I'm probably the only person that didn't already do this but there may be others. We got freezing rain last night and throwing salt on the deck doesn't work well as it falls through the cracks. I just tried mixing up some salt water in a spray bottle and it is working much better. A little tip that may save some broken bones.

the salt reacts with the fasteners in your deck and eats them then the boards come loose

5 gallon pail of sand in the house inside the door , it stays dry and loose , you can just scoop some and sprinkle it on for traction.

I knew I could count on someone on Tman to shoot down my idea. LOL No harm done - something I hadn't considered. We don't get a lot of ice storms, usually just snow dumps.

Lot of shale here in WV.
I keep a bucket of fine crumbled black shale near the stoops of all my buildings, porches and carport.
Salt is for other stuff, and the shale works perfectly and is free.
Be careful out there. A simple slip can be a life changing event at our (my) age.
Happy New Year !

Table salt or feed salt is my go to.Don’t plan on living long enough to see my deck screws rot lol

$60,000 deck, don’t you dare put salt on it! Lol

Don’t let wife to talk you into painting the deck. It’s worse than ice and always there.

I built cover over my deck, no more slick deck!

Corky-

Do whatever you need or want to do to prevent a fall due the ice. Just plain isn't worth an injury.

Moosetrot

If your deck is newer than about twenty years old the fasteners holding it together should be hot-dipped galvanized (not electro-plated) or ceramic coated. They have to be with the high copper and chemical content of the new pressure treated lumber. Both of those hold up well to salt, occasionally salting your deck isn't going to have any major adverse affect on them.

If your fasteners are stainless steel, you're golden.

I have to wonder what , old stock my wife's cousin used on our deck about 15 years ago
the original fasteners were all eaten away in 9-10 years I had to pull up all the boards , some I could reuse some I replaced
but about every deck screw near the regular walk path in and out of the house was gone

here is a deck screw comparison and it appears most of these do well with the corrosion.



I normally buy deck mate and I do notice if you don't pre drill they are harder to start than some others.

I like your solution to geting enough hight. Much simpler than I would have come up with and the simple solution is often best.

Moosetrot makes a good point , a fall is way more than replacing some screws

and new screws may be better than what ended up in my deck here are a few pics from 2022 when I pulled it all up and redid it

the yellow is the Deck mate I replaced them with , the originals seemed to have some green coating on it. Like I said in the other post , wifes cousin put that in and I haven't talked to him in years so I don't know what they were other than green coating , torqx head

I put ice melt on my deck for quite a few years and it corroded the boards eventually. I think salt would do the same over time. I like the sand idea. You can sweep it off come spring.

Screws in my dad's deck look like that Pete. Rusting and breaking off. Board pulling uo warped and ones not covered by the over hang needing replacesmd. We replaced a few to get through the winter and dad side he pland on replacing them all in the spring.. he may but I question spring of what year. He talks a lot but geting action out of him is another thing eleven when im pushing him.. He over thinks things to the point he never gets started.

I am 84 and going to let the next user worry about the screws. I built the house 50 years ago and had survived
-50 winters, earthquakes, thawing ice lenses, frost heaves, spring runoff, wild fires, tree blow downs with 80mph winds!

If I had to guess, I'd guess electro-plated screws. I started seeing them used in place of hot-dipped fasteners maybe thirty years ago. It's just a way for manufacturers to save money. Electro-plating puts a very thin coating of zinc on steel, hot-dipping a nice thick coat. Manufacturers could still call the product "galvanized" but EP fasteners were/are junk, they just don't last, especially with the newer treated lumber formulas. If you didn't know the difference...

I've seen screws that looked like the ones you pulled out of your deck. Almost every time I could determine with any certainty, they were EP galvanized.