Ice Melt & Salt Calculator
How much de-icer a driveway and walk actually need, at the low rate that clears ice without wasting salt or burning your lawn, with a heads-up when your winter runs too cold for rock salt.
Set your place to check if it runs too cold for rock salt.
Rates, and the cold-weather catch
On a cleared surface, ordinary rock salt (sodium chloride) clears ice at one to three pounds per thousand square feet, up to four for ice already bonded to the pavement. More than that is waste that runs off into soil and streams. The catch is temperature: salt works fast near freezing but slows sharply as it drops, and below about minus nine degrees Celsius (fifteen Fahrenheit) it barely melts at all. In a cold snap, switch to calcium or magnesium chloride, which work far colder, or to sand for traction.
Rates follow the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program. Over-salting harms plants, pets, concrete, and waterways; use the least that works.