Avoid Fall Hazards This Winter – U.S. Lawns Is Here To Manage Slippery Conditions On Your Grounds
With the wintertime approaching, commercial property owners and managers in regions that receive freezing precipitation are faced with the added concern of the hazards associated with slippery pavement. Fortunately, U.S. Lawns is your all-season landscape management partner, and we’re here to manage icy conditions and minimize fall hazards on your grounds.
In fact, during our recent conversation about winterizing irrigation systems with U.S. Lawns Toledo owner and landscaping expert Tom Curdes, we took advantage of the opportunity to get his insights on managing accumulating snow and ice. His first piece of advice? Prepare early.
U.S. Lawns Owner, Tom Curdes’ Expert Advice – Be Prepared For Icy Weather
Or, in his words, “It’s very important to be prepared for winter; make sure you have your salt or your ice melting products on hand because you don’t want to be running out looking for it in the middle of a storm. So, being prepared is a big thing.”
This is something Curdes reiterated throughout our interview, so it bears repeating again and again: Be prepared for icy conditions.
When Should You Start Planning To Manage Freezing Precipitation Effectively?
In order to most effectively manage freezing precipitation on your property, you’ll need to include snow and ice management services in your yearly landscaping plan–and you’re wise to do it well before the arrival of Autumn, or you could be the one out there shoveling snow and putting down ice-melts when the winter storms arrive.
During our visit in early October, Tom said he regrettably has to turn away snow and ice management services to some prospects because his team is already fully booked for the winter. So, we recommend planning with your landscaping partner no later than the summer months each year.
There Is A Difference Between Managing Snow And Ice
There are multiple reasons why it’s necessary to plan early for managing snow and ice which we’ll get to in a moment, but first let’s take a brief look at the differences between the way each type of frozen precipitation is addressed.
When the snow accumulates, obviously snowplowing and shoveling are the primary actions, followed by salt; with ice though, plowing won’t work, so surfaces must instead be treated with ice melting products, some of which are used as a preventative measure while others are applied to melt ice from areas where it has already formed.
You Need Snow And Ice Melting Products For Various Uses
There are different products, with various uses, as Curdes expanded upon: “We use an ice melting product called ECOMELT™ on our sidewalks, and the reason we use ECOMELT™ on our sidewalks is, it doesn’t have the abrasiveness towards the plants and the grass. If you use straight salt (also called halite) on sidewalks, you’re going to burn the edges of the grass and injure it, which could lead to going back in the spring, raking, throwing a little topsoil down and seeding. But ECOMELT™ works at a lower temperature, number one; and number two, it doesn’t burn or harm turf or plants, whereas straight salt is going to injure plants and grass, so you have to be somewhat careful where and how you use it.”
To clarify his point about temperatures, salt will work until it gets down to about fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, while ECOMELT™ and other granular ice melting products are effective at temperatures as low as twenty degrees below zero–this is not to dismiss salt, which is a viable (and more cost effective) option for blacktop roads, driveways and parking lots however, because as soon as the sun starts shining on the dark colored pavement it activates the salt, which then does a good job of melting ice.
Why Is Preparing For Snow And Ice Early So Important?
Now back to the reasons for being prepared early on. First, having the right snow and ice melt products, tools and equipment on hand, along with the properly trained and licensed staff to tackle accumulating snow and ice throughout the season, all require advanced preparation.
For instance, U.S. Lawns Toledo invests in trucks that can be multi-purposed for both “green and white” as Curdes so aptly refers to his full suite of landscape management offerings. The trucks they use will pull their trailers with mowers and other landscaping equipment during the growing months, and then they can be fitted with snowplows and salt spreader attachments to most efficiently manage snow and ice in the wintertime.
Planning well ahead of winter also enables your snow removal and ice management services provider to create a map of your property. Tom shared with us that his team will go to a maps app and print off an image of every commercial property they service. Then they’ll mark locations designated for piling snow on the periphery; make notes on special hardscape or softscape elements to avoid; and even identify handicap parking spaces to ensure they take special care in those areas; and will also physically flag borders. Then he keeps a complete book of maps in each truck, so no matter which crew is on the job, they know exactly how to service every job site.
What’s more, they also must make sure they have the correct wardrobe, PPE and other tools for the job, not to mention that they buy a hundred tons of salt at a time; they buy bags of ECOMELT™ or another calcium chloride ice melter by the semi load; and then must have the space to store it all. Every part of this demands that they get their orders in by August, or risk not receiving the products they need to get through the winter.
Halite & Other Ice Melts Can Be Challenging To Come By At The 11th Hour
This is especially true of ice melters as Tom explained, with: “Unless you live in a city where there’s a salt mine, they have to truck that salt to you. So, like in our case, the closest mine to us is Detroit; our salt has to come through Lake Erie down into the Maumee River and then they put it along the river here in Toledo and truck it to us from there.”
He continued then with something you may find interesting: “But when salt gets tight, they’ll get it from Ethiopia. The way they do it there is they flood bogs with seawater and then they let those bogs dehydrate; mine the salt out of them; and put it on barges that they’ll bring across the ocean and up the Mississippi River. That’s when times get really tough but what you need to realize is, salt can be all over the board because you just don’t know where it’s coming from.” This is a powerful reason why early planning for icy conditions is key.
Contact U.S. Lawns For Snowplowing And Ice Management Services
So, now that we’ve opened your eyes to the importance of making snow and ice management services a core piece of your landscape maintenance contract, it’s a good time to call your local U.S. Lawns commercial landscaping partner. We’ll get together with you and create a comprehensive plan for managing icy conditions and heavy snowfall every winter. Then you can turn your attention elsewhere, secure in the knowledge that you have a team of professionals keeping your property accessible every time the season brings a snowstorm or icing event.