Salting vs. Sanding vs. De-Icing: What Your Property Needs

Snow & Winter · Published September 17, 2026

Snow clearing gets the attention, but ice control is what actually prevents falls. Salting, sanding and de-icing are three different tools, and knowing what each does helps you get the right winter program for your property.

Salting: Melting the Ice

Rock salt (sodium chloride) lowers the freezing point of water, melting existing ice and preventing new ice from bonding to the surface. It's the workhorse of ice control for driveways, walkways and parking lots. Its limitation is temperature — standard salt loses effectiveness in extreme cold, which London does see.

Sanding: Traction, Not Melting

Sand doesn't melt anything — it provides grit for traction on top of ice. It's useful in very cold snaps when salt won't work, or as a supplement on steep or high-traffic areas. Sand needs cleanup in spring and works best combined with, not instead of, de-icers.

De-Icing: The Broader Category

"De-icing" covers salt and alternative melt products, some of which work at lower temperatures or are gentler on concrete and landscaping. A good program matches the product to the conditions and the surface — newer concrete and salt-sensitive plantings sometimes call for alternatives.

What Your Property Actually Needs

Most London properties need salting as the core ice-control method, with sanding held in reserve for deep cold and steep zones. Commercial sites with heavy foot traffic need a consistent salting program tied to ice triggers, not just snow. Our commercial snow removal page explains how ice management fits into a commercial contract.

Timing Is Everything

The best ice control is applied before ice forms — ahead of freezing rain or an overnight refreeze — not after someone's already slipped. That's why monitoring and a defined ice trigger matter as much as the product itself. See our snow removal page to set up a program.