[akacliph]

Hello, I have a somewhat unique situation I'm trying to resolve.

I work for a ski resort that receives more than 500" of snowfall annually, you can imagine snow removal becomes challenging.  We have one building in particular that creates problems for us, it has a copper roof at a pitch that sheds snow onto a pedestrian walk way.

I've found a liquid pretreatment that appears to be the most environmentally friendly but have been unsuccessful with the company that supplies it as well as the company that provided our copper roof on receiving information regarding their reactivity.

The copper: Patina, Copper Chloride Hydroxide, reactivity section of msds mentions materials to avoid- "Avoid contact with strong oxidizers."

The snow/ice melt liquid: reactivity data section, materials to avoid- "May react with strong acids or strong oxidizing agents such as chlorates, nitrates, peroxides.

I have both products msds sheet, but am unskilled in analyzing

Any feed back or request for more information would be greatly appreciated! 

[Arkcon]

Many of us could figure it out with the complete MSDS, but maybe you'd have better results if you simply got in touch with the manufacturers with the specific name of the brand of stuff you're using.  They may have dedicated their time to figuring just this issue out, and be willing to help their customers.

[akacliph]

Arkcon, as stated I've attempted this with no luck (and continuing to.)  I am unfamiliar with the chemicals listed or their reactivity with each other, what I need to know is if they fit into the category of materials to avoid.

I'm not a student, I am looking for the easy answer on this forum which I'm sure to most* of you this is.

Thanks again

[fledarmus]

What is the composition of your ice melt material? Since both the roof coating and the snow melt say to avoid contact with strong oxidizers, it appears that neither one is a strong oxidizer, but without actually knowing what is in the snow melt, I would hesitate to advise you to put them together.

If you happen to have a small piece of the copper roof with the patina, drop it in a beaker with some of your snow melt dissolved in water and see what happenes.

[akacliph]

I have the msds and spec sheet for the ice melt, and the msds for the copper.  Not sure if this board gives me the ability to post them, I can email them...