Does rock salt destroy concrete teepads? Does it take away their grip?

if the concrete is yur standard "sidewalk concrete" then yes. if you are using actual rock salt it will eat the concrete. you can get some sort of ice melt at lowes/home depot that will work.

SiO2-n(H2O) + CaCO3 + CaSO4-2(H2O) + NaCl --------> ?????

I bet the NaCl turns the CaSO4 into CaCl which washes away, the same way carpenters use muriatic acid (HCl) to wash plaster of paris (CaSO4) off brick.

Calcium magesium acetate or CNA is a safe alternative as it won't hurt your concrete or the surrounding grass/plantlife.

I've seen ocean breakwalls made of concrete, they last for years. And we're talking about ocean water and big waves.

Yep, just as I thought. Sea water has no harmful effect on concrete. Use all the rock salt you want.

http://www.cement.org/pdf_files/ct012sea.pdf

http://www.cement.org/tech/cct_pca_research_tech.asp

Yeah on concrete bridges they worry about crack in the pillars because the seawater will eat away at the steel reinforcements but I don't think it makes the concrete corrode.

Not scientific, but anecdotal logic:

Utah makes most of their roads out of concrete.

Utah puts lots of salt on their roads in the winter.

Utah has the worst road surfaces in the western US.

With logic like that you need a brain transplant

Ok the study about sea water in LA shows that salt does not dissolve concrete. But maybe there is a thing involving freezing and thawing and cracking of the surface. The sea water in Los Angeles never freezes. Maybe rock salt on concrete in places where it freezes and thaws does something.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/008_Deicing_Salts_And_Concrete.shtml

I'm guessing the NaCl 'molarity' of seawater is significantly lower than the brine pooling in your driveway/teepad.

sounds like anything you use to melt ice would do the same thing. Calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, strontium astatate, gold plutonide, urainum lawrenciate, even green kryptonite vulcanate. No matter how you melt the ice, it would let water into the concrete and crack it.

I have seen the results of using Salt on concrete and didn't want that to happen to my tee pads. I have been using calcium pellets on them for about 8 Maine Winters.

Thanks for that link, Bob. I've got The Psycho on ignore so I don't know if his information was useful or not, but that Ask The Builder link you posted definitely was.

Thanks again, and happy holidays.

you are a fool

I just went back and asked the builder some more questions and
http://www.askthebuilder.com/251_Deicing_Salts_and_Concrete.shtml
I have to think that the way my pads were done is why they are standing up to the deicer not what I have been using to deice them with. All deicers seem to cause damage to poorly prepared concrete. All my pads were pre-cast and apparently done correctly. I will continue to use Calcium Pellets, I like it's melting ability

Use Thompson's water seal on the concrete. Wait until a dry day in the summer when the concrete is completely dry. Soak the concrete heavily in Thompson's water seal.

Then, in the winter, the concrete repels water like a drunk teenager at an English soccer game

What is the grip like ?

Not good, many have lost their grip that's why they get drunk.

Are you talking about the concrete or the drunk teenagers?

Any drunk teenager on concrete is not good.