This Stops Driveway Ice Better Than Rock Salt 

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I add blue food coloring to my brine, that gives me an indication of where I’m done spraying and how much. Thanks for sharing.

I can just see spring and summer comes around and the wife asking hubby why there are so many ANTS covering the driveway.

For those needing to deep clean a glass top stove, the manual to my first one recommended to use a one sided razor blade held at a low angle to get rid of the thick stuff. After that, I use baking soda to get rid of the residue. Used that regimen for the 23 years I had that stove and didn't notice any problems with surface

Excellent method for coating your carpet with molasses.😊

A brine solution like that are used by many towns and states as well as contractors to pre treat and post treat after plowing. The solution mix should be anout 23.3% salinity. And yes, molasses and even beet juice is used in the mix.

The town I live in uses beat juice for de-icer and it works great

Why did the mole follow the other moles down the hole? Because he smelled molasses.😊

Anyone notice the cat scratch post in the background? Thing is shredded. Is he raising mountain lions or what?

i just did a shoveling job for a Woman. She was just having me do the sidewalk. But the path swept on her back deck was narrow so I grabbed my broom and widened it for her. She said be careful that Trex is deadly. Holy Crap even just wet that Trex was more slippery than an ice skating rink with a layer of water on it. I'm rethinking using PVC deck board on my back step landing area.

Quick tip drill a hole in the top of the sprayer tank and pop a car tire valve into it. You can now use an air pump or compressor and fill it in seconds. 40psi is the max pressure any higher and it won't stop spraying.

one of the things you have to think about what buying a home, whats the driveway like? and what will it be like covered in snow?

I use windshield washer fluid and 91% isopropyl alcohol 80/20 ish and put it in these sprayers for use on windshields. Don't have to scrape much of anything or waste a bunch of gas heating the vehicle up to melt the windows. Works great!

Two words that works better and easier. Sawdust it doesn’t matter what sawdust. Just spread it out 1/2 inches over the surface or just the steeper areas. The heat from the sawdust will melt the snow and provide traction. Also the sawdust will turn into into fertilizer for lawns and unlike salt or brine it will not decay blacktop or concrete. Try it and see. Sawmills are happy to give it away for free.

Sidenote, porch scene at cat scratching post. A cat post for what? “a bobcat”! Holy cow!

My wife would just love for me to track molasses into the house.

The comments are pure GOLD.

I’m picturing the neighborhood bears coming out of hibernation and licking my driveway… 😂😂😂

Used the pet safe stuff in my backpack sprayer over new year and made a video on it too. It definitely works. You can see after the snow fall where I did and didn't apply it. Really like this system vs throwing salt everywhere. It doesn't track into the house as much and the dog can't eat it or kick it all over the place like the granulated stuff. Takes a little longer but the results are better so I'd call it a win!

here in Alberta Canada I just use studded tires to get over icy roads in the kills .

I have a simliar driveway, I made a curb( 6 inches high) on each side of the asphalt driveway and that prevents the vehicle from sliding off into the ditch in ice and snow.

You need to experiment with lime, as the lime used by dairy farmers on their walkways that keeps the cows from doing damage to themselves as they walk into and out of the milking parlors. As a topical coating to the salt, you will be surprised what it does….

Firewood ashes worked fine for me

Mag chloride works well, TSC has the solution in bulk. Good for dust as well on gravel drives.

HERE IN CANADA WE DO THIS ON OUR MAJOR HIGHWWYS JUST A COUPLE HOURS BEFORE STORMS . 9NLY PROBLEM IS THE OVER SPRAY FROM 6HE SALT ON WINDSHIELD EATS WIPERS ..AND IS CORROSIVE ON WIRES OF YOUR CARS 😊

Regarding comments on the scratch post. The cat scratch post is old and needs replacement. Or stripped and recovered. I have 3 tiny cats with needle nails. I then adopted a much larger 4th kitty with big nails she destroyed that post. I bought a new post as tall as I could find for her to get a good stretch while scratching.

