When snowstorms hit Middle Tennessee, they hit hard. As a home or business owner, you may not have the right tools to handle the impact on your property, but freezing rain, sleet, or overnight snowfall can turn your pavers, patios, and walkways into slick safety hazards.
De-icing these areas protects family, friends, visitors, and customers from slipping and falling on your home or business property after a snowfall; however, preserving your pavers and custom hardscape features should also be considered when choosing your de-icing solutions. The wrong approach can erode your pavers’ beauty and structural integrity, leading to irreversible damage that requires costly replacement.
At Landscape Solutions, our de-icing services for businesses and homes ensure your hardscape is both safe and safeguarded against winter’s worst. From custom-tailored de-icing treatments to professional sealing and advanced heating systems, our hardscaping contractors bring years of expertise to property maintenance, and we encourage you to contact your team for safe, effective de-icing solutions best suited to your property.
Don’t Be Tempted to Reach for the Rock Salt
Most people believe rock salt is the best way to eliminate ice from their properties. While rock salt is effective and relatively inexpensive, it’s also one of the most destructive substances you can apply to natural stone and pavers.
When rock salt meets ice, it dissolves the water layer on the ice, creating a sodium chloride brine. Over time, this salt slurry will cause pavers and other hardscaping elements to spall (flake), pit, bleach, and form a residue that will haunt you year after year. In a climate like Nashville’s with its repeated freeze-thaw cycles, it only takes a few winters of heavy salting to degrade joint sand, cause shifting, and result in uneven surfaces.
At Landscape Solutions, we offer a range of de-icing strategies designed to protect (not degrade) Nashville hardscapes.
Magnesium chloride (MC), for example, is an effective salting strategy that is also safe for pets (although it can be toxic for pets with kidney disease, which should be discussed with your contractor). MC can also perform double duty as a fertilizer. MC is often used in conjunction with calcium chloride, which has a lower melting point, making it especially effective at colder temperatures.
Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA), while not recommended for concrete, can also be a worthy de-icing solution for pavers and natural stones, as can potassium chloride, which is considered safe for pets and demonstrates lower corrosive properties than other salts.
Additional Approaches to De-Icing
The best way to protect your property’s natural stone, concrete, and pavers is to keep ice from forming in the first place. Shoveling snow from your walkways and sidewalks once or twice a day can help prevent ice from forming. Using a plastic- or rubber-edged shovel, you can lift snow away without damaging delicate surfaces.
Snow blowers and leaf blowers can also be just as effective, provided ice has not already formed.
A simple way to prevent snow and ice from causing slips and injuries is to create traction through friction. You can accomplish this with a light sprinkling of sand or even biodegradable kitty litter across your walkways, pathways, and driveways. While these materials don’t melt ice, they do form a barrier between footwear and slick snowy surfaces.
Not in possession of biodegradable kitty litter or bags of sand? Alternative options that perform just as effectively include gravel, wood chips, and straw. All these strategies can prevent winter conditions from becoming a safety hazard without risking damage to your hardscape or paver investment.
For extra peace of mind, we can discuss adding a professional sealer to your pavers. Sealers reduce porousness and create a hydrophobic surface that prevents water and salt from penetrating. This allows ice and snow to release more easily from the surface, making it gentler on your pavers and reducing the need for aggressive de-icing solutions.
To retain the matte look of your pavers, we recommend choosing penetrating silanes/siloxanes sealers over film-forming acrylics, although these materials are just as effective.
For the ultimate in ice prevention, you can invest in an underground snow-melting system, such as electric or hydronic mechanisms. Both approaches are designed to prevent ice from forming through embedded heating elements, offering an automatic, salt-free strategy you can always rely on.
Why Professional De-Icing Is Your Best Choice
Many homeowners invest in high-end pavers for their beauty and durability. De-icing compounds formulated with high concentrations of sodium can cause significant damage if used improperly or if the wrong compounds are selected. This is the central reason why we recommend a professional approach to de-icing the surfaces around your home or business.
Professional de-icing services ensure you benefit from:
- A mindful application of the correct de-icing compounds.
- Proper surface preparation and sealing.
- Safe and effective snow and ice removal.
- Ongoing maintenance while you’re tending to your daily obligations.
An important issue to bear in mind during heavy snowfall is Tennessee law regarding home and business owners’ responsibilities for property care. In Tennessee, property owners have a legal obligation to address potential slip-and-fall hazards within a reasonable time after a storm.
While you’re not expected to be on standby with a shovel 24/7 (the law considers this), if a hazard is predictable based on weather forecasts and your property’s history (e.g., a specific area that always freezes over), the onus is on you to manage these areas effectively (and on those walking around your home or business to be wearing the appropriate footwear).
When you’re busy with work and other activities away from home, having our team on the case, ridding high-traffic areas of dangerous ice patches, can be a priceless comfort.
Choose Landscape Solutions for a Higher Standard of Winter Care
Whether your property features a limestone courtyard, a stone terrace overlooking the hills, or a winding garden path, accumulated ice can lead to a series of frustrations and safety hazards. Our hardscaping contractors understand this and are here to help you preserve your property’s design and hardscape landscaping.
From pre-winter sealing to professional salting and property care solutions, Landscape Solutions takes a holistic approach to maintaining your outdoor areas so they look and perform like new, season after season.
Get in touch with Landscape Solutions today for your free consultation.