4 Reasons to Hire a Professional Road Gritter for Your Rural Property

Winter is coming, and this means cold weather. As the mercury falls, the chance of snow and ice on the roads increases. Gritting roads with road salt helps to alleviate the impacts of low temperatures and snowfall. Unfortunately, many rural roads remain without grit, regardless of conditions outside. Here are four reasons why rural dwellers should consider making their own arrangements.

Preventative Gritting

Preventative gritting is much more economical than the alternative. The rock salt that gritters lay down lowers the melting point of snow and ice. Preventative gritting ensures that there is a layer of rock salt waiting for whatever snow might fall. This layer of rock salt will cause snow and ice to melt instead of settling and creating hazards and obstructions.

If you wait until after the snow has fallen before you call in the gritters, they will need to use at least twice as much grit to have the same effect. Gritting services in anticipation of snowfall is a far more effective tactic than waiting until after ice and snow have blanketed surfaces of concern.

Councils will grit roads when they deem it necessary, but this system isn’t perfect. For one thing, the council can’t reach every back road and rural area. They have even had to hire farmers to help them grit all the roads in recent years. In fact, some farms like Hill View Farms provide gritting services to customers in rural Buckinghamshire. You can take advantage of these gritting services to ensure that roads and other surfaces around your property are safe. In addition to their gritting services, they also provide snow clearing when needed.

Snow Clearing

If you can foresee incoming snowfall, you can pre-empt it by gritting your roads ahead of its arrival. However, snow can fall unexpectedly. When it does, it presents an additional logistical challenge for gritters. Before they can grit the roads, any snow that has accumulated will need to be cleared away. If you don’t have the right equipment for this job, it can be a real pain to deal with.

Many professional gritting services will also provide snow clearing services to anyone that needs them. Clearing snow before gritting is more efficient than dumping right on top of the snow and waiting for it to melt.

Choosing the Right Salt

Most people are unaware that there are different types of road salt on the market. The size of the grain that you use will determine how long it takes to melt snow and show results. Smaller grains tend to sink and become diluted by the slush, causing them to lose their effectiveness rapidly.

On the other hand, coarser grains will take longer to show results. However, their effect will last longer, meaning surfaces stay free of ice and snow for longer. The best results come from using a combination of different grain types.

Access Areas the Council Won’t

Rural dwellers looking for guarantees that someone will grit the roads around their property when necessary might need to take matters into their own hands. Hiring a gritting service yourself ensures that important surfaces are safe when snow and ice are likely to be present. Remember, councils aren’t legally obligated to grit every single surface. With winter inbound and covid still biting, expect fewer gritters on the road than in most years.

Gritting roads and other surfaces is essential for keeping them safe when the temperature plummets. Without gritters to lay rock salt on the roads, snow and ice will accumulate freely. It only takes a small amount of either to create hazards for drivers and pedestrians. Hiring a private gritting service ensures that roads around your rural property remain safe regardless of snowfall.