LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got Sue from Ohio on the line. Welcome to The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
SUE: Yes. We have a wooden wheelchair ramp built for my father and it’s with the treated lumber. And wanted an idea or what product we could use to kind of keep the ice and the snow off of there without damaging the wood.
TOM: You know, there are different types of salts that can be effective as to prevent snow and ice. What you want to do, though, is make sure that you not use sodium chloride or a rock salt. You want to use calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is less corrosive than traditional rock salt. It has less of an impact on plants and on pets but does just as good a job of keeping the snow and the ice off.
What I would suggest is you take this calcium chloride and you mix it up with playground sand – the kind of sand that you might put in a sandbox – and create sort of a mixture that you can keep handy so that whenever you do get a little bit of ice and snow, you can spread the salt/sand mixture down and keep that ramp clear.
SUE: OK. Great. Thank you.
TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project, Sue. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
My ramp is icy and I don’t have anything to put on to get the ice out is there any thing that I can use from homemade to get the ice off thank you need a answer
Hi Mary – In a pinch you can use table salt. But you really should pick up some potassium chloride or calcium chloride.