Brown Rock Salt/Grit for ice, snow, melting - 23kg Bag

Product Information

When you are in the grip of winter and temperatures plummet, knowing the correct wa y to grit a path or road can be a life saver. It’s always wise to keep a close eye on the weather forecasts. Rain will soon wash away all the grit before it can make any kind of impact, so be on the lookout for grey clouds before you get to work! Safety doesn’t end at the front door It is most effective to distribute grit early in the morning. This is because it’s not only much easier to remove fresh, loose snow but gritting in the morning will ensure the ground is ready ahead of early morning traffic or pedestrians. Put a procedure in place to prevent an icy surface forming and/or keep pedestrians off the slippery surface;

Use grit (see separate article below for more detail) or similar, on areas prone to be slippery in frosty, icy conditions; Snow and ice means wet shoes and boots, which can cause wet patches around the entrances to your business premises. Be sure to place dry Entrance Mats inside the doorways to soak up water and enable people to wipe their feet, and read our blog post on How to Reduce the Risk of Slips, Trips and Falls with Effective Floor Cleaning for more helpful advice. Gritting should be carried out when frost, ice or snow is forecast or when walkways are likely to be damp or wet and the floor temperatures are at, or below freezing. The best times are early in evening before the frost settles and/or early in the morning before employees arrive. Salt doesn't work instantly; it needs sufficient time to dissolve into the moisture on the floor. If a canopy is not a possibility, consider installing large, absorbent mats or even changing the entrance flooring to one which is non-slip. Department for Infrastructure (DfI) road gritting staff are on standby 24 hours a day to monitor and react according to the weather conditions.The applicable amount of grit is spread on the roads to ensure, as far as possible, that the salinity of any moisture on the roads is sufficient enough to prevent the formation of frost and ice. Will the grit melt snow?

When grit is walked or driven over, the salt grinds down and becomes a saline solution. This ice and salty mixture provides underfoot friction, before disappearing down any nearby drains. This normally happens during prolonged snowfall when the sludge, caused by previous gritting and traffic flow, starts to wash older grit away and so risks the road surface freezing. Rain will also wash away salt. Ahead of a sub-zero night, gritting ideally needs to take place after rain but before freezing as grit spread on ice needs to then be worked into it by moving traffic to make it thaw. The often very small window of opportunity may be missed, or a surprise downpour may take place after a road's been treated so councils will re-run an area if needed. Councils sometimes have to contend with ‘freezing rain' – supercooled rain which falls when the surface temperature is below zero, freezing on impact – which means they may need to re-grit areas. The grit we use on the roads and pedestrian areas contains Safecote. Safecote is more than 90% pure Sodium Chloride (salt) with the remaining insolubles consisting mainly of Keuper Marl which helps to protect the salt quality. Marl also helps improve friction when salt is used as a highway de-icer. Dependent solely on the weather, winter service expenditure can vary vastly, making control of budgets very difficult.

Councils in the UK are responsible for about 225,000 miles of road. It would cost hundreds of millions of extra pounds to grit all roads. Also, many roads are simply too narrow or too steep for gritting lorry to navigate. Instead, councils try to find other solutions like supplying local grit bins for residents, liaising with parish councils and community groups to grit more residential or remote areas and working with farmers to clear rural areas. The 2010 Quarmby Review on Winter Resilience recommend English highways authorities set a ‘winter resilience benchmark' for councils of 12 days/48 runs-worth of salt ahead of each gritting season (October 1 to late March 1). The Department for Transport says these recommendations should be adopted. As we’ve already mentioned, if you own or occupy private land, you are responsible for ensuring that it can be safely accessed by staff and visitors.

Frost and ice form when water freezes. Grit spread on roads and pedestrian areas mixes with any moisture and creates a saline solution. Saline solutions freeze at a lower temperature than water, so frost and ice doesn't form on the road, even though the temperature is below freezing for water. It's for exactly the same reason why salty sea water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water. The actual freezing point of a saline solution depends on the salinity (strength) of the saline solution. Is there is enough lighting around your workplace for you and your workers to be able to see and avoid hazards that might be on the ground? The easiest way to find out is to ask your staff. Another way is to shadow your employees for a couple of days, walk the main internal and external routes that they use throughout their working day. It is important to do this both inside and outside of the workplace, as the effect of light changes during the day. If you can't see hazards on the ground you will need to improve the lighting (eg new lights or changing the type of bulb). Wet and decaying leaves choose if you need to cone off higher risk areas or areas of the car park that are further away from the entrance that are not required.Treatment of roads and pedestrian areas with grit is carried out to prevent frost and ice forming and reduce the build up of snow to help provide a safe passage on the highest priority roads and pedestrian areas. How does grit prevent frost and ice forming? Placing grit on top of snow which has already fallen has limited benefits. Ideally, snow should be cleared before grit is applied to the road or pedestrian area. When is the best time to spread the grit? If you have any questions please call highways customer care. Why is grit used on roads and pedestrian areas? It is also recommended to re-grit the surface in the evening, not only in advance of peak traffic flows as staff and visitors leave for the day, but also to prevent the ice from re-freezing as evening temperatures fall. Most of the salt is mined in Cheshire. The main supplier is Salt Union, which can produce 6,000 tonnes per day. Cleveland Potash, in Middlesbrough, produces salt as a by-product of its main operations and usually produces about 3,200 tonnes per day. This year about one in 10 councils have arranged contracts with salt suppliers abroad, but this approach would not be a practical solution for all councils.

You can also find information on the DfI Roads winter service information leaflet. Advice when driving in icy or snowy conditions Technically, most pavements are considered highways and so fall under he remit of councils. Decision on which surfaces to treat are based on factors such as how frequently and by how many people they are used, if there are alternative routes that could be used by pedestrians and whether there is a more practical way of clearing them such as community schemes. Fallen leaves that become wet or have started to decay can create slip risks in two ways, they hide any hazard that may be on the path or they themselves create a slip risk. Many slip accidents happen at building entrances as people entering the building walk in rainwater. Fitting canopies of a good size over building entrances and in the right position can help to prevent this.The Department for Transport carries out regular audits of local authorities to monitor salt levels. The Highways Agency covers motorways and major A roads, while Transport for London covers arterial trunk roads in London. Yes. Salt will work at temperatures down to minus 8-10 degrees C. Below that temperature salted roads will still freeze. This depends on a variety of factors. When we know with certainty from the weather forecast that the roads will require gritting, where possible we carry out the gritting treatment in the evening and/or in the morning. Gritting at this time ensures the best performance of the grit. Spreading grit at these times also means the roads are treated in advance of peak traffic flows, before the times where frost and ice will form, and when there will be enough traffic on the roads to help the grit mix with the moisture to form a saline solution. Identify the outdoor areas used by pedestrians most likely to be affected by ice, for example: - building entrances, car parks, pedestrian walkways, shortcuts, sloped areas and areas constantly in the shade or wet.