Taking care of brick stairs in winter


  #1  
Old 12-12-16, 02:58 PM
K
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 301
Received 4 Upvotes on 4 Posts
Taking care of brick stairs in winter

The brick and mortar front stairs had mortar coming out and a few bricks (and field stones) coming loose.

Spent most of my summer replacing the field stones with granite , replaced the loose and broken bricks and repointed all other mortar joints.

Used a sealer (Thomson) .

The real challenge now is how do I take care of it now in winter. We already had first snow (Massachusetts) . The stairs are in North and so ice forms easily.

Salt will again break the mortars. Are their any alternative (Calcium/Magnesium chloride) that I can use ? How about heated stair treads that are sold over net ?
 
  #2  
Old 12-13-16, 08:41 AM
M
Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Louisville KY
Posts: 514
Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post
The calcium chloride or magnesium chloride that you mentioned are both very good alternatives and will do much less damage than traditional salt. I've never seen you stair treads and I really think that unless they were kept on all the time they heat and thaw cycles will be quite detrimental to the stairway.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description: