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Not all gritting salt is the same: why we spread white
Look at a gritted car park the morning after and you can often tell which salt was used. Some are dusted clean white. Others look like someone has scattered brown sugar, with a gritty trail leading through reception by 9am.
Both types do the same job: lowering the freezing point of water so ice can’t form or hold. What differs is where they come from, what else is in them, and what they leave behind.
White marine salt: what we use
White de-icing salt comes from seawater, harvested by solar evaporation. Seawater is run through shallow pools in the Mediterranean sun until only salt crystals remain. Peacock Salt, where we buy all our salt, describes it as almost 100% sodium chloride (with a small amount of anti-caking agent to keep it free-flowing) and says it meets BS 3247:2011, the British Standard for de-icing salt.
What that means for your site:
- Almost every grain does the job. There’s very little in it that isn’t salt.
- No gritty residue. Nothing is left behind once the ice has gone, so there’s nothing to sweep up.
- No brown staining. White salt dissolves away rather than marking pale flooring, carpets, paintwork or vehicles when it’s trodden in.
The honest trade-offs: it costs slightly more per tonne than rock salt, and being white, it can be harder to see on frosty ground. We think the clean-up you avoid makes up for both.
Rock salt: the traditional alternative
Rock salt is mined from underground deposits in the UK. It’s brown because of the impurities that come out of the ground with it: around 94% salt, with the rest clay, sand, iron oxide and other minerals that don’t dissolve. That’s the gritty brown residue you see left behind.
It’s slightly cheaper, which is why councils and highway authorities, treating huge lengths of road, often use it, and the grit adds a little traction on slopes.
For most commercial sites, though, the residue, the staining and the clean-up outweigh that.
Better for the planet, too
White marine salt is a natural product of the sun and the sea, rather than something mined for the purpose. We also look at how it gets to us. Our salt arrives through Avonmouth, and we use local hauliers who carry grain for export to the docks, then load up with our salt for the return journey. That’s a lorry that would otherwise travel back empty, so it puts fewer extra miles on local roads.
A word on metal
All de-icing salt is sodium chloride and hard on metal, white or brown. Where a client asks, we treat mezzanine-type surfaces with Procoat, a low-corrosion de-icer from Peacock Salt. It contains a corrosion inhibitor and is described as having up to 70% less impact on metals than other de-icers. It works down to -7°C and costs more than standard salt, so we use it where there’s a reason, not across a whole site.
So which should you choose?
For most commercial sites (car parks, access roads, loading areas, entrances), white marine salt is the clean, predictable choice, and it’s what we spread as standard. If you have a mezzanine or metal walkway, tell us when you send your marked-up Google Earth image of the site, and we’ll recommend what suits it, with a bespoke, no-obligation quote, often the same day.
Get in touch for a no-obligation quote.
Sources
- Peacock Salt, Why you need white de-icing salt — solar evaporation of Mediterranean seawater, almost 100% sodium chloride with anti-caking agents, BS 3247:2011, rock salt supply limits.
- Peacock Salt, White De-Icing Salt — graded particle sizes, free-flowing.
- Peacock Salt, Procoat Low Corrosion De-icer — corrosion inhibitor, “up to 70%” reduced impact on metals, works to -7°C.
- Haulier back-loading, Procoat use on mezzanines on request, rock salt composition (about 94% salt): supplied by Gloucestershire Gritting.