# Calculating Salt?



## Mitragorz

First year on my own, just trying to get my costs in line. 

What's the general rule-of-thumb that you guys use for salt, per sq foot? I'm looking at doing just residential driveways for now. I'm trying to get my hands on a tailgate spreader, but will likely be using a walk-behind for a while. 

For a typical 2 car x 3 car driveway, how much salt should I be looking at throwing down? I know guys charge per pound, but I just can't see myself trying to calculate how much salt is going through... Unless I keep all my salt in cups, measured one pound, and keep track of how many I go through, lol. Do you just go by the sq footage of the driveway? Again, what's the general usage of salt per sq foot?

There's got to be an easier system than measuring individial cups 

EDIT: I've also never run a salter before, so I'm not sure what too little vs just right vs too much looks like. I'm sure that's going to be a whole 'nother debacle when I get a spreader, trying to gauge what I'm putting out...


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## Bossman 92

2 Things

1) you will get better results in the ice management area 

2) use the search function

Not being an a$$ but this topic has been beat to death. You will learn alot if you just take the time to look


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## Mitragorz

Bossman 92;1673455 said:


> 2 Things
> 
> 1) you will get better results in the ice management area
> 
> 2) use the search function
> 
> Not being an a$$ but this topic has been beat to death. You will learn alot if you just take the time to look


1) I'll repost it in the ice management section.

2) I did search. I found a lot of threads about bulk salt, pricing big commercial lots with big trucks and spreaders, pricing per job with no real explanation of how they got to a price to charge, and lots of people talking specifically about non-tailgate spreaders.

For example:

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=149839&highlight=charge+salt
Lots of numbers being thrown around, with no explanation to how they were reached.

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=149968&highlight=charge+salt
People talking about what they charge for a bag. Again, I don't know how far a bag of salt goes, so this doesn't help me.

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=149628&highlight=charge+salt
Again, people saying what they charge per salt app. How do they reach those numbers?

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=149620&highlight=charge+salt
This guy's asking what to charge for using somebody else's salt in his spreader.

And that's after I sort through the dozens of "Show your truck!", "*STATE* Ice Thread", and "What do you think about this truck?" threads, and any other thread that passively has the word "ice", "salt", "spreader", "cost", "driveway", or "price" in it.

That's just for the most recent search terms. I can keep giving examples of threads that don't answer my question.

I hope that you understand why I started this thread. It's not because I'm lazy, it's because I couldn't find what I was looking for. Yes, even after searching half-a-dozen different terms. I learn a lot when I can find what I' m looking for. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to determine salt pricing. I don't care about the old Chevy dump body that someone thought about picking up last month, or what the weather's like in Minnesota.


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## BossPlowMaster

It is actually a tough thing to talk about because of the different types of deicing material. Are you talking just about halite (Rock salt) or are you talking about a deicing compound of calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, ect.? Depending on what material you are using is going to give you different spread ratios. Keep in mind that halite is super damaging to both the concrete and to landscaping. Let me know what you are planning on using and I will try and help you out on figuring out spread ratio.


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## Mitragorz

I was just planning on picking of bags of regular rock salt from Home Depot. This stuff specifically:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-50-lb-Rock-Salt-Bag-4664/202523041

Lots of concrete drives around here, so do you think this would be a better option?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-40-lb-Granular-Ice-Melt-Blend-40B-RR/202353199

I knew that salt was bad for landscaping, didn't know about the concrete though.

Also, I went and started a thread over in Ice Management, if you feel like answering over there instead.

http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=150322

Thanks!


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## grandview

HD salt is over priced. What you could do is base you price on full bags per drive per season and bill it that way. So say your going to use 2,3,4,5,6,7 bags just bill a minimum amount of bags for the season.


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## BossPlowMaster

Mitragorz;1673471 said:


> Also, I went and started a thread over in Ice Management, if you feel like answering over there instead.
> 
> http://www.plowsite.com/showthread.php?t=150322
> 
> Thanks!


