How to spread road salt
Updated: 23 October 2026
Frost is forecast and the bag in the porch is either a help or a way to make black ice. How to spread road salt, on a house path or drive, is a light scatter after you have moved the loose snow, not a bucket of water and not a kilogram on every square metre. The bags in the [road salt comparison](/hub/diy-supplies/road-salt) are sodium chloride. This page is the method. It does not rank them. The Products Compared editorial team updated this on 22 October 2026 from GOV.UK, the Met Office, HSE and the listings. We did not run a spreading trial. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
Frost is forecast and the bag in the porch is either a help or a way to make black ice.
Frost is forecast and the bag in the porch is either a help or a way to make black ice. How to spread road salt, on a house path or drive, is a light scatter after you have moved the loose snow, not a bucket of water and not a kilogram on every square metre. The bags in the road salt comparison are sodium chloride. This page is the method. It does not rank them. The Products Compared editorial team updated this on 22 October 2026 from GOV.UK, the Met Office, HSE and the listings. We did not run a spreading trial. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | How the listing says to spread | Title weight | BS 3247 line | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  Peacock Salt Peacock white de-icing salt, 20 kg | Scoop or spreader | 20 kg | Yes, BS 3247:2011 | 9.2 | about £15.80 | View offer |
| Alternative |  Munnie Munnie white de-icing salt, 10 kg | Hand, shovel or spreader | 10 kg | No | 9.2 | about £10.95 | View offer |
| Best value |  Peacock Salt Peacock white de-icing salt, 10 kg | Scoop, shovel or spreader | 10 kg, named for topping up a bin | Yes, BS 3247:2011 | 8.8 | about £8.95 | View offer |
On this page
Clear the loose snow first
Start while the snow is still loose. GOV.UK says you may clear a pavement if you are careful, and that you should do it early in the day. Shovel a path down the middle and widen it. Keep the pile off drains and off the neighbour’s cleared strip. A heap at the edge melts and then freezes across the strip you have just opened. Steps need more care than a flat path, because ice on a nosing is where people fall.
Do not pour water on it, hot or cold. The Met Office says salt or sand, not water. Water sits in the low spots and freezes into a sheet. Once the loose snow is off the walking line, a light dose is for the film that is left. If the path is a public road, leave it to the highway authority.
When to put the salt down
Put salt down before the frost bonds. BSI’s note on BS 3247 is that salt works better before ice packs. HSE, writing for workplaces, says grit early in the evening or early in the morning when frost is forecast, because salt needs time to dissolve. Heavy rain washes it off. Compacted ice is hard to treat. That page is a workplace note. It is not a legal duty on a householder, and it does not replace an employer’s plan. On a house path, early evening before an overnight frost, or early morning before anyone walks, is the useful window.
A council grit bin is not your store. GOV.UK says not to take salt from salting bins. The Met Office allows bin salt only if your council says otherwise. City of York Council has told residents they may use salt from public bins on paths, which is not the national line. Follow GOV.UK unless your own council has published a clear permission. What to read on a retail bag is the road salt buying guide.
How much to use
The house measure is the Met Office one: about a tablespoon of ordinary salt per square metre on the area you have cleared. You should still see the paving. NWSRG highway guidance, as summarised for this comparison, is about 10 to 20 grams per square metre before ice in normal conditions, and about 20 to 40 grams per square metre once ice has formed. That is a highway band, not a recipe for a retail bag and not a lowest melting temperature. A kilogram is not the same idea.
One review of the Peacock 20 kg bag says a quarter of the sack covered 5 square metres. That is about 1 kg per square metre. Call it overspreading. A spreader, which the Peacock bags name, helps you avoid dumps. Throw a little from a shovel and look. Colour does not change the rate. That choice is on the white or brown rock salt page.
What to do if you have no salt
Ash or sand gives grip. Neither melts ice. GOV.UK lists them when you cannot use salt. They are the better stand-in on new concrete, where a pile of chloride is the thing to avoid. Keep them, and the salt, off plants and grass. Do not hose brine into a bed. Stop when you can still see the surface. Do not salt a public road. A workplace follows the employer’s gritting plan, not a pet-friendly bullet on a retail bag.
Common questions
Do I salt before the frost or after the ice has packed?
Before, if you can. BSI says highway salt works better before ice packs, and HSE says workplace routes should be gritted early evening or early morning so the salt can dissolve. Once the ice is a solid sheet, shovel what you can and use a light scatter on what remains. A heavy dose is still the wrong fix.
Can I pour hot water on the path?
No. GOV.UK and the Met Office both say not to use water. Hot water melts a patch, runs to the edge and freezes into black ice while the air is still below freezing. Shovel the snow, then use salt or, if you have none, sand or ash for grip.
Can I take salt from the council grit bin?
Not as a general rule. GOV.UK says not to use salt from salting bins. The Met Office says you may only if your council says otherwise. Check your own council rather than copying another town. The bin is for the public route. Buy a bag if the path is yours.
How much is a tablespoon compared with 10 to 40 grams?
Treat them as the same kind of light dose. The Met Office tablespoon is the house measure per square metre of cleared path. The 10 to 20 gram and 20 to 40 gram bands are highway guidance before ice and after ice has formed. A review at about a kilogram per square metre was overspreading. Heaps mean you have gone past both.
Why did a review use a kilogram per square metre?
A buyer spread about a quarter of a 20 kg Peacock bag on 5 square metres. That dose is in a review. It is not a Met Office or NWSRG rate, and it is far above a tablespoon per square metre. Do not copy it.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources and the amazon.co.uk listings compared on this page. Updated 23 October 2026.
- BSI BS 3247:2011+A1:2016 (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- Highways Act 1980 section 41 (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- GOV.UK: clear snow from a road, path or cycleway (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- HSE: slips and trips FAQ (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- National Highways: winter driving (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- RSPCA: poisoning (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- Concrete Society: de-icing salts (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- NWSRG: spreading salt (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- Peacock Salt: brown salt versus white salt (retrieved 23 October 2026)
- Met Office: weather-ready tips for snow and ice (retrieved 23 October 2026)