How to Grit a Path and Avoid Slips this Winter
Slip and trip accidents can become a severe hazard in the UK as the snow begins to fall and ice begins to set on surfaces during the winter months.
There are several reasons why the autumn and winter months can create more Health and Safety hazards for pedestrians, but you’ll be pleased to know there are practical solutions to reduce the risk of a slip or trip.
Countrywide Grounds Maintenance, experts in gritting, snow removal and winter maintenance, can help your business battle the winter elements and increase the safety of your employees and visitors.
What is a common cause of slip accidents in the winter?
Anything that has a risk of causing harm would be considered a hazard. Each site is different, and that’s why you need to carry out a risk assessment per site. If you are unsure how to create a risk assessment, we can help with our years of experience.
Common hazards include sloped walkways, speed bumps, concrete bollards and curbs.
Do you put grit down before snow?
The best practice is to spread grit across the surface before snowfall begins. This gives your surface the best chance to halt the frost from settling and creating a slippery surface, potentially leading to injuries.
Using Advanced Weather Forecasting, Countrywide Grounds Maintenance can identify when the temperatures will drop below 3 degrees, alert our customers, and deploy our gritting teams the same day. Then, our expert operatives can spread the grit before the frost has had a chance to settle in.
How do you grit a path?
If the snow is only 2-3 cm deep, spreading salt will generally melt it and stop light falls from settling. If you were to apply grit yourself then a shovel or scoop would work well on a small scale area such as a path. For longer term solutions, you can contact Countrywide Grounds Maintenance whose operatives use pedestrian salt spreaders to cover the area. Our local teams also have dedicated gritting machinery to tackle larger surface areas and sites, such as roads and car parks.
Where do you get road grit from?
Local areas may have salt bins available, however these are for public use not private property use. Countrywide Grounds Maintenance can help you keep your own grit stocked up. We keep high quality rock salt to the side so that we can keep clients and their businesses winter proofed and safe.
How do you book winter maintenance?
Contact your local Countrywide Grounds Maintenance team to reduce the risk of slip and trip accidents on your site. We always put our customers’ needs first. This ensures that we consistently deliver a unique, high-quality service that satisfies the requirements of each contract, its sites and stakeholders.