Road salt and grit sand

Road salt and grit sand are the basic anti-skid materials used for the winter maintenance of roads, pavements and car parks: an effective way to reduce slippery surfaces in low temperatures.

They are ordered regularly for the whole winter season by highway authorities, housing associations and snow-clearing contractors.

Road salt and grit sand are often included in tender specifications issued by local authorities and highway authorities for the whole winter season. In such cases, it is worth agreeing a schedule of successive deliveries with the supplier rather than buying the entire planned quantity at once. These products complement our range of grit and salt bins with ready-to-use material for filling the bins.

Winter surface maintenance usually relies on sodium chloride in its road-grade form, which differs from table salt in the size and uniformity of its grains. The coarser fraction adheres better to icy surfaces and dissolves more slowly, extending the period of effective action between successive applications.

A sand and salt mix, combining both materials in the right proportion, reduces the amount of salt used while maintaining similar anti-skid performance. The sand mainly increases friction mechanically, while the salt lowers the freezing point of water on the surface. Such a mix is often preferred by managers of green areas adjacent to pavements, where excess pure salt could harm vegetation.

Road salt must be protected from ambient moisture during storage. Damp salt cakes and loses the free-flowing quality needed for even spreading by a gritter. Bins with tight-fitting lids, designed specifically for this purpose, protect the material stock throughout the season.

Excessive use of road salt has an adverse effect on roadside greenery and on soil structure in the road verge. For this reason, more and more local authorities are switching to mixes with a reduced chloride content or using salt only on the most critical sections, such as junctions, pedestrian crossings and driveways, while leaving flat, less frequented stretches of pavement to mechanical snow clearing without gritting.

When planning an order for the whole season, it is advisable to estimate requirements based on the length of the footways maintained and on data from previous winters. Insufficient stocks risk running out in the middle of a cold spell, while over-ordering generates storage costs for material that is partly carried over to the following season.

The material can be ordered either loose, delivered by lorry directly to the storage site, or in bags. The latter option works well for smaller orders and wherever convenient manual dosing is important when gritting individual stretches of pavement.