What You Need to Know About Commercial Snow Removal

EDITOR'Southward Note: This article was revised in August 2019 with updated content based on additional presentations and new source materials.

Snowfall and water ice direction professionals tin can decrease the fourth dimension and cost of their operations by anti-icing — the application of liquid ice-melting materials to pavement before a storm hits, said Dale Keep, president, Ice & Snowfall Technologies, a consulting firm based in Walla Walla, Launder.

"The power of liquids is unbelievable once you understand them," said Go along, who for 26 years worked with the Washington Country Department of Transportation and spent iv years advising the federal highway arrangement on deicing issues. Keep is at present a individual consultant, who advises various public transportation authorities and private contractors.

Liquids aren't the only tool in the toolbox when it comes to deicing, Keep says. "It may be 1 of the best, only it'southward not the only ane for every situation," he says. "Know when to use it and when to put it away."

Keep provides numerous points for snow and water ice professionals to consider regarding liquid deicers:

Liquid Anti-icing Requires Less Material
Because rock salt rests on the pavement surface, it can be knocked off pavement past vehicle traffic. For example, studies show that traffic from as few as five cars tin knock off 80 percentage of solid ice-melting material, i.due east. sand or rock common salt.

In contrast, liquid ice-fighting materials penetrate the pores of road surfaces and therefore are not disturbed past vehicle traffic. As result, typically less material is required to melt ice, thus reducing the costs of a contractor'southward operations.

Some professional person estimates link liquid utilise with a 64% reduction in both material and labor costs.

Applying ice-melting chemicals before a storm hits, called anti-icing, is more effective at melting water ice than applying an water ice-melting material after a tempest hits and a layer of ice has already formed. As a consequence, less cloth can be used, which will save the contractor money and time.

Further, because the materials penetrate the road surface, liquid ice-melting chemicals have a residual life within the pavement. In other words, if you apply a liquid ice-melting material before an predictable storm and the tempest never hits, the liquid volition stay in the pavement set to melt ice from the side by side storm. Be aware, notwithstanding, that h2o will launder the liquid from the pavement, so if it rains, you'll lose the material yous applied.

The Key Is Cost, Non Price
The initial purchase price of liquid ice-fighting chemicals tends to be much more than than bulk rock salt. Nonetheless, when contractors wait at the large flick of ice operations, such as total vehicle drive fourth dimension and related expenses, storage requirements and level of service, they oft find liquids to be more cost constructive.

Anti-icing Saves Plowing Fourth dimension
Because anti-icing involves applying liquids or granular salt before a snow event, the chemicals prevent a bond from forming between the pavement and snow. As a result, snowfall can exist plowed easier and more quickly. Go along said plow fourth dimension could be reduced by as much every bit five times.

To accomplish this, contractors are using betwixt 30 and 40 gallons of 23.3% liquid common salt alkali (2.1 lbs salt/gal) per acre (equivalent to one lane mile, eight feet wide) of parking surface. Depending on weather and pavement conditions, a higher rate may be required afterwards  storm hits.

Liquids Are Not A Magic Bullet
Despite the benefits of anti-icing with liquid chemicals, the materials still represent just a slice of the total snowfall-fighting puzzle. "One tool is non best for everything. Liquid anti-icing is a powerful tool, simply it's not a magic bullet," Keep said. "Both anti-icing and traditional de-icing volition be needed for effective and efficient total storm management."

Liquid Materials Require Knowledge and Experience.
All the benefits associated with anti-icing and the use of liquid water ice-melting materials can be rendered void if the product is used improperly. All the materials have different windows of temperature and concentration when they are most constructive. If you use the production outside of this performance window, y'all won't get the results and you'll end upwardly wasting time and money. Tables, called freeze bespeak curves, are available that demonstrate at what temperatures and concentrations diverse ice-melting chemicals will work. Manufacturers can supply contractors with these performance tables.

Further, equally the textile melts water ice into water, the concentration of chemical in the water will become diluted. This dilution changes the effectiveness of the material. Simply with the knowledge of the functioning curve of the cloth being used tin can contractors adapt to this alter and respond accordingly.

Employ Basis Temperature
When working with ice-melting materials, knowing the temperature of the pavement on which the material will exist used is the key to proper use, not the air temperature. As a effect, contractors should use hand-held or truck-mounted infrared thermometers, which can measure basis temperature.

Document and Acquire
The but way to gain experience with liquid anti-icing is to try it on a small scale and then learn from successive applications.

To accomplish this, document your ice melting activities and their effectiveness. Go along recommends noting the post-obit items in a log, each time you make a visit to an account:

• Air and ground temperature
• Application rate being used
• The ice-melting product existence applied
• The results of the application. For example, upon return to the site do you find bare pavement, semi-bare pavement or do you still notice a buildup of ice?

Monitoring the results of different applications tin aid you fine-tune your anti-icing efforts, resulting in more efficient operations.

Change Your Contracts To Fit
For contractors who bill customers per-hr or past the amount of salt used, increasing efficiency by anti-icing with liquid materials would mean an initial loss in revenue. Not a good thing.

Withal, being more than efficient ways contractors tin save overall expenses and detect the time to fit in more customers, meaning more than revenue and more profit.

As a result, contractors should consider changing their contracts to fit anti-icing efforts, such as billing clients on a seasonal or per-occurrence basis. Proceed worked with one contractor, who after seeing the benefits of anti-icing, went back to a client and asked the customer to alter from their hourly billing method to a seasonal fee. Because of the efficiency of anti-icing, the contractor was able to reduce the overall toll to his customer, simply at the aforementioned time increase his profit from the job.

"You lot demand to determine when information technology is to your benefit," Continue said. "It is an economic decision that should be made past you lot and your company."

Client Education Needed
Anti-icing with liquid materials requires customer teaching. Most customers are accepted to seeing a contractor apply salt afterward a tempest hits. The customer, in fact, frequently judges the contractor's worth by the amount of common salt he sees on the ground at his facility.

With liquid materials, there is no prove that a contractor has visited the account because the liquid penetrates the pores of the surface and leaves little to no residuum. Further, some customers are suspicious of anti-icing. A customer might ask, "Why are you servicing my lot when information technology hasn't fifty-fifty begun to snow however?"

Accordingly, before moving to anti-icing with liquid materials, contractors must explain the alter to customers, how liquid anti-icing works and demonstrate the effectiveness of liquids. Some contractors have offered a onetime trial to customers to prove their point.

Ask For The Information
When evaluating unlike ice-melting materials ask the manufacturer for all the relevant production functioning information. "If you don't become it, there'southward probably a reason," Keep said.

The author of the original 2003 article was Steve Smith managing editor, Snow Business organisation Mag, which at that fourth dimension was a GIE Media title. The article is based on a presentation past Dale Go on, who had spoken to nearly 50 contractors Aug. 5, 2003 during Snow & Ice Command Chemicals Theory & Practice, a one-day training event in Cleveland, organized by the Snow & Ice Management Association. The event was part of a series of seminars also held in Chicago and Newark, Due north.J. and sponsored past Northward American Table salt and Monroe Snow & Ice Equipment.

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Source: https://www.snowmagazineonline.com/article/10-things-to-know-about-liquid-deicers/

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