After almost 40 years of shoveling, I finally ask this question that I’ve wondered about since I was a kid. We’re expecting about 18 inches of snow tonight. If I salted the sidewalk and driveway in advance, would that make the shoveling any easier? I think I did ask my father this when I was a kid, and all I remember is that he said no (but I can’t remember why).
Need answer kind of fast.
I just looked this up and than you for asking. I didn’t know you put it down before the storm.
If you put the salt out in advance it tends to get blown away with the winds that typically come with a heavy snowstorm.
Salting your walk in a light to medium snow can keep it from accumulating in the short run, but in a heavy snow storm it won’t do much at all. I will just dissolve down once it gets covered with snow.
You might notice that minicipalities tend to ‘brine’ the roads with a salt spray rather than rock salt. But even this depends on cars travelling on the roads to reduce accumulation, or plows to come by on a semi-regular basis.
Around here (greater Boston) the towns don’t use brine solutions - at least it’s not common. They pre-treat the roads with salt. Lots of salt. The state has some brine trucks for the major highways I think.
I’ve tried it, and the problem is that once you get too much snow for the salt to handle, it just turns into a thick layer of wet slush with snow on top of it. It weighs a ton and is hard to scrape off the sidewalk.
(…Dare we “brag” about expected snowfall in our respective areas?) :o 
When I lived in Missouri, I did pre-salt the walkways, but I didn’t bother with the driveway. It helped keep critical steps and slippery zones safer. (Snow feet not inches)
Here in Oregon where we get just enough snow and ice to be dangerous (people not snow), I follow the same policy. My fronts steps turns into ice blocks if I don’t salt them. I get lectured about it and I ignore it.
They might change their minds about that soon: Brine is generally better overall:
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/rock-salt-vs-salt-brines-whats/22352942
Just bear in mind that this information came from manufacturers, who have a vested interest in selling more of the stuff, and is intended for property managers, who want to be able to tell a judge “Well, we put down snow melt, but there was more snow than was expected,” rather than “Whoops, our bad.”
So, take this with a grain of salt.
Thanks. If that happens, it would definitely defeat the purpose. I’m trying to make my shoveling task easier.
I don’t pre-salt for snow, but I do for freezing rain.
Not that it’s always easy to tell the difference.
Regards,
Shodan
Salt will affect icing in a freezing rain, but have little efftct on snow.
If you get more than a few inches, there will still be an accumulation above the salt layer, that you will still have to exert the same effort to shovel off. The lower layer will be a denser slush, but the weight of the cover per square foot will be the same lifting.
If the forecasters say 18 inches, I bet you will get less than nine, but a few neighborhoods will get maybe up to, outside, 18. Then, if there is wind, the drifting might leave you with substantially more or less than nine.
I don’t know where you are in Oregon, but I don’t want to hear any lectures in Portland from a city full of people who can’t be bothered to shovel their fucking walks. Lazy, inconsiderate assholes.
They pre-salted the road in my neighborhood for the first time ever this afternoon. I think they’re remembering the last heavy snow, when we got almost two feet. Not that a little rock salt is going to help much if we get that much snow.
I saw what you did there! Short… subtle… scrapes across the teeth of the reader like the sound of an aluminum shovel dragging across concrete at 20°F.
Nice…! 
Huh. Brine. I wonder if folks are thinking about liquid magnesium chloride. It is a type of salt.
Colorado uses lot’s of the stuff, and sometimes put’s it down before a snow.
It’s kinda ‘goopy’ and makes a mess out of your car if they just put it down.
Shoveling is MUCH harder with the slushy stuff on the bottom. You expend a lot of energy getting the shovel below the slush
I hope you’re right, but I’m not very confident. Here in northern NJ, they seem to get the forecasts pretty dead on. It always amazes me how accurate they’ve been over the past decade. If anything, snowfall amounts over the past few years have come in higher than forecast, iirc.
(South of Salem) Oregon has proud record of frowning on the use of salt and they’re not shy about sharing their disapproval. Suck it folks. I like my sidewalk clear. I like my walkway to the door clear. I can drive over the mounds in the driveway, but all I need is to break my other leg on a step, or have my 70 year old neighbor slip and fall.
I believe in the free-market system. How’s about paying some high school students to help you with your driveway?
Rain changing to snow or high winds, I don’t pretreat. Most times for what we get here I do. Even if we get totally dumped on and the salt/ice melter gets overwhelmed, I feel it helps make the remained easier to shovel. Of course, I have very thick sandstone slabs for a sidewalk so damage isn’t a real concern for me but even if I had standard concrete I feel I would probably do the same.