Every winter there are driveways in Kitchener and Waterloo that get cleared beautifully, and driveways that get cleared as well as anyone could manage under the circumstances. The difference usually isn’t the contractor. It’s what was left lying on the driveway in November.
None of this takes long. It’s one pass around the property with a wheelbarrow, done on a mild Saturday, and it saves arguments in January.
Move the things that shouldn’t meet a blade
Snow hides everything, and a plow or a shovel finds it the hard way.
The list is the same at almost every house: garden hoses, the extension cord running to the shed, kids’ toys and hockey nets, planters and pots along the edge, solar path lights, the hose reel, decorative rocks, and bricks propping something up. Anything that can move should move before the first snowfall.
Two reasons. The obvious one is that hitting a frozen planter with a machine damages the planter, and sometimes the machine. The less obvious one is that a driver who suspects something is buried at the driveway edge will keep the blade well back from it, which leaves a strip of snow you’ll be chipping at in March.
Clearing the driveway of vehicles matters just as much. It’s one of the two things our winter terms ask of you directly, along with clearing the hoses, cords and toys. A car parked in the middle of a driveway means we clear around it, and around it is never as good as the whole thing.
Mark the edges while you can still see them
After a big snowfall a driveway is a white rectangle in a white yard. Markers are a few dollars each, and they earn their keep most where the driveway has no curb, where the edge and the lawn sit level, and beside anything low and permanent like a retaining wall or a hidden step.
Push them in before the ground freezes, because in December you’ll be hammering at frozen clay. That’s the only reason this is an October job rather than a November one. What a winter of guessing does to a lawn edge is covered in winter lawn damage.
Fix the water problem now, not in February
Walk the driveway after a good rain and see where the water goes. That low spot holding a puddle in October is the ice patch in January, and no amount of salt keeps up with water that keeps arriving.
Common sources in KW driveways: a downspout discharging onto the driveway or across the walkway, a sunken slab beside the garage, and a grade that runs toward the house rather than the street.
The downspout is the fixable one, and it’s the most common. Put an extension on it and send the water onto grass instead of asphalt. It’s the cheapest fix on this list.
Sort out where the snow goes
Pick the spot before the first storm: open lawn, away from the house, away from where you walk, and never where the melt runs back across the driveway and refreezes. What a badly chosen snow pile does to the grass under it is in winter lawn damage.
A corner lot has the extra problem of the plow windrow from two streets. In Kitchener, clearing the windrow off the sidewalk is the property owner’s job, and the rules are in the 24-hour sidewalk rule.
What we need from you on the day
Our winter terms ask for two things, and they’re the two on this list:
- Keep vehicles off the driveway.
- Clear the hoses, cords and toys before winter.
Anything else, like telling us where the sprinkler heads are, is your call. It just makes the job go better.
We clear after every snowfall of 5 cm or more, usually within 12 hours of the snow stopping. What we don’t promise is a specific time of day, because the route runs in order. Knowing that in advance is worth more than a promise nobody can keep.
The numbers, while you’re planning
Per-visit clearing, pre-HST, with 13% HST added as its own line: $49.99 for a 1 car driveway, $64.99 for 2 car, $79.99 for 3 car, $99.99 for 4 car, and up to $219.99 for a 10 car. Every product includes the driveway, the front path to the door, the city sidewalk in front of the home, and standard rock salt on the driveway.
Add-ons are per visit: a small side or back path is $5, a large one $10, treated salt for colder temperatures or freezing rain is $10, pet-safe salt is $10, and clearing within 8 hours is $15. First-on-the-route priority isn’t sold as a per-visit add-on anymore, it comes bundled with the Winter Priority plan, and Priority spots are limited each winter.
Our season option (Winter Plan Standard) runs November 1 to April 15, unlimited clearings at the same trigger plus unlimited ice control, from $712.36 for a 1 car driveway to $1,424.86 for a 4 car; a Winter plan covers bigger driveways too, priced by size, pre-HST, one payment for the whole winter. Everything else is on the pricing page.
Questions people ask before their first winter with a contractor
Do I still need to shovel anything myself? Anything that falls under the trigger is yours, and so is anything your quote doesn’t list. What the sized snow products cover is the driveway, the front path to the door, and the city sidewalk in front of the home.
Is the walk-around really worth it? It’s half an hour in October against a whole winter of a driver guessing where your lawn starts. That’s the argument.
Can I add a back path partway through winter? Yes. It’s a per-visit add-on, or it can be added to a season plan.
We’re away for part of the winter. Does that change anything? Not for us, the route runs the same. It matters more for you, because an empty house with an uncleared sidewalk still has a 24-hour bylaw clock running on it.
Do the walk-around this month
Book the clearing while you’re at it. Call or text 226-336-2077 or send your address through the contact page and we’ll size the driveway and give you the number.
We work Kitchener and Waterloo with Mannheim at the edge, and we don’t cover Cambridge. Boundaries are on the service area page, service detail is on the snow clearing page, neighbourhood specifics are on the Kitchener and Waterloo pages, and more answers live on the FAQ.
Pink is the new green.
