Snow shoveling 2026: I did it wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was no win-win for this one, OP.

Here's the gist:

1. Use the appropriate salt chemical for appropriate temperatures. It's too cold for pet-friendly crystals You have to use sodium chloride, effective until 15F (and we're mostly at that temp), or the more toxic calcium chloride (effective until well below 0F). You can use coarse sand for traction.

2. If more than a couple of inches are in the forecast, you never salt beforehand, since salt cannot melt tons of snow. You salt right after shoveling, and by shoveling, I mean when you hit pavement, so they don't become icy when snow melt refreezes.

3. When conditions are difficult like yesterday, it's better to shovel a little portion at a time and salt that, before going on to the next portion.

4. But here precipitation lasted 20hrs or so, with fast accumulation at times. If you went out at the wrong time, it was impossible to get to bare pavement and salt.

5. So you need to adapt to the event you have, carefully listen to last minute forecasts by actual met offices (not random influencers on social media) and have a stock of everything early in winter just in case.

6. For this storm, many chose not to shovel at all. If you know you need to get out right after the storm, you park your car at the very edge of your driveway, shovel what you can, salt if you get to bare pavement, or put down sand, and don't forget to clean the roof of your car. If you have sidewalks, you must legally clear them, but lots of people don't.

#6 would never work because the plow would either demolish your car or plow a wall of snow and ice right up to it

Yep they did to a house with an elderly neighbor, blocked in in the driveway. Most jurisdictions give people up to 24-48hrs after last snowfall to clear walking areas. Last snowfall for most of DMV was around 9pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was no win-win for this one, OP.

Here's the gist:

1. Use the appropriate salt chemical for appropriate temperatures. It's too cold for pet-friendly crystals You have to use sodium chloride, effective until 15F (and we're mostly at that temp), or the more toxic calcium chloride (effective until well below 0F). You can use coarse sand for traction.

2. If more than a couple of inches are in the forecast, you never salt beforehand, since salt cannot melt tons of snow. You salt right after shoveling, and by shoveling, I mean when you hit pavement, so they don't become icy when snow melt refreezes.

3. When conditions are difficult like yesterday, it's better to shovel a little portion at a time and salt that, before going on to the next portion.

4. But here precipitation lasted 20hrs or so, with fast accumulation at times. If you went out at the wrong time, it was impossible to get to bare pavement and salt.

5. So you need to adapt to the event you have, carefully listen to last minute forecasts by actual met offices (not random influencers on social media) and have a stock of everything early in winter just in case.

6. For this storm, many chose not to shovel at all. If you know you need to get out right after the storm, you park your car at the very edge of your driveway, shovel what you can, salt if you get to bare pavement, or put down sand, and don't forget to clean the roof of your car. If you have sidewalks, you must legally clear them, but lots of people don't.

#6 would never work because the plow would either demolish your car or plow a wall of snow and ice right up to it

PP you replied to. I meant at the edge of the private property, since I'm in a neighborhood with sidewalks. So there's no risk of a plow walling up the car. This is what most of us do in my neighborhood and it saves us from having to shovel too much driveway.

[Anonymous]

I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

[Anonymous]

OP. Ok! I feel much better. Thanks fellow snow shoveling coffee drinkers! (Esp to the folks pointing out the temperature-specificity of the different ice melting products. That’s some advanced player knowledge).

[Anonymous]

I shoveled all day yesterday and then had two inches of ice fused to the concrete this morning. But, with ice melt and 20 minutes, it shovels away pretty easily.

I don’t think there’s an ideal process but I really needed the chemicals today which usually I try not to use. If I had left more snow underneath I don’t think I would have needed any ice melt.

[Anonymous]

Thus ice is testing me

[Anonymous]

We didn't bother with ice melt/salt until after we shoveled. We also shoveled three times:

Once early Sunday as the snow turned to sleet, once in the afternoon to get a layer of sleet, and once quickly late at night to clear out a path from our front door to the street. That's where we salted and it was clean this morning. We'll have to get the rest of our driveway again at some point, but we can get our SUVs out if we need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got back in after chopping/shoveling my walkway/steps, which were totally covered by thick/hard snow. This was my third time shoveling. I did this totally wrong and am annoyed:

Bought two 25-lb bags of snow melt on Thursday. Salted steps, sidewalk, back deck Friday night. Snow starts overnight Sat. Sunday morning shoveled/cleared all areas. Salted again. Went out and did a mini-shovel Sun afternoon. Woke up this morning and it’s like I never touched anything, which is just accumulation, I get. But the snowpack this morning was so hard I had to chop through it with my shovel to break it up to shovel. I’m also now out of salt.

Did I prep too early? I’m a new homeowner fwiw so help me do this better next year! Thank you!

- Now inside and grumbling into my coffee

New Englander here. When the sleet comes down like it did during this storm, followed by cold temps like this, there’s not much you CAN do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

My husband JUST said this would have been the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

My husband JUST said this would have been the way to go.

This is what we did. Needed a heavier shovel to cut through the ice layer but it lifted away easily and the snow underneath was still light and fluffy. The sun is drying it out now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

My husband JUST said this would have been the way to go.

This is what we did. Needed a heavier shovel to cut through the ice layer but it lifted away easily and the snow underneath was still light and fluffy. The sun is drying it out now.

My husband used his gardening shovel this morning. It's heavy with a cutting edge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

My husband JUST said this would have been the way to go.

This is what we did. Needed a heavier shovel to cut through the ice layer but it lifted away easily and the snow underneath was still light and fluffy. The sun is drying it out now.

My husband used his gardening shovel this morning. It's heavy with a cutting edge.

Why that fool do that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I shoveled for the first time this morning. It was a breeze. Break up the crust with feet or shovel, lift away with fluffy snow underneath. Reminded me of cutting a cake with thick fondant. The sun is already melting where I shoveled so no need for sand, salt, or anything

My husband JUST said this would have been the way to go.

This is what we did. Needed a heavier shovel to cut through the ice layer but it lifted away easily and the snow underneath was still light and fluffy. The sun is drying it out now.

My husband used his gardening shovel this morning. It's heavy with a cutting edge.

Why that fool do that

DP but there's like 3 inches of solid ice on my driveway

[Anonymous]

Salting first is good because it softens the snow/ice above it for easier shoveling.

[Anonymous]

OP, I shoveled five times yesterday. The big shovel at 9-10 just after the main snow stopped and just as it started to sleet. The snow was soft and powdery so it was easy to remove. Then I went out every 2-3 hours to clear up. It was mostly scraping the sleet aside. Did this for sidewalks and around cars. Last shoveling was at 7:00. Only took 15 minutes.

My neighbors who let sleet accumulate dealt with much heavier snow than I ever did.