# Salting before plowing



## sharpe992 (Jan 13, 2012)

I started a lawn and landscape maintenance business this year and of course the next progression was snow removal. Which brings me to my question. I live in a development where I don't have the snow removal contract, yet. I was watching the current contractor today and he went through the development salting first then came back through plowing then salted again. Is there a purpose for doing it that way and what is it? I have my ideas but I wanted to know for sure.


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## sectlandscaping (Sep 7, 2009)

the only reason I would say is to melt the ice.


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## cjwoz (Jan 7, 2008)

Buy yourself some time


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## snobgone (Feb 2, 2010)

Its called pretreating and it does buy you some time but more importantly it creates a layer of brine that stops the snow from binding to the surface so you can plow down to pavement easier when the traffic has packed it down. Sometimes salting is not necessary after you plow if you pretreat, depending on the conditions. Pretreating is very common and with the right conditions, say a light dry snow it can melt away what you would normally have to plow. Anti-icing is always easier and more effiecient than de-icing.


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## basher (Nov 13, 2004)

It allows use of less salt. It is mulch easier to prevent ice then to melt it. Even though the contractor treated twice he probably used less material then if he had waited until afterward and tried to melt any existing ice.


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## sharpe992 (Jan 13, 2012)

This wasn't pretreating... I understand that... I thought it was to break up the packed snow. Which I believe one of you mentioned. Thanks to everyone who has replied


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

Pretreating makes it a lot easier to scrape down to the pavement so it's bare. A lot of people in my area pretreat.


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## basher (Nov 13, 2004)

sharpe992;1413577 said:


> This wasn't pretreating... I understand that... I thought it was to break up the packed snow. Which I believe one of you mentioned. Thanks to everyone who has replied


That would make sense if he hadn't pretreated and he was just a lot more material then if he'd pre-treated. It works best if you spray liquids as well runs though the holes the solids create and spread out beneath it breaking the bond.


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## sharpe992 (Jan 13, 2012)

The municipality that I work at pretreats. They use brine and I understand how that works. This contractor was using salt and there was an inch or so of snow on the ground. Then after spreading the salt and less than 5 minutes time came back through then plowed. I probably should mention that it was also 18 degrees. When he finished plowing (had to make two passes because of road width), went through again putting down more salt. My initial assumtion was that he was using the salt first to break up the packed snow from vehicles that had been through before he got here. I posted thinking that there may have been a different reason.


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## sharpe992 (Jan 13, 2012)

Again, I want to thank everyone who has offered up their answers.


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## RepoMan1968 (Jan 9, 2012)

sharpe992;1413461 said:


> I started a lawn and landscape maintenance business this year and of course the next progression was snow removal. Which brings me to my question. I live in a development where I don't have the snow removal contract, yet. I was watching the current contractor today and he went through the development salting first then came back through plowing then salted again. Is there a purpose for doing it that way and what is it? I have my ideas but I wanted to know for sure.


wasting material


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## Jacobsmovinsnow (Jan 12, 2011)

Ya that was dumb. If you put salt down wait until you see it working for a bit , then plow it off. Looks like his was just loading up his invoice. Keep watching, you may be plowing there someday.


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## Burkartsplow (Nov 1, 2007)

Seems like a waste of material. I can see pretreating the night before, but putting it down for 5 minutes then scraping it up makes no sense to me.


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

The way I have always seen it done is when there is a dusting you pretreat. The salt will melt down to the bottom and it doesn't get scraped off for the most part.


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## RepoMan1968 (Jan 9, 2012)

mercer_me;1416707 said:


> The way I have always seen it done is when there is a dusting you pretreat. The salt will melt down to the bottom and it doesn't get scraped off for the most part.


depending on temp & traffic.


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