, and environmentally responsible.
Introduction to Deicing
Deicing is your secret weapon against the icy grip of winter. It’s all about using chemicals to break down ice and snow on surfaces during or after a storm. Did you know that there are more than 3857 injuries attributed to winter weather each year, making it crucial that effective deicing isn’t an option, it’s a necessity!
As a property manager, your responsibility extends to ensuring clear, hazard-free areas for vehicles and pedestrians alike.
By implementing the right design techniques you can minimize risks, maintain tenant satisfaction, and reduce potential liability. And with our professional support, you can streamline this process to focus on other priorities.
Understanding Different Deicing Materials
To effectively combat winter’s icy grip, it’s crucial to understand the science behind different de-icing materials. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and choosing the right one can make a significant impact.
Salt (Sodium Chloride)
First up is the trusty salt, or sodium chloride, a staple in ice management for decades. Its widespread use is largely due to its effectiveness and low cost. Salt works by lowering the freezing point of water, causing ice to melt even in sub-zero temperatures.
However, it’s not without its drawbacks. Salt is notorious for being extremely corrosive, which can lead to damage to concrete, metal, and other surfaces if used excessively.
Also, while salt is great at keeping roads clear, it can wreak havoc on your garden. Plants exposed to salt run the risk of dehydration, as the chemical draws moisture away from them, potentially leading to their demise before spring can perk them back up. To mitigate these problems, our team is trained to apply salt responsibly.
Sand
While sand doesn’t possess melting properties like salt, it serves a different but equally important function by providing traction on icy surfaces. This makes sand ideal for properties that need immediate grip rather than relying solely on melting the ice.
Despite its advantages, sand can be somewhat troublesome when it comes to cleanup, as it tends to clog drains and create a mess once the ice starts to thaw. Nevertheless, when applied correctly, sand can offer an effective short-term solution to slippery conditions.
Calcium Chloride
Calcium chloride is less harsh on surfaces compared to salt, but it does come with a heftier price tag. Calcium chloride is known for attracting moisture from the air, initiating an exothermic reaction that generates heat and speeds up the melting process.
Unlike salt, calcium chloride is less abrasive, making it kinder to most types of surfaces.
However, this increased efficacy comes at a price (literally), as calcium chloride can be more expensive than its sodium counterpart. The trade-off might be worth it for those willing to invest a little more, given its impressive performance in extreme cold.
Magnesium Chloride
Magnesium chloride steps up to the plate on those truly frigid days when nothing seems to work. It’s effective in colder weather and kinder to your plants and surfaces.
It’s a popular choice for environmentally conscious individuals who want to minimize harm to their surroundings. Like calcium chloride, this deicer may come with a higher price tag, but its benefits often justify the cost.
Pretreatment Liquids
For properties who prefer to get ahead of the curve, pretreatment liquids offer a proactive approach to ice prevention.
Applied before a storm hits, these liquids create a barrier that prevents ice from bonding to the surface, simplifying subsequent removal efforts. By decreasing the amount of salt needed later, pretreatment liquids present a more sustainable option that minimizes both environmental impact and the overall labor that’s required to get the job done.
General Ice Melt
General ice melt is usually a cocktail of different compounds like sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride.
This all-purpose solution is designed to tackle a variety of conditions, making it a valuable tool in any winter arsenal. Its multi-component nature allows it to adapt to different scenarios, providing a reliable go-to option for many. For more information, check out the top 5 ice melt myths.
Application Best Practices for Salt and Ice Melt
Beyond selecting the right type of de-icing material, proper application is crucial for optimal results. At Sun Valley Landscaping, we prioritize effective and environmentally responsible de-icing techniques. Let’s delve into some best practices:
Consistency is Key
At Sun Valley Landscaping, we understand the importance of consistent application when it comes to ice melt products. Our team applies deicers with precision, ensuring even coverage across your commercial properties. Think of it as seasoning a dish—we aim for balance, not excess. Each granule of ice melt is carefully distributed, avoiding clumps or mounds that can lead to waste and potential surface damage.
Large build-ups of deicer not only waste material but can also harm the surfaces they’re meant to protect. Uneven application may result in granules sitting idle, unable to effectively melt ice until they finally make contact with the surface—at which point they may cause damage.
Our approach prioritizes minimal yet effective application. By spreading the product evenly, we maximize its efficiency while protecting your investments in pavement and concrete. This method ensures optimal safety and cost-effectiveness for your commercial properties.
Avoiding Deicers in Green Areas
We know how critical it is to protect the landscapes surrounding your commercial property. Salt and ice melt can be detrimental to green spaces, harming plants and soil, and leaving them in poor condition come spring. That’s why our application process is designed to keep deicers strictly on hard surfaces.
To achieve this, we use specialized equipment such as spreaders with guards to maintain precision. These tools help us control where the deicer lands, ensuring it stays on sidewalks, parking lots, and other hardscapes while avoiding grassy areas and planting beds. While this approach takes additional time, it’s built into our service plans, ensuring your landscape remains vibrant and healthy.
Timing Your Application
Timing is crucial for effective ice control. At Sun Valley Landscaping, we take a proactive approach by applying ice melt ahead of significant snowfalls or ice storms. This strategy prevents ice from bonding to hard surfaces like sidewalks, entryways, and parking lots, making snow and ice removal more manageable.
If pre-treatment isn’t possible, our team applies a deicer immediately after clearing snow to prevent refreezing. This dual-step process ensures pathways remain safe for employees, customers, and visitors throughout the winter season.
Safety First
The safety of our clients and their properties is our top priority. When handling ice melt products, our trained professionals wear protective gear to ensure safe and effective application. We carefully follow product guidelines to avoid over-application and reduce risks associated with skin irritation or eye contact.
Additionally, we ensure that treated areas are marked and safe for use, keeping employees, customers, and pets out of harm’s way.
Tools for Applying Salt or Deicers
Precise and effective application of salt and deicers is essential for maintaining safe and accessible commercial properties during winter. Our team uses professional-grade tools and follows best practices to ensure the job is done right every time. Here are the key tools we rely on and how we apply them with expertise:
Spreaders
Spreaders are indispensable for treating expansive commercial parking lots and long walkways. At Sun Valley Landscaping, we use high-capacity spreaders designed to distribute salt and deicers evenly and efficiently. By leveraging these tools, we ensure comprehensive coverage, preventing icy patches that could pose risks to pedestrians and vehicles alike. Think of them as the backbone of our deicing strategy—reliable, consistent, and tailored for large-scale applications.
Snowblowers, Shovels, and Scoops
While spreaders handle the heavy lifting, shovels, and scoops are perfect for tackling smaller, more localized areas like entryways or staircases. Our team uses these tools carefully to avoid over-application or uneven distribution.
Brooms
For lighter snow and minimal ice, we turn to brooms to clear surfaces or spread small amounts of deicer. These are particularly useful in areas where precision matters, such as narrow walkways or delicate surfaces. By using brooms to sweep away excess material after melting, we help maintain a clean and professional appearance for your property.
Environmental Impacts of Salt
Salt is an essential tool for melting ice, and keeping walkways and parking lots safe during winter months, but it’s not exactly Mother Nature’s favorite ingredient. When salt is spread, it can seep into the soil, making it less fertile and harming plant life.
If you’ve noticed your lawn and landscape beds looking worse for wear by springtime, excess salt could be the culprit.
But that’s not all. The runoff from salt-laden water can find its way into local water bodies, polluting them and damaging ecosystems. Fish don’t particularly enjoy a salty swim, and neither do the plants that rely on freshwater.
And let’s not forget the havoc salt can wreak on infrastructure and motor vehicles. Corrosion is no joke, something that’s incredibly obvious when you see the large spots of rust on vehicles driven in areas that receive harsh winter weather.
Yet, despite these impacts, salt and other deicers are incredibly important for reducing winter-related injuries.
Here are four things at the top of our mind every snow season:
- Precise Applications: We carefully measure and apply the right amount of deicer to ensure effective melting while minimizing waste and environmental impact.
- Strategic Targeting: Our team focuses on high-traffic areas, such as entrances, walkways, and loading zones, to maximize safety where it’s needed most.
- Pre-Treatment Expertise: Before storms hit, we sometimes pre-treat surfaces to reduce ice buildup, which decreases the amount of salt required later and helps maintain safer conditions from the start.
- Eco-Friendly Alternatives: When appropriate, we use sand or other environmentally friendly traction aids to minimize environmental impact without compromising safety.
Training for Sun Valley Landscaping Employees
At Sun Valley Landscaping, we pride ourselves on a team that really knows its way around winter weather.
Our belief is that deicers, though they seem innocuous enough, do come with risks and need to be applied properly. When you hire us, you can rest assured that our team has been properly trained on those risks and the best methods for applying salt and deicers in a safe, effective, and environmentally friendly manner.
Well-trained employees mean efficient use of deicer, preventing waste and damage to your surfaces and the environment. And training isn’t just about showing someone how to sprinkle salt here and there.
We make sure our team members know the science behind it. Salt lowers the freezing point of ice, but if you overdo it, you’re inviting corrosion and environmental problems. Too little, and you might as well be throwing sugar. The key? Just the right amount. We use the least amount of salt possible, using Aspire (our go-to software program) to figure out our ideal quantities of products.
We work closely with our team so they’re able to identify the specific needs of a property and can balance the effectiveness of the deicers against their environmental impact. We keep a close eye on the weather so we can plan our deicing schedule to get ahead of the storm as neccessary.
Most importantly, our team knows how to select the most effective deicers for the job and how to focus their efforts on paths and parking lots while keeping harmful chemicals and salt away from your landscaped areas.
At Sun Valley Landscaping, we specialize in making your surfaces safe for anything Old Man Winter throws our way. Don’t stress yourself out this winter trying to tackle the job yourself – or worse, put your landscape at risk by doing so ineffectively. Give us a call instead.
The Takeaway for Property Owners and Building Managers
At Sun Valley Landscaping, we understand that winter weather poses unique challenges for commercial properties. Managing snow and ice effectively is about more than just maintaining appearances—it’s about ensuring safety, minimizing liability, and keeping operations running smoothly.
By leveraging the right materials, applying them strategically, and adopting eco-friendly practices, we help you stay ahead of the storm. Our team specializes in providing tailored winter deicing solutions that prioritize safety, protect your property, and support sustainability.
Let us handle the icy details so you can focus on managing your property with confidence, no matter what winter throws your way.
Don’t Forget the Snow Budget Calculator
We are here to help. Sun Valley Landscaping has developed a simple, useful tool to budget snow removal services accurately over the long run. This tool will not give you next year’s budget precisely, but if you use the process over a series of 5+ years, it can provide owners, tenants, and contractors a realistic mark to gauge performance, manage funds, and cash flow your properties with fewer surprises & stress.
You can find a free-to-use snow budgeting tool here -> Snow Budget Calculator.
