The Winter Habit You Should Try For An Easier Time Clearing Driveway Snow And Ice

Everyone has their own habits and rituals that can help make snow removal more efficient and, dare we say, enjoyable. However, despite the habits we've built up over a lifetime of shoveling snow, there are still more tips and tricks we can pick up along the way. And if there is one habit worth bringing into your repertoire, it should be pretreating your driveway with a solution of liquid magnesium chloride.

Composed of one part magnesium to two parts chloride, magnesium chloride is a pet-safe salt compound that comes in solid and liquid forms to remove ice from the driveway. As a solid, you can typically find it as flakes or pellets. The liquid form comes in bottles, and that is what we are going to focus on today. More so than any household or DIY ice melt, proper magnesium chloride applied to your driveway is going to make for an easier time of clearing snow and ice.

Magnesium chloride is an excellent anti-icing solution. It is a hygroscopic material, meaning that it does not attract large amounts of moisture from the air. As such, when applied to your driveway before a snowstorm, the magnesium chloride creates a film that will stay in place a lot longer than solid alternatives but also massively reduces refreezing, giving you a safer, less slippery driveway.

The key to success with liquid magnesium chloride is to make sure that you are pretreating your driveway before the snow hits. This way the liquid has time to activate and anticipate the snow that is on its way. Think of it like the liquid version of the tarp some people lay out to catch and remove snow. Only in this instance, instead of the tarp being removed, it works overtime to make sure no ice forms on your driveway.

Before you pretreat your driveway, you need to know how much magnesium chloride to use. According to This Old House, a gallon of the liquid magnesium chloride will cover an area of approximately 1,000 square feet. Seeing as the average driveway stands between 300 and 600 square feet, a gallon is more than enough to cover most driveways.

The best tool to use when applying the magnesium chloride is a pressure garden sprayer, a great beginner-friendly tool that is often used to apply a liquid fertilizer or pesticide in your garden. Fill the sprayer with the magnesium chloride and apply it to your driveway a few hours before snowfall is expected. It will melt up to two inches of accumulation and keep any ice from bonding to your driveway. So, when you go out and shovel, you might just find that the driveway is easier to clear than it has ever been.