Please learn from my BAD experience! Alcohol can freeze, too!
With all this God-awful weather we've been having, despite having shoveled the porch, walk, and driveway, we have about 1-2" of solid ice on our walkways. Our walkways were replaced, at great expense, about 5 years ago, and since then, my husband won't allow any kind of salt on the cement, because it causes spalling and other problems.
So, anyway, I had a bright idea. I read about using alcohol on your walkways to defrost them. I nearly fell with every step I took, this afternoon, just trying to go out to the car to pick up Matthew from school. So, I picked him up, and drove to Walgreens to get some rubbing alcohol. We bought 2 bottles of rubbing alcohol, and I'm so very glad I did not buy more.
When we got home, I poured the alcohol on the walkway and the porch. BAD IDEA. It is still so cold that the alcohol gelled, and then froze into a sort of snotty mess, slicker than the bare ice below it.
The ONLY way to get into and out of the house now, until it warms up, is to stomp our way on the piles of shoveled snow, up to the house, and then there is one toe hold of bare cement behind the Chinese lion dog. I can stand on this one toe hold, by grabbing the door casing and the window shutter, and unlock the door. Then, by swinging the other leg, I can get a purchase on the doorway, and get into the house.
It does not help that the concrete guy, over my protestations, did not install a step, but installed a ramp instead. This means that just to stand up, one has to grab onto the shrubs, or whoopee!
At any rate, it is supposed to be REALLY cold again tomorrow, and this is going to be a slick, snotty mess until it warms up.
Just so you know, don't try this...
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I wonder if it makes any difference that I got this kind os alcohol, rather then isoproyl alcohol...
Do NOT try this!
''A snotty mess''....LOL, not that I don't take this serious, since you can really hurt yourself on ice. But the visual of this snotty mess was just too much.
Not to make lite of you sliping on the ice but,.....
We have plenty of bourbon to use, but that seemed to be sacrilege...
Oh my gosh! It sticks to your shoe until you get inside, and then it evaporates and smells strongly of alcohol... Until then, it's a slick, snotty mess... EW!
I have osteoparesis, so I'm careful not to fall, if I can help it. All I need right now is a broken bone...
Wish I had some... Got them at Mama's but not here.
We may have to go out, pry some wood loose, and fire up the fireplace. Sigh!
All we have is bourbon. Hmmm! I hate to use our good bourbon on the sidewalk...
That is also an idea! I thought about taking the hair dryer out there and working on the porch... Our pouring boiling water on it. No matter what I think of, it will make it worse.
Great song! Thanks! I was ready for some sweetness!
cat litter ?
Dowser, some of your stories are so hilarious ! I don't mean to make light of your distressing situation but the mental picture of you trying to get back and forth from your door to the car is really funny.
Put the Voka back in the freezer now, you've had enough lol
Oh Dear Dowser...it could only happen to you.....maybe try sand???
The picture in your article is 70% alcohol. I always buy 90% alcohol, but I wouldn't recommend that anyway. Maybe this may work for you.....
IF I can get out tomorrow, I will try to find some! Thank you!
This is what our front porch is like:
I was thinking of sawdust, but don't have any, nor any idea where to get any... sand? maybe?
I'm glad you laughed! I was not laughing until I came in... Once in, I was fine!
Kitty litter, non-clumping kind, may work. If we have some handy, I'll try to throw some onto the porch! I mean, this is ridiculous!
I've pretty much been stuck inside because of the extreme cold made my heart beat funny and scared me-- now, that it isn't quite so cold, I'm stuck because my sidewalk and porch is an ice-ramp... Maybe I should just give up and slide out on my bottom...
If I had some, I'd be wearing them!!! I'm afraid to order some from Amazon, as the delivery guy might kill himself on this walkway...
Oh my! This could get interesting... As the shutters burn off the house...
I've got some aquarium gravel down in the basement... I may try that, first. It's the small, chunky kind. Bright blue, but it could provide enough traction that I can get to the car to go get something else.
The only place I can think of to get sawdust would be the lumber mill in Shelbyville. About 20 miles and they might not let me have any, anyway...
The bottoms of ALL of my shoes, even the waffle soles, just slide on by...
Really, it is steep enough that one slides, no matter what you do... I'm glad we have shrubs to hang onto.
Funny!
I've got some aquarium gravel down in the basement, that I'm going to try. I can't even get out to the car to go get something!
Sand, not kitty litter. Kitty litter is clay, and you know what clay does when it gets wet.
Best of luck Dowser. You should set up a video camera aimed at the approach.
I may have to ask my son to tape this endeavor!
Clay isn't the best idea, is it? Considering it is used as drilling mud, and that's sort of snotty, anyway...
The other bad thing is that I can't go out the back door, until we get a new door. We have a sliding glass patio door, and it has gone off track. I'm not strong enough to open it, although my husband can. ARGHH!
This is exactly what my feet do on this ice...
wood ash and water mixed becomes lye , so use caution there, another idea would be to grind up some charcoal brickettes , the dark color will absorb some heat from the sun and melt the ice somewhat, until then look for some of those slip on cleats they sell at places like walgreens for traction.
the sliding glass door ?
lol
I have been ready to scream over this back door fiasco for months. It keeps getting worse and worse. Something about the track has gone bad... We need to replace the entire door.
It is most frustrating to not be able to get in and out of the back door, unless someone is home that is strong enough to open it!
Yet, I don't want to nag. You know?
((((Dowser)))) You do encounter the most "unusual" predicaments.
(you seem to handle them a lot better than I ever would)
You are kind to say so, but I don't think I handle things at all well! I just do my best to get by...
How about boiling water in small areas immediately followed by a leaf blower to evaporate the melted section; so you know, I never tried this but on an area-by-area basis, in theory, it could work.
Careful where you stand, the kind of electrical cord you use and where you plug it in. Start at a doorway, create a path forward and use the path as you advance.
Just an idea.
Or you can get it in dry form rather than liquid. I have found that liquid is hard to apply in small doses like a porch or walkway, it needs to be sprayed. They also sell it in a more common form as granules that are spread with a simple hand spreader or even a cup used to sprinkle it over the ice.
It spreads like rock salt, very easy, while it is in granular form it will track on the shoes, but as ling as your careful you can walk on it. essentially it is a de-watering compound, it breaks down ice and snow by preventing it from freezing and de-freezing water already frozen.
Great stuff.
How steep is that ramp of yours?
ADA rules for handicapped ramps is 1/12, but homeowners are allow to use 1.5/12, If you cant walk down it without grabbing something it is too steep. I would check on that also.
That is JUST what is needed for this front walkway!
Actually, the temperature got above freezing and is above freezing now, and the alcohol did help-- once the temperature got high enough. I now have a small place that is damp, but not covered in ice. So, I can stand, with both feet, and launch myself off the front porch into the shrubbery. So far, so good.
Thanks! I'm afraid of electrical cords out there-- it's too wet...
You might just have to replace the wheel assembly in the bottom of the slider. If you look around the door, you should be able to figure out how to remove the door, and with it off you can inspect the rollers. It may be as simple as replacing one or both of the roller units.
LMAO Dowser,
This sounds like something I would have done.
I think we should start calling you "Lucy"
I feel like Lucy, a lot, of late...
At least it is funny, as opposed to not, I guess.
My entire life right now is one big huge giant mess. I don't have one corner that I can say is straight, well-organized, or in "place". It is driving me batty!
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