Ice Melt for Maintaining your Hardscape Patio

Ice Melt for Maintaining your Hardscape Patio

Fall is fading into winter and the focus as a home or business owner changes from sweeping dust to shoveling away snow and ice from your dream hardscape patios, walkways, sidewalks, paver driveways, and parking lots. We all know that shoveling away snow or ice is not enough to remove the hazards of a nasty fall and a potential lawsuit on your Hardscape Patio. Underneath the snow, typically, is a thin and dangerous layer of ice that requires ice melt to complete the deicing process of the surface.

Although maintaining an ice-free surface on your hardscape patio is important, it is also important to use ice melt products that will NOT harm your lovely hardscape patio investment! Read on to learn about Maintaining Your Hardscape Patio during the cold winter months by using the right Ice Melt. You will keep you and your friends safe while doing more to keep the Hardscape Patio in good shape and ice-free at the same time.

Table of Content

• What Causes Hardscape Patio Deterioration?
• Maintaining Your Hardscape Patio During The Winter
• What is the Right Ice Melt For My Hardscape Patio?
• Ice Melt Products To Protect Your Hardscape Patio
• American Rock Salt for Your Hardscape Patio
• Buy Your Ice Melt For The Hardscape Patio

What Causes Hardscape Patio Deterioration?

Any hardscape project is an investment that needs to be protected. Water that lies on your hardscape patio during the winter months can cause problems in several ways. First, it might freeze at night, thus leaving an ice cover on the patio for anyone to slip and fall on. Next, melting ice can cause damage to your hardscape project due to the ice freeze and thaw cycles. As the ice and snowmelt, it becomes salt water. The water then seeps down through any crevice on the surface and freezes. When the water freezes, it expands and forces the crevice to become even larger. Eventually, the surface gets huge cracks and suffers tremendous deterioration.

To make matters worse, water mixed with salt can cause even more problems when it reaches the cracks in the hardscape patio and freezes. Most ice melt products contain salt. As a result of the deicing process, the salt mixes with the water. This is undesirable because saltwater can expand 40% more than non-salt water! The wrong blend of ice melt for maintaining your hardscape patio can be harmful to pavers and any other concrete surfaces.

Maintaining Your Hardscape Patio During the Winter

All of these highlight the importance of using the right ice melt to ensure a longer paver life and an enduring paver patio beauty. Most deicers on the market are manufactured with at least one and up to five chemicals. Thus, they contain one or more of the following chemicals: calcium chloride, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, and urea. The predominant ingredient determines how quickly the deicer melts the ice. For maintaining your hardscape patio, it is important to choose your ice melt product in light of the intensity of the winter temperature.

What is the right Ice Melt for my Hardscape Patio?

As Sauders, we recommend a blended ice melt product for use on pavers and concrete surfaces. The mix of different chemicals works in temperatures as low as -25 degrees. Some products even have a distinctive bright color to help you see where the deicer has been applied. This helps to avoid over-application of the deicer and saves you money.

Warning: Ingesting snow or ice that has been treated with deicers is harmful to children and pets. Always be aware and keep children and pets safe when they are playing outside!

Ice Melt Products to Protect Your Hardscape Patio

Sauder’s Hardscape Supply carries two brands of Ice Melt. First, we offer the Mr. Magic ice melt, a unique blend of all five ingredients previously mentioned. This product works faster and at lower temperatures. It melts more snow and ice than most other products, and It is safer for children. Plus, it is environmentally safer for plants and pets. It works faster than other ice melt products and is safer to use on patio pavers and other properly cured and air-entrained concrete surfaces in residential and commercial properties.

The unique safety orange color coating assures visible, complete coverage when applied as directed. Mr. Magic is safe for the environment, plants, and pets. It is safe for use on concrete and brick and works faster than rock salt. Mr. Magic is great for use in residential and commercial properties.

American Rock Salt for your Hardscape Patio

American Rock Salt is another product that we offer to our customers. It is easy to apply, has a fast and superior ice melting power, and is safer to use over most surfaces ranging from blacktop, wood surfaces, stone, gravel, and properly cured air-entrained concrete surfaces. It can be used in both residential and commercial properties.

American Rock Salt Halite begins melting ice quickly and keeps melting it for an extended period of time. This is made possible through multiple-sized crystals. The smallest crystals dissolve quickly, while the larger crystals last longer, reducing the amount of rock salt needed to get the job done.
American Rock Salt is easy to apply and is available in 50 lb. bags.

Buy Your Ice Melt for the Hardscape Patio from Sauder’s Hardscape in PA

Typically, the price of ice melt products is set by their performance under lower temperatures. It is important to find the product that best suits your needs. Protect the investment and integrity of your hardscape pavements by using the right ice melt product for maintaining your hardscape patio. Give us a call with any questions you might have about ice melt products. We are ready to help you