Gritting Services

Commercial gritting, salting, and snow clearance for car parks, access roads, and site entrances in Wetherby, Selby, Bridlington, and across Yorkshire.

Packages & Pricing

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Gritting Services

An untreated car park is the cheapest way a business ever loses a personal injury claim. One frost, one fall, and the question becomes what you did about it and whether you can prove it.

Robinsons Facilities Services coordinates commercial gritting across Yorkshire and the Humber, with forecasts watched right through the season so sites are treated before people arrive rather than after someone slips. Salt is supplied as part of the service, and every visit is recorded.

Reactive gritting: from £100+VAT per visit
Seasonal contracts, November to March: from £750+VAT

Get a quote for commercial gritting →

Prefer to speak to someone? Call us on 01423 226578 →

Commercial gritting is the preventative treatment of car parks, access roads and pedestrian routes with rock salt or de-icer before ice forms. Treatment is normally triggered when the forecast shows surface temperatures falling to 1°C or below. Employers have a duty to keep workplace traffic routes free from substances that cause slips, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Your duty of care when ice forms

Two separate duties apply, and they cover different people. Regulation 12(3) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires floors and traffic routes to be kept free from any substance that may cause a person to slip, so far as is reasonably practicable, and the Approved Code of Practice states plainly that arrangements should be made to minimise risks from snow and ice. That duty protects people working on the premises.

Visitors, customers and contractors are not covered by that regulation. They are owed a duty under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 instead, which is why a car park used by the public needs treating on its own merits rather than as an afterthought to the staff entrance.

Neither duty is absolute. Both turn on what was reasonably practicable, which in practice means what you decided, when, on what information, and whether there is a record of it. Our guide to commercial gritting regulations and your legal duty of care goes through the detail.

What we grit

Different surfaces freeze at different rates and need different treatment, so a site plan matters more than a blanket spread.

Car parks: the largest area and the one where vehicles and pedestrians meet.
Access roads and site entrances: gradients and shaded stretches ice first and clear last.
Loading bays and yards: heavy vehicle movement and manual handling on the same surface.
Pedestrian walkways and footpaths: the routes people actually take, which are not always the marked ones.
Steps, ramps and disabled access: the highest injury risk per square metre on any site.
Fire escape routes: often overlooked, and the one place ice cannot be tolerated.

Sites are surveyed before the season so the route, the priority order, and the quantities are agreed in advance.

How we decide when to grit

Gritting is preventative. Salt has to be down and worked into the surface before moisture freezes, which is why treatment happens overnight and in the early hours rather than when someone reports ice at nine.

Monitoring runs around the clock through the season and works from surface temperature rather than air temperature, because a car park can be freezing while the thermometer reads two or three degrees. Every visit is logged with the date, time, area treated and conditions, and that record is what supports you if a claim is ever made.

Salt and materials

Salt supply is included, which is worth checking against any quote you compare, because it’s commonly charged separately.

Brown rock salt: the standard treatment for car parks, roads and yards. Effective and economical, with some residue.
White marine salt: cleaner and less likely to be walked into a building, so it suits entrances, walkways and retail frontages.
De-icer: used where ice has already formed and needs breaking down rather than prevented.

Salt has limits worth knowing. It loses effectiveness below about minus 5°C and stops melting ice at around minus 8 to minus 10°C, so in a hard freeze more frequent treatment matters more than heavier spreading. It also needs traffic or footfall to work, because vehicles and pedestrians are what spread the brine and break the bond with the surface. A quiet weekend car park stays icier than a busy one treated the same way.

Pricing

Gritting is bought in one of two ways, and which suits you depends on how much winter risk you’re willing to carry yourself. Sites with heavy footfall, a duty to remain open, or a large car park almost always end up on a seasonal contract. Smaller sites with sheltered parking often do not need one.

Reactive gritting: from £100+VAT per visit

Treatment arranged when the forecast warrants it, charged per visit, with salt included. Suits smaller sites and businesses that would rather pay for the winters that actually turn cold.

Get a quote for reactive gritting →

Seasonal contract, November to March: from £750+VAT

Full winter coverage across the five-month season at a fixed price, with the site surveyed in advance, weather monitored on your behalf, and treatment triggered automatically without you having to call. Budget certainty rather than a bill that follows the weather.

View our PPM and compliance contract →

Snow clearance and additional works: quoted individually

Heavy snowfall, mechanical clearing, salt bin supply and refilling, and any work beyond the agreed gritting route are priced through quoted works before it’s carried out.

How we support you

We coordinate vetted winter maintenance contractors, agree the site plan before the season starts, and hold the treatment records. For multi-site clients that means one supplier and one set of evidence across every property, rather than a different gritting arrangement at each one and no consistent paper trail when it matters.

Robinsons Facilities Services is SafeContractor approved, holds UKAS-certified ISO 9001 and is CHAS accredited. Gritting runs alongside commercial grounds maintenance and the rest of your external works. Our guide to preparing a commercial building for winter covers what else is worth booking before October.

Contract customers also have access to our 24/7/365 out-of-hours call-out facility for issues affecting safety or building operation. This is a separate service, available to PPM contract customers only.

Get a quote for commercial gritting →

Prefer to speak to someone? Call us on 01423 226578 →

Gritting Services FAQs

How much does commercial gritting cost?

Reactive gritting starts from £100+VAT per visit, and a seasonal contract covering November to March starts from £750+VAT. Salt is included in both. The main variable is the treated area, so a single-entrance office and a distribution yard sit at opposite ends of the range. Snow clearance and salt bin supply are quoted separately. Send us an enquiry or call us on 01423 226578 for a site-specific price.

When should I book winter gritting?

Before October if you want a seasonal contract, because the site survey has to happen while the weather still allows it and capacity is committed early. Businesses that wait for the first frost warning are competing for the same contractors as everyone else, usually at short notice and on reactive terms.

Do you supply the salt?

Yes, in both the reactive and seasonal rates. Anything falling outside the agreed route is priced separately, as are salt bins.

At what temperature does gritting happen?

The trigger is a forecast surface temperature of 1°C or below. That is why gritting often happens on nights that do not feel particularly cold. Frost forms far more readily on a clear, still night than on a cloudy or windy one at the same temperature, so conditions matter as much as the number.

Is gritting a legal requirement for businesses?

There is no law that says “grit your car park”. What exists is a workplace duty covering people at work, and a separate occupiers’ duty covering everyone else on site. Gritting is how most businesses discharge both. What gets tested after an accident is whether your decision was a reasonable one on the information available at the time.

What is the difference between rock salt and marine salt?

Brown rock salt is mined, contains natural grit that helps traction, and is the normal choice for car parks and roads. White marine salt is cleaner, dissolves faster and leaves less residue, which makes it better for entrances and walkways where salt gets tracked indoors and onto flooring.

Do you grit overnight?

Yes. Effective gritting happens before people arrive, so most treatment is carried out overnight or in the early hours. A site treated at nine in the morning has already had its highest risk period.

Can you grit sites outside normal working hours in an emergency?

Sudden freezes and unforecast snow do happen, and reactive attendance can be arranged. Response depends on conditions and how many sites are affected at once, which is precisely the argument for a seasonal contract: contracted sites are on a planned route rather than in a queue. Send us an enquiry or call us on 01423 226578 to discuss cover for your site.