Is your business winter-ready?
Whether you clear your snow or hire someone to do it, you are responsible for the safety of others on your property. Because safety is number one, you reach for what has always worked – salt. However salt can create more problems than it solves. Salt can damage concrete, kill landscapes, destroy flooring and carpets. Most importantly, salt harms our community’s drinking water. And as we experience more extreme weather including freezing rain, the need for salt will increase.
Salt should never be your first or only line of defence to deal with snow and ice. Salt can be part of the answer, but using it correctly can protect you and our water.
- Follow a complete winter maintenance plan using this worksheet.
- Review your winter maintenance contract. Make sure your agreement includes salt training for anyone salting your property, access to the contractor's application records and a review of how you are billed for your salt. Salt charged by unit price per event or lump sum per season, instead of by unlimited use, ensures both a practical and economical use of salt.
- Close areas not required in winter such as outdoor patios, overflow parking and extra walkways and stairs. This can greatly reduce salt application without reducing access to your building.
- Stop stormwater and melted snow from freezing across paved areas. Redirect downspouts away from walkways and parking lots, fix leaky eaves troughs and place your snow pile on the lower section of the property near a storm basin.
- Have a plan for colder temperatures. Salt works best between 0 and -10 Celsius. How will you deal with the ice when it is too cold for salt to work?
- Order posters and window clings to promote winter safety to staff and visitors
Watch these videos for more ideas:
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