Ill answer on here because other wise you will get the same thing that you are trying to avoid which is all the BS.

I would think about more or less the ice melt. there are 49 bags in a pallet. As far as spreading... it is really a trial and error thing. For a single stall driveway that is up to 20' long I use approx 15-20 lbs. (Give the customer a rough estimate. or another thing i did when I was getting started was to weigh the individual amounts of salt by 10 lbs and pour them in the spreader you plan to use and then make a mark every 10 lbs so you know how much salt you are using. as far as pricing goes... the rule of thumb is that you double to tripple the cost of the product.... thus covering your cost for application and making you some money on markup...

EXAMPLE: Cost of material
$8.48/ 50lbs.... add tax.. (guestimating here) Final cost $9/ 50lbs.

If I were puting this melter down I would charge $27/ 50lbs ... so if a pallet costs you $441.... you would sell it for $1323
Pocketing Aprox. $882/ pallet.

Overall general rule for pricing is *Deicer price x 2 or 3*

To answer your spreading amount be safe and assume that a 50lb bag will do 1 driveway.

Anything i missed?


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## Mitragorz

grandview;1673476 said:


> HD salt is over priced. What you could do is base you price on full bags per drive per season and bill it that way. So say your going to use 2,3,4,5,6,7 bags just bill a minimum amount of bags for the season.


It seems like that'd be easy if I have some seasonal contracts. I don't know if I'll pick many of those up, seasonals just don't seem to be that popular around here. But as far as that goes, I actually had two seasonal prices in mind that I'd offer... One for just plowing, and another for plowing, snowblowing, and salt. So I had that covered already.

I'm more concerned about charging the per-event customers. I mean, I guess it would be easy to to say "Salting is $3 extra" or whatever. But I'd still like to know what my average cost would be for a typical driveway, instead of just throwing arbitrary numbers at people.


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## grandview

honestly,your costs would be more then what people will be willing to pay.


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## goel

Not a resi guy here. Curious, how many resi's require salting?


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## BossPlowMaster

grandview;1673492 said:


> honestly,your costs would be more then what people will be willing to pay.


that was figured at 3 times the cost of the deicer... if you take it down to 2 times it doesnt look so bad. Im not sure where he is from and what the average is around there.

Living here in central WI i get my deicer for $8/50lb bag and I charge $20 to cover my costs and I have 16 customers that I put it down for at that price and around here that is actually pretty cheap.


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## Mitragorz

BossPlowMaster;1673483 said:


> Ill answer on here because other wise you will get the same thing that you are trying to avoid which is all the BS.
> 
> I would think about more or less the ice melt. there are 49 bags in a pallet. As far as spreading... it is really a trial and error thing. For a single stall driveway that is up to 20' long I use approx 15-20 lbs. (Give the customer a rough estimate. or another thing i did when I was getting started was to weigh the individual amounts of salt by 10 lbs and pour them in the spreader you plan to use and then make a mark every 10 lbs so you know how much salt you are using. as far as pricing goes... the rule of thumb is that you double to tripple the cost of the product.... thus covering your cost for application and making you some money on markup...
> 
> EXAMPLE: Cost of material
> $8.48/ 50lbs.... add tax.. (guestimating here) Final cost $9/ 50lbs.
> 
> If I were puting this melter down I would charge $27/ 50lbs ... so if a pallet costs you $441.... you would sell it for $1323
> Pocketing Aprox. $882/ pallet.
> 
> Overall general rule for pricing is *Deicer price x 2 or 3*
> 
> To answer your spreading amount be safe and assume that a 50lb bag will do 1 driveway.
> 
> Anything i missed?


That's awesome info, thanks! I guess I severely overestimated the stuff, it doesn't go nearly as far as I thought it would. I'm glad I asked before diving in headfirst with prices that turned out to be FAR too low!