Salt will only Harm Brand New Concrete, Salt won’t Damage Asphalt at all. We use The Left Over Sugar Beet Juices to Spray along with Salt So Just as You have said It’s used for the Sticky effect. We Pre Spray Mixture before a Snow Fall Here in Michigan, it cuts down On The Salt Use By Depending on the amount also what it will be Rain or Snow.

This is done as a pre treat on roads in Ontario. They have full size tanker trucks spraying the roads in the morning and it is effective up 12 hours before the storm. And to clarify it won’t eliminate the need for salt, but it does reduce the amount needed. I think it cuts the amount by 20%.

Have you considered planting sugar maple trees along your laneway to help break the wind and as they grow older they'll cover your laneway like a canopy? Really helped us.

That looks like the area I live around. Deer heights. Lots of ice and humidity from the river. But not a crazy amount of snow there. We use a mag brine for the roads there.

Any "contaminant" will make water thaw at a lower temperature. Molasses or sugar might make you brine stick around longer, and it also makes the snow melt sooner.

You can seal that leaky sprayer with superglue and dust with baking soda and then add more superglue.

Love the tuxedo cat , they are cool cats .

Here in Ontario Canada they use a beet juice mixture on the roads and highways in the big road sprayers

Ahh Brer Rabbit Molasses. Very STRONG flavor too. I miss it. Stores near me do not sell it.

I love the rolling hills..

Northern Wisconsin here. Salt brine from cheese manufacturing is used on our roads and it takes the lettering off license plates. Some people love that.

so help me god!!! when you said i might make a sticky mess !! i blow on the pot on my screen!!!!lol

I've heard of cities using cheese brine which ordinarily would have to be diluted and disposed of! Yes, i live in Wisconsin.

Don't waste money on the 12 and 16 ounce bottles of molasses at the grocery store. Either buy it from a garden supply store or order it online by the gallon. They sell larger quantities cheaper for gardening, and the gallon jugs are around $20, compared to $5 to $10 for a 12 ounce bottle. Also, for gardening, take a five gallon bucket, fill with water, allow the chlorine to off gas, add a handful of compost or worm castings or cow manure and a cup of molasses and then use an aquarium bubbler to "brew" a microbe and nutrient rich compost tea. Your lawn and garden will love it. If you have plants with yellowing leaves, throw in a cup or two of Epsom salt for the magnesium.

Even with that salt content you have to imagine the molasses runoff will eventually contribute to soil recovery if there is salt damage to a lawn, so this just seems like a more productive method all around.

On our stove I use a wide window paint scrapper and it works great. Then I scrub it with Mr. Clean and paper towels, comes out looking new. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya,,,,,,, ps thumbs up on the video.

Beet juice works as deicer. We spray it on Hwys in Canada works great

Cat scratch stand in the background? You must have a Bobcat or a small Puma, eh?

The thing about salt is it works for about 5 minutes. Sanding (salt/sand mix) is better.

That's a cool idea Turf. Sending this off to relatives up north. I would watch your DIY video on restoring your stovetop. I have a glasstop also and it's a challenge to keep factory fresh.

Not any boulders or anything to crash into, my driveway much more dangerous & about 900' long, down the hill & then back up hill when i get alot of ice i put some salt down wait a little while strap on my backpack blower & blow air under the ice & it starts popping up off the driveway, temperature effects how it works. Save my back a lot from chopping ice. The worst is when i get a flash freeze water doesn't have time to run off but the hill can be you friend because the water flows downhill. Timing the removal is key for me 36 yrs on this property there are times when we couldn't get up & down ,but if its gonna be a big storm i put one car at top of driveway just in case of an emergency.

#1 is uncooked grits (yes, the food). #2 is wood ash from your stove or fireplace. (Coal ash if you kept your coal stove)

I've been doing this for years and found 1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups to 1 gallon is the max. amount of salt that will dissolve. Straight salt worked the best but it dissolved my concrete. I use the brands with Calcium and Potassium Chloride.

where's the follow-up link to show how this solution repelled the snow and ice?

