How to Make Sodium Chloride Cakes for Melting Snow on a Roof

Sodium chloride is also known as rock salt and is the most common form of ice melter. This is because sodium chloride is less expensive than other ice melters (such as calcium chloride). Rock salt is effective down to roughly 20 degrees Fahrenheit. If you wish to make your own ice melting devices using sodium chloride, rather than continuing to purchase sodium chloride cakes, you can easily do so. The process requires an old pair of stockings and can be completed fairly quickly.

Sodium chloride ice-melting pellets
Nylon stockings
Ladder

Instructions

- 1
  Fill the legs of an old pair of stockings with sodium chloride. Tie the stockings off at the waist. Repeat the process to create enough sodium chloride stockings to cover the entire roof, with one placed every 3 feet.
- 2
  Use a ladder to access the roof. Have someone hold the ladder in place. It can be dangerous in the ice and snow of the winter.
- 3
  Place one foot of the stocking just over the edge of the roof, so that it hangs just over the gutter. Set the other leg 180 degrees from the first leg, so that the stockings form a straight line, perpendicular to the roof ridge. Place a pair of stockings every 3 feet to melt snow and ice across the entire roof.

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