Again, I've never de-iced, so this is all new to me.


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## Mitragorz

goel;1673493 said:


> Not a resi guy here. Curious, how many resi's require salting?


I'm not really sure, but it's an option I'd give them. Anything I can use to make money!


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## BossPlowMaster

Mitragorz;1673498 said:


> That's awesome info, thanks! I guess I severely overestimated the stuff, it doesn't go nearly as far as I thought it would. I'm glad I asked before diving in headfirst with prices that turned out to be FAR too low!
> 
> Again, I've never de-iced, so this is all new to me.


What kind of spreader are you using? I guess my 1 bag per drive is a goal for how much to put down so figure out how to adjust your spreader accordingly


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## Mitragorz

I'm going to be picking up a tailgate spreader... Just trying to find a decent used one locally, but I'll buy new if I have to.


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## maxwellp

Here is what I charge.
One bag driveway = $25
2 bag driveway = $35
3 bag driveway =$45
Rock salt $3.70 per 50 lb bag. 
I put it down by hand, so it goes where it is needed. 5 gal bucket works great. I know I will hear about that. Big expensive salters are a waste of money and not needed for driveways.


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## BossPlowMaster

Mitragorz;1673513 said:


> I'm going to be picking up a tailgate spreader... Just trying to find a decent used one locally, but I'll buy new if I have to.


just keep in mind that if it sounds too good to be true it is....

And I would look into a cheap saltdogg.... if someone is getting rid of one online.... they are getting rid of it for a reason because it is more than likely all beat to hell and junk.... save yourself the headache and buy new. I would just try the walkbehind for a year... i takecare of 16 and i still use a walk behind because i am saving up for my Boss VBX.

Food for thought...


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## BossPlowMaster

maxwellp;1673515 said:


> Here is what I charge.
> One bag driveway = $25
> 2 bag driveway = $35
> 3 bag driveway =$45
> Rock salt $3.70 per 50 lb bag.
> I put it down by hand, so it goes where it is needed. 5 gal bucket works great. I know I will hear about that. Big expensive salters are a waste of money and not needed for driveways.


Putting it down by hand makes you look like an amateur... using a salter gets you better results ... by hand is okay if you have thick ice built up but to just salt after plowing ....spreader is the way to go. And i most certainly dont have the time to march around the lot hand spreading salt.


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## maxwellp

"Putting it down by hand makes you look like an amateur."

If you say so, ..

But I don't bang salt on the grass, off the side of your house, off the side of your car and everything else. Plus it goes where it is needed. To each his own. And I said "not needed for driveways."
I was also just offering another way to get it done without large investments. 
And I have been snow plowing sinse 1987 so I think I have outgrown the amateur part.


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## goel

BossPlowMaster;1673496 said:


> that was figured at 3 times the cost of the deicer... if you take it down to 2 times it doesnt look so bad. Im not sure where he is from and what the average is around there.
> 
> Living here in central WI i get my deicer for $8/50lb bag and I charge $20 to cover my costs and I have 16 customers that I put it down for at that price and around here that is actually pretty cheap.


16 out of 16? 16 out of 1439? Can you throw a guesstimated percentage out?


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## 04hd

Just bought a pallet of course solar salt from farm and fleet today. $227 for 49 (50lb) bags, that makes it about 4.63 a bag. I charge $10 a bag applied. I have a walk behind spykers spreader for the lot and then hand spread sidewalks. Granted I don't salt anything I don't already plow.


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## BossPlowMaster

goel;1673585 said:


> 16 out of 16? 16 out of 1439? Can you throw a guesstimated percentage out?


4 are small parking lots and the rest are resi's.... I was always told that salting makes more money than plowing..... i estimate if we have a good year here salting will bring me in about 5-6k. depending on the snow falls.


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## Billious

maxwellp;1673515 said:


> I put it down by hand, so it goes where it is needed. 5 gal bucket works great. I know I will hear about that. Big expensive salters are a waste of money and not needed for driveways.


Must be a Madison thing, I do the same thing. When I fling out of a 5 gallon bucket, I feel like I have more control to send the salt where it's actually needed. You know how when you have some packed snow/ice on just a small part of a drive? It's not worth throwing salt everywhere just to hit that little spot...


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## frue

Hello, i am sorry you had to go through hoops to find the info you desire. Also reading through you still did not get an answer! I went through this 4 years ago so i decided I would find out for myself. Here are the formulas you are looking for

Now I am going to assume its sunny out if it is not then you ad a few more pounds per thou! Now this is a cleared lot just scraped to the pavement.

28-32 Degrees w/sun 8-10 lb of sound per thou. 
20-28 Degrees 11-14 lb per thou. 
13-20 Degrees 15-20 lb per tho
0-12 you will need to be at 20 lb per thou and keep driving over it and or mag calcium mix.
anything below 0 for an extended time frame you will need magic, mag, or calcium in the mix.

The problem with your question is that most guys even the so called big boys have no clue they just set the spreader and go. The above formula works every time never fails. I do not put more then 20 pounds per thousand at any given time. I always clear the lot. I am not a half of inch melter type of guy.

I run bulk salt in 5 gallon buckets. so each 5 gallon bucket is 2.25. so an average driveway is about 2400 square ft. if you put it on at 10lb per thou you will need 24 lb of salt at a cost to yourself of 1.08. How much you charge is completely up to you. personally i would plow that size for 25.00 and salt for the same price so that stop is 50.00!

Hope that helps my friend and sorry about the posters who say do a search. Let me translate for you, i have no clue how much salt per thou it takes to melt a lot!!!!!



Mitragorz;1673453 said:


> First year on my own, just trying to get my costs in line.
> 
> What's the general rule-of-thumb that you guys use for salt, per sq foot? I'm looking at doing just residential driveways for now. I'm trying to get my hands on a tailgate spreader, but will likely be using a walk-behind for a while.
> 
> For a typical 2 car x 3 car driveway, how much salt should I be looking at throwing down? I know guys charge per pound, but I just can't see myself trying to calculate how much salt is going through... Unless I keep all my salt in cups, measured one pound, and keep track of how many I go through, lol. Do you just go by the sq footage of the driveway? Again, what's the general usage of salt per sq foot?
> 
> There's got to be an easier system than measuring individial cups
> 
> EDIT: I've also never run a salter before, so I'm not sure what too little vs just right vs too much looks like. I'm sure that's going to be a whole 'nother debacle when I get a spreader, trying to gauge what I'm putting out...


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## jrs.landscaping

20 lbs per thousand would be 800 lbs per acre. 1000 lbs shy of what it would take for an icy/shady lot....... maybe driveways are different?


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## Mitragorz

Great post, Frue!

I actually got a really nice PM from a member who shared a good amount of insight. He said that, for him, one bag would do about 2500 sq ft. So 20lb/thousand seems to be a good ballpark number.


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## frue

jrs.landscaping;1677526 said:


> 20 lbs per thousand would be 800 lbs per acre. 1000 lbs shy of what it would take for an icy/shady lot....... maybe driveways are different?


Never had an issue at 20 lb. I always clear a lot, always. For ice conditions I run through at 20 lb. let it sit for an hour then come back, blade it up, then re apply at 20. So there is three services to that particular area.

This formula works 100 percent of the time for me. My lots are always melted down. Driveways would be even easier because of blacktop. Remember it's about making money the less salt the more money.

Now let's break down your formula. An acre lot goes about 180 to salt in these parts. Now if your putting 1800 lbs of salt down at 75-95 a ton your eating halfof your profit away on a lot that could be melted at a much lower calibration.


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## frue

Mitragorz;1677753 said:


> Great post, Frue!
> 
> I actually got a really nice PM from a member who shared a good amount of insight. He said that, for him, one bag would do about 2500 sq ft. So 20lb/thousand seems to be a good ballpark number.


