Best way to remove ice?

-
4flats

4flats

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
879
Reaction score
5
Location
Morris, AL
Hopefully some of you Northerners (and Great Northerners) can help me here. I still have about 4 inches of ice on my back deck. The deck is treated lumber. It's getting up to low 30s in the daytime and mid teens at night, so it never really melts off, just re-freezes harder. The deck is about 4' off the ground, so it is the first thing to freeze.
What is the best way to clear this off. I don't have a plastic shovel, and I don't want to "gouge-up" the wood. I've been breaking it up with a dead-blow and pitching it off, but it is slow, and still leaves a thin, slippery layer. Is there a secret?
 
wait until tomorrow, we are supposed to get to the forties on Fri. I know the feeling since I am just down the road. So ready for spring, Joe
 
X2!

I am up in Canada and I only use a plastic shovel on my deck. If it doesn't come off with the shovel, it stays until it melts.

Jack
 
red67gts said:
wait until tomorrow, we are supposed to get to the forties on Fri. I know the feeling since I am just down the road. So ready for spring, Joe
Click to expand...
I hate waiting!!

I'm thinking about laying down a tarp this weekend, we are supposed to get another round Sunday, then pull it up Monday.

I know we sound like pansies for complaining about a little ice, but it really is rare to get this kind of build up for this long. You know how everyone up north says we can't drive insnow? Well we can't walk on it either!
 
You might try laying some black plastic over the ice on the deck. If the sun is shining, it will heat the plastic up and help the ice melt faster.
 
You can get a good quality rubber garden hose and hook it to the bottom of your hot water heater and melt it off with hot water and a power washer if you have one. As long as the water wont run off and create another ice problem.
 
Clean off what you can with the shovel. get it down as far as you can.
Then throw a light coat of sand on it. That way you won't slip as easy.
It should help to melt the ice when in warms up, due to the darker color.
You could also sweep it off at the bottom to get as much off as possible.
 
I say use a torch but that might burn your deck up:-\"
Or you could just turn it into an ice skating rink and have fun:-D
 
I was gonna say grab a bag of ice-melt, but they probably don't stock it down there. It must be a PITA trying to deal with ice when you don't have the tools or experience to deal with it. Salt will melt the ice but probably is not good for the wood. Somebody above said black plastic, thinking that is probably your best bet.
 
Get out the propane torch and do it like a real redneck.
 
OK, believe it or not, my wife stopped me as I was heading out the door with my propane torch. She reminded me of the brush-pile/gasoline incident a few years back.

They do sell rock-salt here... in 2lb boxes for making ice cream!

Thanks for all the suggestions, half of the deck is in the shade all day, but the real problem area is the stairs, they wrap around one level of the deck on three sides, thus have no handrail. I have a couple of bags of sand, and I'll keep working at it with the dead-blow.


Ice sucks.
 
4flats said:
OK, believe it or not, my wife stopped me as I was heading out the door with my propane torch. She reminded me of the brush-pile/gasoline incident a few years back.

They do sell rock-salt here... in 2lb boxes for making ice cream!

Thanks for all the suggestions, half of the deck is in the shade all day, but the real problem area is the stairs, they wrap around one level of the deck on three sides, thus have no handrail. I have a couple of bags of sand, and I'll keep working at it with the dead-blow.


Ice sucks.
Click to expand...

what happened did you burn your eyebrows off:toothy10: a neighbor tried that a few years ago with leaf piles before they sold there house sounded about like a bomb going off the leaves never stood a chance8) of course neither did there eyebrows
 
66plyValiant said:
what happened did you burn your eyebrows off:toothy10: a neighbor tried that a few years ago with leaf piles before they sold there house sounded about like a bomb going off the leaves never stood a chance8) of course neither did there eyebrows
Click to expand...

Do you live near me?

Yes, knocked me unconscious for a couple of minutes (acording to my wife), sounded like a semi hit the side of the house (acording to my wife), I'm sure the mushroom cloud was visible from space, burned off my eyebrows, a good portion of my hair, all the hair off 1 leg and 1 arm. I looked like I fell asleep on the beach half buried in the sand and I had a job interview the next day. I got the job.

My wife no longer allows me to use fire to solve my problems.
 
I use rock salt or Quick Joe on my treated wood decks and it doesn't hurt them. Been doing it for about 25 years and the decks are still intact.
 
Take a shovel and crack the top layer of ice, then shovel the ice off . . . thn take a street broom and brush the snow off.
 
You can get large 50 lbs bags of rock salt at water treatment stores-Places that sell water softeners. Or the Orange Crush (Home Depo).
 
OK, I'll let you in on a little secret a friend taught me- you know that garden hose we all have?

Well why is it only cold water? Why do we need hot water in every other place where there is cold water- except outdoors?

Hook up a hot water line outside, or splice in a hot water line in the basement to the outdoor cold line using a few valves.

I have a tankless water heater, and just today I turned that f-er up to 140 degrees and melted all the ice and snow off the walkway, deck, driveway, and a few gutters.

No tracking salt or sand in the house- but just make sure there is somewhere for the runoff to go and not get trapped with the snow.

And in the summer, I turn it down to 98 and fill the kids' pool- no more waiting 3 days for the freezing water to warm up and fill with bugs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top