SALT USAGE

[OBRYANMAINT]

I MAY BE SPLITTING HAIRS HERE BUT DOES ANY ONE SALT A LOCATION TO MAXIMIZE THEIR SNOW REMOVAL EFFORTS?

EXAMPLE
ITS SNOWING SLOW BUT YOU NEED ANOTHER TRUCK TO FINISH THE ROUTE DO YOU START EARLY AND SALT A LOCATION TO KEEP SNOW FROM ACCUMULATING BEFORE THE EMPLOYEES START ARRIVING,REMEMBER THIS LOCATION DID NOT ASK FOR SALT AND WILL NOT PAY FOR IT BUT YOU CAN GET MORE OUT OF ONE TRUCK THEN YOU WOULD HAVE BY STARTING LATER

[Chuck Smith]

You'll get a lot of different replies on this one. I know it's a hypothetical situation, but if it's snowing that light, what good is a truck at another location? Wouldn't the other location have the same amount of snow? I know it may give you more time to get back to that location, but it also can backfire. Make you look bad, like all you did was salt a little and go.

On another note, it's basically what is done on roads, the salt forms a "brine" that stops the snow from bonding to the pavement. It makes plowing easier. No hardpack to scrape up after all those "employees" drive on it. One application won't last too long though. Then again, for "free" is another story. We have done this in the past, but only on walks, and at high traffic accounts, like 7 - 11 type places. We salt when the snow starts, to stop all the accumulation we can. And yes, if they only want to pay for salt, then we salt the walks, and add a disclaimer about salt damage to the walks. Never salted for free.

We also did this when I worked at a local high school, if it started snowing while school was in session. We didn't do any clearing while the building was occupied. We had an "OK" to call in the crew only once per storm, which was always after it stopped. So we would apply salt as needed to keep the walks snow and ice free. Yes, they used salt on the walks too, the tightwads. They'd rather pay for new sidewalks every 5 - 10 years than pay for calcium.

~Chuck

[plowking35]

Yes I would salt the lot for safe traffic flow and to eleviate hard pack. One side benifit may be, that all you get is 1-2" of snow, and you melt it all. Then you would be able to charge for removing that amount of snow. In my contracts it doesnt say how I will remove it, just that I will.
Dino

[n y snow pros]

Absolutly most definitely yes,even for those who dont pay extra.We spread Magic salt and for a small storm the plows rarely go out because the Magic melts and stays melted.I agree with Chuck if you just do this process with regular salt you should wiegh the pros and cons here because salt alone will not give you a very long melt time,where the snow stays melted long enough for you to get back to the site and plow or clean up etc.But when you add Magic to the salt that melt time or slushy loose snow will continue roughly 3 to 8 hours given different types of snow storms.Its cheaper for us to send out 2 sanders than 6 plows.

[OBRYANMAINT]

thanks john thats what i thought as well but wanted to test the water more