Traction Grit.

Use traction grit when pavement temperature is below –25 °C and chloride de-icers are no longer effective, when you are in an environmentally sensitive area where chloride application is restricted or banned (well-head protection, fish-bearing stream buffer, sensitive wetland), when you are treating a gravel or unpaved surface where salt would dissolve into the substrate, or when you are supplementing salt application on slope or step surfaces where pedestrian traction matters more than ice removal. Most commercial Canadian properties south of the 60th parallel use chloride de-icers as the primary tool and reserve traction grit for occasional cold snaps and stair landings. Northern Canadian municipalities and many rural properties use traction grit as the primary tool because chloride is ineffective for too much of the season.

Match gradation to surface and traffic. For sidewalks, condo walkways, ADA-compliant ramps, and pedestrian-only surfaces, 2–4 mm grit provides best traction-per-square-foot without bouncing under foot traffic or rolling on stairs. For commercial parking lots and light-duty roads, 3–6 mm is the standard — large enough to embed into ice for vehicle tire traction, small enough to avoid windshield damage. For municipal road operations and highway shoulders, 4–8 mm is preferred because the larger aggregate stays in place longer under traffic and is easier to recover through spring sweeping. Gradation under 2 mm contributes to PM10 air quality issues and is typically rejected by procurement specifications. All material must be washed to remove dust and tested for absence of salt residue (which would defeat the no-melt purpose).

Yes — and it is a common municipal practice in the southern Prairies, northern Ontario, and parts of Québec where pavement temperatures swing between effective-salt and below-effective-salt range through a single shift. Typical blend ratios are 70 % salt / 30 % grit for routine de-icing on a mixed-temperature day, 50/50 for borderline temperatures, and 30 % salt / 70 % grit for deep-cold operations where the salt is mostly providing chloride for any warming spell and the grit is providing the immediate traction. Pre-blending at the salt dome with a front-end loader is the standard method; ready-blended product can be ordered from suppliers but costs 10–20 % more per tonne than blending on-site.

Spring grit cleanup is a multi-step process that runs from late March through mid-May in most Canadian municipalities. First pass is a mechanical street sweeper (rotary broom or regenerative-air) that recovers 60–70 % of applied grit on paved surfaces. Second pass is a flush-and-vacuum sweeper or a water-truck-and-broom combination that picks up another 15–20 % of fines and grit embedded in pavement micro-texture. Landscape beds adjacent to treated walkways are hand-raked and the grit recovered for re-use. Storm drains are vacuum-cleaned to remove grit that washed in with snowmelt. Total municipal grit cleanup runs roughly $4,000–$12,000 per kilometre of road, and commercial spring cleanup of parking lots runs $0.05–$0.15 per square foot. Recovered grit is screened, washed, and re-stockpiled for the following winter.

Bulk truck quantities of traction grit ship from regional aggregate quarries — every Canadian province has multiple sources of screened, washed winter sand and traction grit. We hold supply contracts with regional aggregate producers and deliver to depots in every province with 48–96 hour lead time. For 25 kg bag retail quantities, Home Depot Canada, Canadian Tire, and Rona stock winter sand and traction grit through the fall and winter — typically marketed as "ice melt sand" or "winter traction sand". For 1 tonne bulk bag quantities, landscape-supply yards in every major Canadian city stock both screened limestone and screened silica sand. Pricing runs $60–$180 per tonne delivered depending on gradation, quarry distance, and freight volume.