Snow shoveling 2026: I did it wrong

[Anonymous]

I grew up here too and remember a number of storms where we could walk on the layer of ice that formed on top of the snow. Made fantastic tunnels by clearing out the snow and leaving an icy roof.

I waited till today to clear because I knew there would be fluffy light snow beneath the ice. Shoveling yesterday was not the move.

[Anonymous]

OP I suggest following CWG, because they posted exact instructions on when to shovel and salt and it was very helpful for me. I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I waited til today to shovel out front walk and had to crack top layer, thankfully no deeper ice. It was heavy but took as long as it normally does for the depth. Unfortunately my car was street parked and the plow did me no favors. That might be there til May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never seen a storm like this in 60 years here. Sleet for 12 hours straight is not at all typical.

Agree.

Those people who say this is typical DC weather are simply wrong.

This is midwest weather, not DC weather or mid atlantic weather

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never seen a storm like this in 60 years here. Sleet for 12 hours straight is not at all typical.

Are you a climate change denier?

Are you talking to the climate change denier who thinks DC regularly gets sleet storms and ice storms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up here too and remember a number of storms where we could walk on the layer of ice that formed on top of the snow. Made fantastic tunnels by clearing out the snow and leaving an icy roof.

I waited till today to clear because I knew there would be fluffy light snow beneath the ice. Shoveling yesterday was not the move.

I did half and half and it was about the same, as long as I had ice melt today.

[Anonymous]

I didn't do any clearing until today and it was unpleasant but not totally horrendous. Our apartment complex clears the aisles of the parking lot but everyone has to dig their own cars out of the spaces. I ended up doing a lot of jumping up and down on the crust to break it up and then tossing/carrying big chunks away by hand.

I've never seen a storm like this where the stuff just stuck together in thick heavy slabs like this. It also kept sticking to my shovel so every time I scooped something up, I'd have to bang the shovel a few times to get all the clinging mess off. Doing it by hand was less annoying. It took me about an hour and a half and I was drenched with sweat afterwards but I'm not sure earlier repeated shoveling would have been any better.

[Anonymous]

You should have shoveled everything Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up here too and remember a number of storms where we could walk on the layer of ice that formed on top of the snow. Made fantastic tunnels by clearing out the snow and leaving an icy roof.

I waited till today to clear because I knew there would be fluffy light snow beneath the ice. Shoveling yesterday was not the move.

Oh yes! I have such great memories of digging out fluffy snow from under ice crusts and hiding under them. I sayed in my "igloo" all day (quite insulated once you are inside) and my mom brought out hot chocolate and sandwiches for me.

[Anonymous]

Snow plow pushed 2.5 feet of snow blocking our driveway. Took us an hour to clear half of it….gave up for the day. One car can get out.

For what it’s worth, we also used a gardening shovel to breakup the ice. Then a snow shovel to clear. That seemed to help, but it was so heavy that our snow shovel handle literally broke in half today.

[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

Don't salt before snow. Go out while still falling fluffy snow and shovel. This removes the bulk that will be heavy later. Once it starts sleet, put down a light layer of salt (you used WAY too much), and then shovel after 2 inches or so. Repeat. If there is some there when you wake up, put out a light layer of salt (get the colored kind, which increases the albedo for sun melting) and wait a few hours for the sun to do its work. Then shovel it off.

Also cover your front steps with towels or cardboard boxes that you can just pick up and drop the snow off.

[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

Yeah, this was the way. Sorry repeat shovelers. We shoveled our sidewalk twice on Sunday and woke up to an impenetrable glacier. It took an (already broken) garden shovel to hack our way through. Our driveway we did not bother with. On Monday it was fluffy snow with a layer of ice on top. Heavy and annoying to shovel, yes. But totally (like 10x more) doable. I will definitely wait to shovel if/when we have another snow-to-sleet event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Salt doesn't work when its really cold. But you were right to shovel multiple times. It would be even worse if you were trying to do it all at once. This amount of sleet/ice is just really hard to deal with. Its going to be a rough week with no melting.

You always need to shovel early and multiple times. Never wait until the snow has stopped unless it is going to warm up after the snow and you have 2" or less. When you know the temps will stay below freezing for days after, get out and shovel often during the snow.

[Anonymous]

I made the same mistake with salting -- I salted our (very long) driveway after the first time we cleared it on Sunday morning around 7:30 am. Then I was out of ice. We blew the driveway twice more though, and got it to basically pavement, and we are ok. I won't make the same mistake with salt again though.

Unfortunately, the older couple in their 80s up the road are stuck behind a driveway that is a big block of ice, too much for the road clearer with the bobcat that they paid, and we are heading up there in an hour or so to try to break it up with metal shovels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I made the same mistake with salting -- I salted our (very long) driveway after the first time we cleared it on Sunday morning around 7:30 am. Then I was out of ice. We blew the driveway twice more though, and got it to basically pavement, and we are ok. I won't make the same mistake with salt again though.

Unfortunately, the older couple in their 80s up the road are stuck behind a driveway that is a big block of ice, too much for the road clearer with the bobcat that they paid, and we are heading up there in an hour or so to try to break it up with metal shovels.

out of *salt, not ice, lol. We have plenty of that.