What should I use for ice control on masonry surfaces? That is a very common question we encounter. The best thing you can do is to be proactive and remove all snow and ice before it freezes to the surface of your pavers, brick or stone. That being said if you have ice on these surfaces the least harmful alternative is to use course sand for traction purposes which is sold in 50 pound bags.

If you have ice that needs to be melted there are three basic products that are most commonly used, Sodium Chloride (rock salt), Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride. The Calcium and Magnesium products are sold in a flake or a pellet version. The most reasonably priced product is the rock salt but it also does the most damage to concrete surfaces. Below is a list of the cumulative weight of concrete lost due to scaling (in grams) after five freeze/thaw cycles.

Sodium Chloride      40.6

Calcium Chloride     25.7

Magnesium Chloride  1.2

Also something to consider is the range of effective melting temperatures. Rock Salt is only effective up to 20 degrees F, Calcium to minus 25 degrees F and Magnesium to minus 13 degrees F. So consider how cold it will get during the night when choosing which product to use.

All technical data was obtained from the Dead Sea Works.