How to De-Ice a Floor

With winter comes snow-covered trees, sledding and the holiday season. It also means snow shoveling, slush and ice-covered ground. Removing ice from your driveway or sidewalk is fairly easy, as you can use a metal-edged shovel to break up the ice, and the chemical makeup of your ice melting pellets is less of a concern. If you are trying to remove the ice from your wooden deck, front stoop or patio floor, you must be a little more careful to not cause damage. Depending on the ice that's covering your floor, there are a couple of different ways to attack the problem.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic snow shovel
• Magnesium chloride ice melting pellets
• Cat litter

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Chip away at the ice using a snow shovel. Be sure to use a plastic snow shovel, not a metal-edged one, to prevent damage to the floor beneath the snow. Once the sheet of ice is broken into smaller bits and pieces, shovel the ice away.

   • 2

     Spread magnesium chloride across the ice. Evenly and sparingly distribute the ice melter. This will slowly melt the ice away. Avoid calcium chloride or sodium chloride, as this can damage the floor below.

   • 3

     Spread non-clumping cat litter across the ice once most of it has been removed. The cat litter helps prevent the recurrence of ice. At the end of the season, the cat litter can be washed or swept away.