After watching 10 minutes wondering about the results , we deserve a results video

They spray the roads in my area before snow storms. When it dries you can see the thin coat of salt

Spring in here in Michigan in April, cross your toes, and keep them warm till mid-May.

the deer will love it .

That's because rock salt only works to -6 degrees. But there's more to it than that.... Salt will “work,” i.e. it will melt ice, all the way down to its eutectic temperature of -6⁰ F. However, the “practical working temperature” of salt is generally considered to be higher than this. In the highway deicing world the practical working temperature of salt is generally considered to be above 15⁰F or even 20 ⁰F. There are two reasons for this. One is that the amount of ice that can be melted per pound of salt (or any other deicer) decreases with temperature. At 30⁰F , 1 pound of salt will melt about 46 pounds of ice. At 20⁰F, 1 pound of salt will only melt about 9 pounds of ice. And at +1⁰ F, 1 pound of salt will only melt about 4 pounds of ice. So the colder it gets, the more salt is needed to provide a given amount of ice melting action. once you get past -6 f you need to use something else use calcium or magnesium

Will definitely be doing this at my house in DFW Texas. We've been shut down because of rain and ice on roadways last 2 days. My driveway and street are just impassabl when the temp drops.

i have a saltwater aquarium. when i do water changes, i use the water i have taken out, as a driveway cleaner. have to be careful not to get it on where grass would grow, because you will find that grass no longer grows there. in addition, since it kills grass, it also kills weeds that grow in the cracks of the driveway

Does it stick to the bottom of your shoes when you walk to your car or enter your house?

Gravel on top of packed show is adequate

I thought he said he was going to do a follow up in his blog, but I can’t find the link

I had heard that spraying fertilizer will also clear ice

When I tried this, I couldn't get the damn deer off my driveway..... It was like a giant sweet/salty salt-lick....Unreal!!

If your sprayer leaks, white grease the gasket. The white lithium stuff. It will likely seal again.

You're still in some way using salt. One new application being used in Canada is a beet brine. Doesn't freeze on the surface like the water will.

I think investing in some gravel for beefing up the shoulders on both sides of your drive. Eliminate those problems. That’s such a steep incline.

U take your BBQ charcoal and grind it into a dust an scatter it over the snow. AS it absorbs the heat of the sun. It melts the ice an snow.

That's funny, I buy what they call Magic Salt, I has a brown color and smells like molasses.

I didn’t think molasses would run in January.

Supposedly you can dissolve full amounts of salt and of sugar in water without them interfering with each other as they occupy different spaces in the water.

Maybe you didn't see the video by The History Guy, about the big molasses explosion and flood in Boston.... 😎✌️

Have you tried Beet juice? Try it with your salt brine mixture w/o the molasses.

I have a 1/8th mile long driveway. I prefer the gravel for the flat area out to the road. The 300 feet or so up and down to the house is blacktop. We have 2 rules around here. #1 Don't ever drive up or down if the blacktop is all white. #2 If it might snow and you need to get out early in the morning, park up on the hill. I make sure to scrape the blacktop before allowing any use. So long as the vehicles don't pack the snow, it's like a 15-minute job to clear. I then just use a saltbox up on the hill. That is just a rubbermaid bin with 50-100lbs of rock salt and a sturdy plastic cup. I just toss a few cup fulls of the rock salt down the top of the hill, and it keeps any ice from forming. If someone loses it on my hill, they're going 80 feet down a steep ravine if a tree doesn't stop them.

Interesting but a little too time consuming for northern climates. That is one scary driveway though. If you have a quad or garden tractor consider getting some chains and a pull behind spreader for rock salt.

I’ve been using table salt for years ,those little 1 lbs cans , pre salting before the storm hits or anytime works . It’s easy to spread where you want it , rain washes it away. Ya you track some , but better than scooping or falling on ur butt !

Water is draining into the crack and making the crack worse. That is why the seam is dryer on the downhill side.

I understand that safety on your driveway is critical; for three years I had a house with a steep driveway in an area with snow on the ground from Thanksgiving (or earlier) through Easter! What are the short and long term effects of the salt regarding lawns, trees, shrubs, floral and vegetable gardens?