I suggest trying your own. Run a test thats what I did. Thats how I came to the formula. Cut up an area into fours then measure out salt and apply. you will be amazed at how much money you could save on salt. I go by peoples lots and they are blasted with salt for days! But look its melted, yep it sure is. You put so much down it coveres the first inch of the next storm:laughing:

I do an average of 14 thousand sq ft lots. I have never even put 20lb of salt down but maybe one time since 2009. Melted everytime! Knowing your conditions and this is a bing and!!!!!! DO NOT OVER EXTEND YOURSELF! Thats when you cant get back to service properly! can you say lawsuit city.

hello mr. Landscaper on the evening of such and such how much salt was thrown down? i dont know I hit a button
Well mr. landscaper snow plow expert how do you know you put enough down to suffice the ice in which my client fell on? Uh I push the button?
Judgement for the plaitiff 30,000 plus pain and suffering.
It happens i have been sued twice. Keep great records and know your formulas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:salute:


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## rbljack

Been a member over at lawn site for a while now and have been in the business of lawn care primarily. This last winter storm caused a lot of ice in this area of texas and I was called about spreading sand or salt on a commercial lot. 

I couldn't get de icing materials, so had to use salt. The lot measured out to approx. 40000 sq feet. So based on the 20 pounds per 1000 suggestion above, if im understanding this correctly, that would mean 20 Times 40, which equals approx. 800 pounds of salt, or 20 bags. Is that correct? If so, I was way low on my application. I only laid down 7 bags.

Also, I know I can use the search function for this (and will be), but was curious what yall would charge for an area 40000 square feet parking lot. Based on some of the searches ive seen so far, if icy melt cost 9 bucks a bag, and you double or triple the price of that bag, we are talking about 27 bucks a bag multiplied by the 20 bags in the estimate above....So that would mean a bill around 360 to 530 dollar?? This sounds high to me, but I have no comparison yet.


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## frue

Hello, What you are asking only you could answer. But I will give you some tips. To answer your question one would need to know what you need to make in business? Just because I give you a formula does not mean that it would be enough to meet the needs of your out fit.

Dont let guys cry low ballerIts about what YOU need to make. lets break it down. If I do a lot for 100 and after all is said and done I put 45 in my pocket. But you do it for 185 and only put 35 because your expenses are more then who is ahead? See these are the sceniroes you will come up with when asking prices.

I would charge 150.00 to plow and 150.00 to salt that lot. Now here is the tip. This is on the lower end of the scale and when you get hammerd with 6 inches or more you will get smacked. So whats the answer higher cost? Nope more service trips! See you do not want to take on more then you can service multiple times in a 10 inch storm. So here is what I do. 10 inch storm two inches fall, plow it up. another three fall, plow it up, another 2 fall plow it up! Yep thats how you make your money! if you wait to the storm is over you will regret it. If the customer say no, wait! then move on! My pricing might not work for you! So add up your cost then divide it up into a hourly wage then add your profit!

finally I can tell you that for an 80lb bag of salt cost about 7 bucks here. Remember in my original formula with a cleared lot, with sunny condition and temps in the 30's you can melt it at 10lb per tho! 20lb is at the highest side for me! Again i *do no*t melt down 1/2 inchers. all lots are cleared first then ice melt applied. This works for me but I see a lot of guys melting 1inch storms so you would need a lot more! so things you would need to know is how long does it take to plow a lot of that size, in 2 inch storms, and 6 inch storms. then get an average for the hour. You can either do it by trial and error or simply watch someone plow a similar lot! Watching might get you some really cool techniques too! Hope that helps my friend!



rbljack;1678790 said:


