I have a spot near the front entrance where the metal roof drops rain, snow and ice — right where vistors and the UPS delivery folks need to tred.
Originally I put some pavers down in this area to make it easier to shovel snow. But this year we’ve had a lot of ice form in this area.
I tried using a heat mat in this area to melt snow and ice from this spot but I don’t want to be running the heat mat 24×7. When I turned it off, drips would freeze on the mat.
My solution? I found these fiberglass grates on Amazon. They are much cheaper than metal, lighter and have a nice grippy texture.
The original purpose of these fiberglass grates are made for car washes to cover drains – so they are tough. You could drive a car over them.
They also are conviently sized with the same depth (1 inch) as a standard paver. As you can see in my photos, replaceing the existing pavers with these was a piece of cake.
I’ll probably do some leveling of the area come spring thaw but for now I was able to take advantage of some warm February weather and knock this project out. The dimensions of 36″ x 25.75″ and the color “gray” fit in perfectly with my existing pavers.
Now the water will drip through to the sand underneath and the grippy service will allow grit from the driveway to fall through.
36″ x 27.25″ gray fiberglass grates. 20 pounds each. Fast packaging free shipping.
That’s something that would work for me. Thanks for the heads up.