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Best way to get rid of thick ice on steps/sidewalks?
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Anonymous
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Our post-lady just complained about the ice on our steps & I don't blame her. I've thrown some salt on it but it's not making a dent (I have something like little round balls/pellets which are meant to work well according to the packet). Should I throw warm water on it and then lay down the de-icer again? Or use table salt? Or just chip away at it (I can't seem to make a dent at all with a shovel). Our side of the street is not getting the sun at all today.
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Anonymous
| If you can't wait for the salt to work, you should really throw sand on it. Ice takes time to melt and a lot of the work is done by the sun. The other thing you can do is buy a scraper from the hardware store. It looks like a hoe, but it's straight instead of bent over. You can chop and also scrape under the ice to lift it up. |
Anonymous
| Also, shoveling early and shoveling all the way to the pavement helps. It takes longer once everything is packed down. |
Anonymous
OP here - yes, DH always does a half-hearted job. I wish he'd just leave it to me ... ! |
Anonymous
| Sometimes chopping with the edge of the shovel works, then removing piece by piece. |
Anonymous
| why not hot water? |
Anonymous
| I use an edging tool and chop it and scrape it up. We get a bit of water collecting at the end of our driveway and I have to chop the ice up. My mailman took a spill on the sidewalk once while I was out there and I felt sick about it. |
Anonymous
because it would just freeze and turn into more ice |
Anonymous
| In the morning, I sprinkled salt on the ice. Then in the afternoon once the sun had melted it a little, I used a real (garden, not snow) shovel and really hacked at it - I used my foot to jam the shovel into the ice, trying to get in under an edge. |
Anonymous
And really glassy ice with no traction, and probably wet on top, and hard to see. The worst kind of ice is from meltwater refreezing. |
Anonymous
| be generous with the ice melt and after giving it a couple of hours to work go out there and hack away at what you can, then reapply generously and repeat. |
Anonymous
Pour the hot water in the daytime when the sun is up, and it won't refreeze. I did this yesterday, and it worked great. |
Anonymous
| Can you get one of those metal ice pick things? They work great. Chop up the ice and shove it off. |
Anonymous
| One of those old-fashioned, metal, short-handled shovels can break up thick ice (if you drop it front edge first on the ice, from above), and then the shovel can also get under the ice and lift it up. The previous owners of our house, an elderly couple, left one of these behind. It's been the unsung hero of our week. Our neighbors have asked repeatedly to borrow it! |
Anonymous
| hair dryer |