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In this video I want to talk to you about a winter traction aid that I have found that solves a lot of problems
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I mean in the past I've used salt and sand on my walkways and I really don't like either of those
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I don't like ice melting products either for a couple of reasons. First of all you end up tracking them in all over the place
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They don't actually work all that well. They can only melt a little bit of ice
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Sand provides decent traction, but only on glare ice not on the variety of conditions we we see here
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So I really haven't been keeping up with those things and just kind of putting up with a slippery walkway until now
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But I have found this stuff which I really like. It's called lava grip and
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it's mined from a volcano in British Columbia, Canada believe it or not
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One of the reasons I like this because it actually works and it works in a lot of different conditions too
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Part of that has to do with the particle size. There's some pretty big chunks in here
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Small ones too, but the larger sized particles mean that it means that it works on glare ice as
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well as on slosh and thicker ice and snowy conditions like you see here
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So another reason I like it is because it's actually fairly breakable. I mean as rocks go. Each particle is more breakable
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than say regular stone and that's a good thing because it means that
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fresh sharp traction promoting surfaces and edges and corners and things are always being
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revealed. So it keeps on working for a long time. Another reason I like it is because there's no
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possibility of harming our pets around here because the ice melting products by definition
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must release heat. That's how they work. That's how they melt ice, but
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those chemicals can injure the feet of dogs and cats and irritate them too
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So I like the fact that this is basically inert. It's not going to hurt anyone
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Another reason I like it and I'm gonna like it more in the spring than I do now, but this actually has some measurable amounts of
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plant nutrients in it. So phosphorus, potassium, other things. Not a huge amount
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but at least it's not going to hurt your lawn and it's not going to kill your flowers
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So in the spring you can do one of two things. You can just sweep it off onto the grass or flower bed and it's actually going to do those plants some good or you can
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sweep it up and put it back in the container and use it again next winter. So it's kind of recyclable that way and this means that you're not going to need very much of it
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I think for a walkway and step arrangement in a typical Canadian winter around here anyway, I don't think you'd go through more than a jug of these in a season
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So it's pretty economical too and works quite well and one other thing because it's dark
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although it doesn't melt snow or ice chemically because it's dark in color
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it catches the solar energy and warms up on sunny days and actually starts to melt down and even improve traction more
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So yeah, a few reasons why I like this stuff