Well, I'm thinking that you are going to have a sticky residue left on your drive and walkway due to the molasses?!?. and (if) you walk on it then walk on your floors or carpet (if) you have that - that you will leave sticky residue on the floor (especially on carpet) tgat will be harder to clean. Now, aside from that - I would be curious about ants later on due to the sweetness of the molasses?!?!... and that's all I got to say about that.

A brine of beet juice, salt and water is used by many municipalities.

Plant more Hedges in the dangerous areas as buffers to stop you if you slide off

This is cool! Its also the same method used 1986 when Chernobyl nuclear power plant blew. The "Liquidators" would wash the radioactive dust off the streets using a product called “bourda” meaning molasses, however the bourda chemical that was used at the time was industrial waste from soviet distilleries. Helicopters would also spray the area to use as a dust suppressant.

The kitty cat sure ran up on you like on a brother from another mother.

How many gallons do you use to do your entire driveway?

All a salt brine will do in heavy snow, will make it easier for you to remove the snow

Did you make DRY BLACK ICE? ID NEED TO SEE THE SPRING AND SUMMER AFTER EFFECTS OF THE MOLASSES. DOES THE MOLASSES SPLASH UP UNDER YOUR CAR LIKE SALT? IS THE COMBINATION OF SALT AND MOLASSES MORE OR LESS CORROSIVE TO YOU AUTO? My guess is the molasses is going to hold the salt firmly in place on important parts of your car. Please follow this up with how well it worked.

I don't know where you are from, but the hiways department in northern B.C. have been doing this for years.

You should get yourself a backpack sprayer. They’re really cheap at Harbor freight.

Awesome, you just made motor vehicle dissolver! Super Corrosive.

Fish soap works for helping it stick, and also works for weed spray.

We use brine but no molasses & it works just great. Not sure I want stiky molasses on my laneway.

I enjoy watching these videos even though I’ll never need to use this in South Florida

Just some sand in a spreader and run up and down the driveway a couple times.

My first question is : Do you find you now have wildlife licking your driveway? The list of ingredients i think would be a high attractant .

10 10 10 fertilizer works very well too and adds friction.

The absolute best way I found to stop ice accumulation on my driveway was moving to Miami.

well, i dunno. If you have slipped off the driveway a couple of times, etc etc..... i got this idea. I would install rails made out of pvc pipe. A rail system like you have in car washes. Just to guide the tires so the vehicle will follow the track, slowly. And i would make it so that i can install it in the winter, but can take it out when i think i dont need it. holes in the road, rails with pins sticking into the ground, that kinda idea. And i would install a winch ontop of the hill to pull the vehicle up. With an automatic stop. So i can hook it up, and go get some coffee while the car parks itself. In my opinion the system would not have to be that expensive. Could be easily put together and taken apart. But, what also works is socks. Socks, to put around the tires. Not chains, but cloth, fibre, i dunno what they are made of. But i have seen em in action, and it works. They give a tremendous amount of grip on slippery surfaces. But this idea in the video? It is nice. But too much of a hassle in my opinion if you have the same problem every year. The rail and winch, easy enough to put in place when needed, and i think it is worth the investment if it saves you from sliding off the hill again and again, damaging cars and what not. The sock, worth a try. You can look it up on youtube. It basically wraps around the tire, just a piece of cloth made from some kind of material, i dunno, wool, cotton, je ne sais pas. But they do seem to work quite well.

All the wildlife stops by for the molasses salt lick 🤣Maybe peptin or something else besides molasses got me thinking...good ideal.

I'm glad you tried this so I didn't have to.....

Skip the salt and molasses. Mix 50% water (cool)and 50% beet juice. Put that in the pump sprayer and on the driveway and walkways.

Was looking forward to the follow up video but couldn't find it. This one didn't seem like a very good test of how well this stops snow and ice from accumulating on the driveway. Did it work in snowy conditions? Are you still using this?

According to what you said - you used more water to salt than the recipe called for - I'd up the salt content a bit and that will probably fix the slippery problem.