> Been a member over at lawn site for a while now and have been in the business of lawn care primarily. This last winter storm caused a lot of ice in this area of texas and I was called about spreading sand or salt on a commercial lot.
> 
> I couldn't get de icing materials, so had to use salt. The lot measured out to approx. 40000 sq feet. So based on the 20 pounds per 1000 suggestion above, if im understanding this correctly, that would mean 20 Times 40, which equals approx. 800 pounds of salt, or 20 bags. Is that correct? If so, I was way low on my application. I only laid down 7 bags.
> 
> Also, I know I can use the search function for this (and will be), but was curious what yall would charge for an area 40000 square feet parking lot. Based on some of the searches ive seen so far, if icy melt cost 9 bucks a bag, and you double or triple the price of that bag, we are talking about 27 bucks a bag multiplied by the 20 bags in the estimate above....So that would mean a bill around 360 to 530 dollar?? This sounds high to me, but I have no comparison yet.


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## Mitragorz

This is all great info, I appreciate it. I'm typing from my phone, so sorry for being short, but when using an ice melt like this: http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-...=3047376&store=2921&view=detail&nValue=SEARCH how much would you use compared to sale? Half as much? 75%? Use an equal amount and be amazed at how well it works?


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## starspangled6.0

OK, so one of my employee and I calculated this lb.\per sq. ft rate today (caffeine inspires you to do weird things during snow storms):

The city of St. Paul typically applies 400 lbs\mile of road. I'm guessing we're talking coated sodium chloride here. They recently got chewed up since the roads in St. Paul are all icy, so they doubled it to 800 lbs\mile. As a mile is 5280 ft long, and each road lane is roughly 9' wide, we're looking at 800 lbs per 47,520 sq. ft (for reference, an acre is 43,560 sq. ft). Divide 800 by 47,520, and you've got 0.017 pounds per sq. ft. 

On one of our lots, we're looking at roughly 0.03 lbs per sq. ft (150 lbs of salt\5000 sq. ft). Here's my question- is the same formula the city uses for roadways good for parking lots? This one I'm thinking about has been a pill in particular, and I want all my t's crossed and i's dotted, just in case. I'm fine throwing and extra 2 bags of salt in the spreader if we need to, bumping it up to 0.05 lbs\sq. ft, since obviously we want a clear lot, not bragging rights about putting down more then the city.


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## frue

O my 150 lb for 5000 you trying to desolate the concrete too? Listen I have not went over 20 lb per tho never. I have always melted my lots. In fact last week was about ten degrees with ice. My lots were black all day. I don't know that I have even went 15 lb per tho this year. I have a lot that is 14000 and I usually treated it with 160 lb of salt total. Look at my formulas from above I promise you they work 100 % of the time.


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## starspangled6.0

Rookie mistake......... It's 20,000 sq ft. Don't ask how I got 5000 sq ft. I'm not even sure myself!


Am I correct in saying you're recommending 200 lbs of salt per time?


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## frue

Depends on temp and if it is going to be sunny. If it is between 27-32 with sun I will go between 8-10 lb. if it's going to be 10 and below 15-20 lb per tho. I hardly ever go 20 only when I am trying to melt down quarter inchers and it's cold.


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## frue

I have a chart in the above post on this page


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## yardsmith

For my first couple of years I used a walk spreader, similar to the one you spread fert with, only bigger. I didn't have a ton of accounts so time wasn't much of an issue. Back in mid-late 90's I avg $75 an hour pushing that little spreader. Plus I got the salt exactly where it needed to go.

Today, we have more accounts, less time, & use tailgate spreaders. I still have a walker or two in the garage in case of a breakdown lol.

Honestly I don't know of hardly ANY homeowners that want their drives salted. I have one, but she runs a salon at her home, so technically its a business. But anyways I see good used spreaders on Craigslist all the time for around $400. Practice makes perfect with the controller on those 

As far as prices, I charge by the pound for commercial lots. Charge so much per pound then fig out how much you used, & charge accordingly. For drives I would tell them 5-10 bucks for salt depending on how much you had to use. Any more than that & red flags go up in their head.


