How To Melt Snow Faster Around Your Home
2020-12-18(29130)
A lot of people start looking for ways on how to melt snow during the winter months. When winter comes around, it brings snowfall. And although it may sound cozy and nice, snow can easily turn into an inconvenience, which brings obstacles to daily life. Especially if it is particularly an icy/snowy season, snow may pile up around rather quickly.
The huge piles of snow around houses may have been pushed there by snowplows which are often used to clear out the roadways. Or it may be just a harsh winter. Whatever the reason behind it, you should clean the snow around your home, both to continue daily life and for safety reasons.
So, before you pick up your shovel to dig your way out, read this guide to learn how to melt snow faster around your home.
How To Melt Snow Fast: Tips To Use Around Your Home
Piled up snow can block driveways, garage entrances, and gardens. As well as being a nuisance, this situation may also cause injuries if you do not take any precautions. Luckily, there are several methods for melting snow.
As Koyuncu Salt, Turkey’s largest salt exporter, we have prepared a guide for you to learn how to melt snow faster around houses. Let’s take a look at snow melting methods with salt and salt alternatives.
Melting Snow Around Your Home with Salt
1. Sprinkle Water Softener Salt
Water softener salts can be used as a cost-effective solution to melt snow. Compared to other snow melting products, water softener salt is cheaper and can be found easily at hardware stores. The best side of this type of salt is that it does not corrode asphalt which makes it excellent for driveways and garage entrances.
● Note that you should not use water softener salt pellets if you have pets.
2. Use Deicer Salt
Our second tip on how to melt snow faster is using deicer salts which makes an exact solution to such problems. Deicer salt, also known as road salt, lowers the temperature of snow and ice. This way, it melts the snow and ice quickly, which builds up in gardens and garage entrances.
Koyuncu Salt produces and makes deicing salt export both for road maintenance and home use in high-quality.
Rock salt is one of the most traditional snow melting methods out there. It is cheap and effective. However, it has a downside of harming plants. You can use a bag of rock salt to melt the snow around your home. It is often easily found in any hardware store although when there is a snow storm warning in the forecast, stores may run out of rock salt.
In that case, you should stock and store salt beforehand. Just make sure you know how to store salt, especially if you plan to store it for a long time. If you cannot find rock salt, you may try its alternatives.
Check out our article, “10 Rock Salt Alternatives You Should Consider” to find the best options.
4. Apply Pet-Safe Pellets
People who have pets can use pet-safe pellets instead of water softener salts. Spread a few handfuls of pet-safe pellets onto the snow around your house. While these are more expensive compared to other snow melting products, they are safer for pets’ feet and fur.
How To Melt Snow with Salt Alternatives
Even though salts are the most effective ways to melt snow faster, there are other alternatives as well. Here are some alternative solutions on how to melt snow that piles up around your house:
1. Use Hot Water
Using hot water is probably the easiest way to melt snow. Spray hot water on the snow with a hose to melt it down. Note that it is not a long-lasting solution. This is why you need to cover the ground with sand or any ice-melter mixture to prevent the puddle from freezing. Otherwise, you would get rid of snow but end up with slippery icy ground which is extremely dangerous.
2. Try Covering Driveways with Plastic Tarps
Having a garage driveway that is icy and covered with snow hinders cars from entering or exiting which can be quite troublesome to daily activities. In such cases, it is best to take precautions before the snowstorm hits. Cover your driveways with plastic tarps before snowfall.
This way, snow will pile up on the plastic tarp, allowing you to shovel snow easily off the tarp afterward. If the snow height is only 1-2 inches (2.5-5.1 cm,) then it can be simply pushed off the tarp. Notice that you should ensure your car is in the garage before you do that. Do not cover your car with a plastic tarp as it may damage the car.
3. Pour Leftover Coffee Grounds
Leftover coffee grounds are both pet-safe and effective in melting snow. The nitrogen and acids in coffee grounds help them melt the snow. After shoveling the snow off your garden or driveways, scatter the coffee grounds or you may also sprinkle them before the snowfall. They can be used to create extra friction on icy grounds as well.
4. Prepare A Dish Soap, Water, Rubbing Alcohol Mixture
It is possible to prepare a homemade snow melter mixture. Fill a bucket with approximately 0.50 US gal (1.9 liters) of water. You can use hot tap water for it. Then, add 1 tablespoon of the dishwasher and 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol into the water. Stir the mixture for 5 minutes.
Once the mixture is ready, take the bucket outside and spread it across the snow. Check how much of the snow melted in 15 minutes. It may take 3 to 4 times of preparing the same mixture again to melt all the snow around your house. It is cheap and effective while it takes longer to get rid of the snow piles.
How Long Does It Take For Snow To Melt?
Now that you know how to melt snow fast around houses, we can touch upon another popular question: How long does it take for snow to melt? There is no one single clear answer to that question. Snow melting depends on primary and secondary factors.
Primary Snow Melting Factors
● Air temperature
● The sun
Secondary Snow Melting Factors
● The density of the snow
● Wind
● Rain
● Heat absorption properties of the ground (rock, asphalt, soil, etc.)
● The angle of the sun
Be Prepared Before The Snowfall
We have covered different methods on how to melt snow and the influences on the snow melting process. Lastly, we can suggest that It is best to be prepared before the snowfall so that you do not encounter any problems in finding deicers and other snow melting options.
