In northern New Jersey it won’t be long until you are going to have to start thinking about winter and ice melt products. When the cold season gets here you know Passaic County and the surrounding areas will be in for some snow and ice storms, including “Nor’ Easters.” Bagged rock salt is the best and easiest product to use when removing ice and snow.
How Much Rock Salt Do I Need?
To even begin to figure out how much bagged rock salt you will need you have to have an idea of how much ice and snow you might get in northern New Jersey.
On average the area gets 15-30″ of snow annually. The figure in some areas can reach as high as 40-50″ for a season. These figures can vary widely though. To compound the issue “Nor’ Easter’s” can bring blizzard conditions that further complicate determining how much rock salt you need.
Factors That Determine How Much Ice Melt is Needed
There are several major factors that go into figuring out how much bagged rock salt you will need. Some of these include the:
- Size of your property.
- Terrain of that property (level, sloping, hills and valleys).
- Temperature range you have to deal with.
- Amount of snow and ice expected.
- General weather conditions (wind, rain before icing, blizzard).
- Length of the storm.
How Much Bagged Rock Salt Do I Really Need?
So let’s look at how much ice melt product you may need. A 50-pound bag of the material will hold about 80 cups. One cup will melt about 20 square feet of ice. So one bag will typically take care of about 1600 square feet.
You can figure an average home has about 1000 square feet of driveways and walkways, including steps. From these figures, one bag will take care of about one-and-a-half snowstorms. If you have 15 such weather events you would need at least 10 bags of product.
The computations get a little more complex for a larger area. If you have one acre to deal with that’s a little over 43,000 square feet. Dividing that figure by 1600 would give you about 27 bags! For multiple storms you would need hundreds of bags or quite a few pallets, and possibly even a truckload.
Bagged Rock Salt – You Will Need It
In northern New Jersey you know you will need bagged rock salt to melt snow and ice. Figuring out how much you need depends on a few factors. Just figure wisely, err on the side of caution and keep the product on hand.