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## arathol

starspangled6.0;1691346 said:


> OK, so one of my employee and I calculated this lb.\per sq. ft rate today (caffeine inspires you to do weird things during snow storms):
> 
> The city of St. Paul typically applies 400 lbs\mile of road. I'm guessing we're talking coated sodium chloride here. They recently got chewed up since the roads in St. Paul are all icy, so they doubled it to 800 lbs\mile. As a mile is 5280 ft long, and each road lane is roughly 9' wide, we're looking at 800 lbs per 47,520 sq. ft (for reference, an acre is 43,560 sq. ft). Divide 800 by 47,520, and you've got 0.017 pounds per sq. ft.


Actually, application rates are usually calculated by lane mile. Generally a standard lane is 11'. 400 lbs/mile is actually 400 lbs/2 lane mile, or 200 lbs/single lane mile, so its 5280 x 22 = 116160 ft². That translates to .0034 lbs/ft² for a 200 lbs/single lane mile application. Thats the way its done here. However, its not really practical to try applying rates used on the highway to parking lots. Those rates are not really designed to burn the pavement off, rather they are used to keep a brine layer on the pavement to prevent snow pack from bonding to the road surface so the road will remain passable and can be cleared faster.

Keep in mind that untreated sodium chloride has a fairly steep performance curve. There is a sharp drop between 32° and about 20°. It takes nearly 5x as much salt at 20° to melt the same amount of snow at 32°.


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## starspangled6.0

^^ good info! I guess we'll try experimenting with Frue's formula, and see how the parking lot responds.


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## SnowGuy73

frue;1677470 said:


> Hello, i am sorry you had to go through hoops to find the info you desire. Also reading through you still did not get an answer! I went through this 4 years ago so i decided I would find out for myself. Here are the formulas you are looking for
> 
> Now I am going to assume its sunny out if it is not then you ad a few more pounds per thou! Now this is a cleared lot just scraped to the pavement.
> 
> 28-32 Degrees w/sun 8-10 lb of sound per thou.
> 20-28 Degrees 11-14 lb per thou.
> 13-20 Degrees 15-20 lb per tho
> 0-12 you will need to be at 20 lb per thou and keep driving over it and or mag calcium mix.
> anything below 0 for an extended time frame you will need magic, mag, or calcium in the mix.
> 
> The problem with your question is that most guys even the so called big boys have no clue they just set the spreader and go. The above formula works every time never fails. I do not put more then 20 pounds per thousand at any given time. I always clear the lot. I am not a half of inch melter type of guy.
> 
> I run bulk salt in 5 gallon buckets. so each 5 gallon bucket is 2.25. so an average driveway is about 2400 square ft. if you put it on at 10lb per thou you will need 24 lb of salt at a cost to yourself of 1.08. How much you charge is completely up to you. personally i would plow that size for 25.00 and salt for the same price so that stop is 50.00!
> 
> Hope that helps my friend and sorry about the posters who say do a search. Let me translate for you, i have no clue how much salt per thou it takes to melt a lot!!!!!


Great info for you right there.


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## frue

Here is a good lesson. Today 4 degrees with sun applied 10lb per thousand 2 hours later lot black. Just goes to show you right conditions and willingness to experiment you use less and make more. The high today was 4. Lot was cleared with a snoway plow and I used treated bulk salt. It does have moderate traffic also.


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## OneManWithAPlow

Bossman 92 said:


> 2 Things
> 
> 1) you will get better results in the ice management area
> 
> 2) use the search function
> 
> Not being an a$$ but this topic has been beat to death. You will learn alot if you just take the time to look


Sorry to revive a dead thread, but its very difficult when the next guy up uses the "search" function and clicks on a thread and comes across posts such as these. I used the search function, clicked the link, read the posts, and the first comment is "use the search feature". Defeats the purpose.


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