Can Ice Melt Destroy My Lawn?

Keeping your family safe during the icy winter weather is a top priority for families in the Richmond area. While All Brothers Lawn Squad LLC can provide professional snow and ice removal, we also believe in educating our clients for their own benefit. Using ice melt is a common and effective means of melting ice, but did you know it can cause destruction to your lawn and landscape? Consider the information below when choosing how to best prevent icy falls while discouraging destruction to your lawn.

How Ice Melt Causes Damage

While ice melt keeps you and your family safe from treacherous icy sidewalks and driveways, it can cause terrible damage to your lawn and landscape. Ice melt contains high amounts of salt, which removes moisture from any soil it contacts. This prevents moisture from getting to the roots of the grass, causing the grass to dehydrate and die. 

Types of Ice Melt

There are four types of salt used to melt ice. Each one has its own positive and negative effects.

• Sodium chloride, known as rock salt, is inexpensive but can be harmful to plants, vehicles, and concrete.
• Calcium chloride is less harmful to plants than rock salt.
• Magnesium chloride causes less damage to plants but can corrode concrete.
• Potassium chloride is the most expensive, but is low in toxicity and is less harmful to your landscape.

Minimize Damage

Now that you are aware of how ice melt can cause injury to your lawn, let’s discover how we can minimize lawn damage while keeping you and your family safe.

• Combine one of the salt substances with another abrasive material such as sawdust, cat litter, or small gravel.
• Use a 5% mixture of ice melt to 95% abrasive material for optimal safety with nominal consequences.
• To diminish harm, follow all directions of the specific chloride substance you are using.

Use Ice Melt Wisely

Ice melt is not the enemy, but it does need to be used correctly. For any questions regarding ice melt or our snow removal services, contact All Brothers today at (765) 371-4186. We also provide spring and fall cleanup and lawn pest control for all of our customers in the Richmond area and beyond.

Source: Chester-Davis, Leah. “Keep Your Landscape Safe from Winter Salt.” Better Homes & Garden. Meredith Corporation. Web. 30 Nov. 2019.