Don’t Slip! – How to Deice Your Walkways
Other than other drivers on the road, the most dangerous aspect of winter in Minnesota is snow/ice on walkways. Thousands of people every year fall and injure themselves while they lose their footing. Injured backs, legs, and wrists are just the start. As a knowledgeable snow removal company
in the Minneapolis area, we are here to offer some advice how to prevent the ice in the first place and what to do when it does build up. Here’s our list of options on how to deice your walkways.
Shoveling
This is the first step to deicing your walkways. If you clear the snow quickly and before it has been trampled too much, you will greatly decrease the amount of snow and ice on the walkway. The biggest factor to keeping the ice down is to shovel as often and as soon as you can. Preventing the rock hard ice build up on the walkway is crucial. You can also snow blow the walkways but sometimes that leaves a little film on the walkway which can freeze and cause issues.
Shoveling can be quite hard, especially on large snowfalls so you can always hire a reliable snow removal company
who can handle walkways, stairs, and stoops.
Regular Ice Melt
This is your prototypical ice melt that is cheap and easy to use. This has worked for many years and will continue to work. There are a couple of issues with it. It typically only works to about 15 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit. So when the temperature drops, it becomes kind of useless. The cheaper version of this product can also damage concrete that has not been cured correctly. It certainly damages plants and grass along a walkway. That will leave you with work to do in the spring to clean up the mess.
Rock Salt
Rock salt is a different kind of salt from the normal salt and de-icer you see at a hardware store. The chemical make up of this salt makes it even better at melting ice and at lower temperatures. It also has much larger crystals so they’re easier to see and provide some traction by themselves. However, it can harm painted things like decks and stairs and is also quite bad for grass and plants near walkways. So while relatively cheap and works at lower temperatures, it’s not always a great option
Salt/Sand
This is a mix of sand and coarse salt. It can be mixed on site or bought together pre-mixed. The idea here is that the sand provides traction and helps rough up with the ice/snow and the salt will help melt it. This is great to use when the temperatures have dropped to dangerously low levels. The sand will at least provide some traction even when the deicer is not working.
Environmentally Friendly Ice Melt
Becoming more aware of climate change and the impacts that our deeds have on the environment as a whole has become much more prevalent in the last few years. The deicing industry has followed suit. There are products that are much less harmful for grass, pets, plants, and hard surfaces. These products are made form a different chemical make up than normal salt. As with other environmentally friendly products, the process of making the safe chemicals means they cost more than standard deicing products. For some people, the piece of mind is worth the extra few dollars.
So there are some option for how to deice your walkways. If you’re looking for professional, reliable snow removal help on your walkways, please fill out a quick quote on our website
and we’ll get you all set up.
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When Pergolas Don’t Last, There’s Always a Reason After nearly two decades of building outdoor spaces across Medina, I’ve seen what happens when pergolas aren’t designed for Minnesota’s conditions. You can spot them a mile away—posts that lean, beams that twist, and concrete pads that have heaved out of level after just a couple of winters. It’s not because homeowners cut corners intentionally. It’s usually because whoever built it didn’t account for what our climate really does to structures that aren’t anchored right. Medina’s heavy clay soil doesn’t drain well. It holds moisture, freezes solid, and then expands like a hydraulic press pushing on everything above it. When pergolas are set on surface-level post bases, that pressure has nowhere to go but up—and the whole thing moves. Even small shifts can cause joints to separate, wood to crack, and hardware to loosen. That’s how a $15,000 structure starts looking tired after a few years instead of standing straight for decades. The truth is, pergolas here aren’t just about shade or looks. They’re about structure, drainage, and how every piece ties into the patio beneath it. A pergola that stands tall through Minnesota winters is built on the same principles as a good foundation—it’s only as strong as what’s underneath it. If you live in Medina and want to enjoy your backyard without worrying about your investment warping or sagging, start with design that respects the environment it’s built in. That means thinking beyond lumber and stain colors. It means understanding soil movement, water management, and the importance of integrating your pergola with the patio below it.

Solutions for Properties in Minnetonka You can always tell a Minnetonka yard that’s fighting its slope. Water doesn’t lie, it finds the weak spots every time. I’ve walked plenty of properties where a backyard starts beautiful in June, but by September, the patio is heaving, the grass near the pool looks like a marsh, and the homeowner is wondering how it got so bad so fast. The truth is, when you’re dealing with rolling terrain and heavy clay soils like we have around Minnetonka, you can’t just move dirt and hope gravity behaves. You need a plan that manages water from the surface all the way down through the subsoil. This is what I’ll walk you through here. You’ll see what actually causes drainage issues on sloped properties, how poor planning leads to cracked patios and shifting pool decks, and the smart drainage systems that can stop those problems for good. Whether you live near Lake Minnetonka or up in the higher ridges closer to Deephaven or Woodland, understanding how your yard sheds water is the difference between a property that lasts and one that’s constantly under repair. The Real Challenge of Sloped Minnetonka Yards Minnetonka is known for its hills, lakefront properties, and mature trees, but all that beauty comes with a set of challenges below the surface. Most of the soil here is dense clay. It holds water like a sponge and drains slowly, which means after every heavy rain, that water looks for a way downhill. If it doesn’t have a proper outlet, it ends up collecting right where you don’t want it, like along your patio, at the base of a retaining wall, or near your pool deck. I see this every season: homeowners trying to solve slope problems with a quick regrade, a layer of rock, or a simple surface drain. Those things might help for a while, but they don’t address what’s really happening underground. Clay soil doesn’t just get wet—it becomes saturated, expanding and contracting with every freeze-thaw cycle. When that happens under a patio or wall, it doesn’t matter how well-built the surface looks. The ground will move, and that movement cracks stone, shifts pavers, and slowly tears apart everything on top. The other challenge with sloped lots is how water interacts with gravity. It accelerates downhill, gaining momentum as it goes. When it hits a flat area like a patio, the water loses speed but not volume, pooling instead of flowing. That’s why I tell clients that “flat spots” on a sloped property are both an opportunity and a responsibility. They’re the best spaces to create usable outdoor areas, but they have to be engineered to handle water movement. I’ve worked on plenty of Minnetonka yards where the backyard has a beautiful view but terrible grading. You can have a perfect slope on paper, but if it directs water toward your house or creates a bowl effect between structures, you’ll end up with soggy soil and standing puddles that never dry. The goal is to move water off and away while keeping the surface level enough for comfort and usability. It’s a fine balance, but when it’s done right, it completely transforms how a property functions.