replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car

On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 7:52:24 PM UTC-6, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car


Can you get to the underside of the ramp and attach some electrical heat tape of the type that is used to keep gutters from freezing up? We don't have much of an icing problem here down South but the heat tape is used in some areas for those rare times when there is ice. I've only seen it used in refrigerated warehouse floors and loading docks to keep the forklifts from sliding around. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Frozen Monster

On 12/2/2017 8:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car


I'm assuming you have a rail to hold on to. Long term I'd put a paint
or coating with sand. Meantime, you can buy rolls of anti-slip.
https://www.mcmaster.com/#stair-treads/=1ailjhk

Two strips, 4 to 6 inches and holding the rail would be a big help.

I wonder if the roof and gutter heaters would help?

On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 9:36:05 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 12/2/2017 8:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car


I'm assuming you have a rail to hold on to. Long term I'd put a paint
or coating with sand. Meantime, you can buy rolls of anti-slip.
https://www.mcmaster.com/#stair-treads/=1ailjhk

Two strips, 4 to 6 inches and holding the rail would be a big help.

I wonder if the roof and gutter heaters would help?

I agree with the idea of painting it with paint with the anti-slip
sand stuff mixed in. That solves the wet problem.

For icing, how about using the electric heat product that's made to
be used under bathroom floors to warm them? It's used between the
plywood subfloor and tile for example. He could put it on top
of the existing ramp, put another layer of plywood or trex, etc
on top of it. Only issue, he'd have to look into the fire potential
issue. I think they use it with wood floors in bathrooms too, but
it is inside. Outside it's more exposed and IDK what failure modes
that can lead to or what happens. I guess it's no worse than heat
tape or similar products that people put all over pipes and such.

Without heat or ice melt/salt stuff, I don't see any solution to the
ice and snow problem.

On 12/2/17 8:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car

May be time to start thinking about selling the Old Manse and moving
into an assisted living facility. Mr. Thinking Box seems to have
stripped a gear....building a porch ramp like that in snow country ;-)

--
We have a flag, we have a language, we have a culture. Fall in...or get out.

On 12/2/17 7:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car

The first thing I thought of was a grain bin drying floor.
It's basically a metal grate.
I did a short search for no skid ramps. This
https://www.handiramp.com/stairtreads/non-skid_water.htm showed up.
It would probably be better. The holes poke up. That should provide
better traction.

replying to bob haller, Iggy wrote:
Actually, steel grates of either a loose sidewalk type or a rather tight
spacing for wheelchair use is made for ramps and does great in keeping
traction under all conditions. Easy to shovel snow or sweep clean with your
foot or just walking on it and a lot of snow and ice of course just falls
through.

That's the best long-term solution and reusable if or when the wood structure
rots out. I went to it for a fire escape with the same issues and never had
the issues again. For immediate relief either salt it up or drill a line of
holes down the center of each board and cut the board gaps wider, so there are
more edges available and that stay open a lot longer.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...h-1152117-.htm

On 12/02/2017 08:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car

https://smile.amazon.com/HeatTrak-He.../dp/B00421AHYC

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 3 Dec 2017 07:36:41 -0600, Dean Hoffman
wrote:

On 12/2/17 7:52 PM, bob haller wrote:
replaced our wood porch with a spiffy new one in september since were getting old installe a ramp rather than steps......


worked and looked great, easy on bad knees, deiveries of fridges etc big improvement.

friday morning wife fell on ice on ramp. she fell went boom, and is hurting today..

cant seal area till spring, so the outdoor wood dries properly

am wondering about some sort of heated pad or carpet that would be warm enough to prevent snow and ice accumulation....

need something 4 feet wide and perhaps 20 feet long.

room mate fell on her butt, couldnt get up so she slid on her butt to the bottom.

any good ideas?

the ice was a very thin layer, like frost on a car

The first thing I thought of was a grain bin drying floor.
It's basically a metal grate.
I did a short search for no skid ramps. This
https://www.handiramp.com/stairtreads/non-skid_water.htm showed up.
It would probably be better. The holes poke up. That should provide
better traction.

This looks pretty good. I live in snow country and there are plenty
of ramps here. A lot have the original dtairs next to them.

thanks I like the heated matt,,

tomorrow i will measure the length/ ideally i would get one to run its entire length.......

On 12/3/2017 7:20 PM, bob haller wrote:
thanks I like the heated matt,,

tomorrow i will measure the length/ ideally i would get one to run its entire length.......


Looks like they can be linked together.

On 12/03/2017 07:20 PM, bob haller wrote:




thanks I like the heated matt,, tomorrow i will measure the length/ ideally i would get one to run its entire length.......








Got the same snow/ice/ramp problem.Â* Detached garage is 20' from house. One of these days I'm going to build an enclosure over the whole thing and be done with it.

bob haller posted for all of us...



thanks I like the heated matt,,

tomorrow i will measure the length/ ideally i would get one to run its entire length.......

Bob, I have the same problem. I tried 3M anti-slip strips-peeled off. Nailed
more strips and peeled off & the nails were more effective than the strips.
I have tried salt, sand, kitty litter but all get tracked inside. I have the
guy who plows the driveway shovel the ramp but it doesn't help during the
ice as you know. Let me know how the heated mats are. I haven't investigated
them. Make sure they are on a GFCI outlet.

I have handrails on mine but if you have limited abilities it is still life
threatening. I still have to walk 10 ft to the vehicle.

My rule is if it's ice my wife and I don't go out until it either gets
melted by salt or temperature.

--
Tekkie