We’ve all been there. The temperature dropped to below freezing during the night and you wake up to icy steps and a frozen walkway, both aimed to give you an impromptu tumbling lesson. Unfortunately, you’ve got to get to work and the thought of slipping on ice doesn’t sound so fun. If you’re in need of a quick fix to your icy dilemma, then you’re in luck!
Here are just a couple ways to keep your walkways dry and your feet on the ground!
The Rock Salt Way
The most common method to de-ice surfaces is a spread of rock salt. Rock salt can be purchased from just about any hardware store. Deicing with rock salt is simple. Liberally spread the salt across the surface of your walkway. This is fine to do before or after freezing as the salt will prevent any ice refreezing after melting.
Please note that while a common deicer, rock salt is a messy thing that will track into your house. In addition, rock salt may cause damage to concrete surfaces.
The Cleaner Way
The next solution is a tad less simple and requires a little mixing. The advantage though is that you already have all of the required ingredients sitting in your cabinets!
All you need is:
- 1 Teaspoon of Dawn Dish Detergent
- 1 Tablespoon of Rubbing Alcohol
- A Half Gallon of warm water
As soon as you start to notice the temperature dropping, go ahead and mix the ingredients together. Once you do, spread it liberally across your steps and walkways. The soap, like the rock salt, will keep ice from forming again.
The soap mix has two clear bonuses compared to the rock salt. First, you can’t track soap back into your house as easily. Second, the soap mix isn’t going to eat away at your concrete.
The Many Other Ways
Of course, it goes without saying that the above methods aren’t the only ones that work. You’d be surprised at how many home deicing remedies have been created in a pinch. Personally speaking, if it keeps you from slipping on ice, than we’ll call that a win in our book. If you’ve found any additional recipes or deicing solutions that worked for you, feel free to leave a comment and share it with us!
