Getting Your Driveway Ready Before the First Snow

The first plowable snow in the Cedar Valley tends to arrive before anyone feels ready for it. The work that makes a winter go smoothly all happens in October, while the ground is still workable and you can actually see what you are doing.

Mark the edges

This is the single most valuable thing you can do. Driveway markers along both edges, and either side of anything that sticks up, mean a plow operator working in the dark during a storm knows exactly where the pavement ends. Without them, edges get clipped, and the damage does not show up until the thaw.

Mark the drive edges, any low retaining wall, the corners of beds that run tight to the pavement, and anything else you would rather not discover in April.

Move what should not be there

Basketball hoops, planters, hoses, extension cords and low decorative fencing all become invisible under six inches of snow. Anything that is going to live in or near the drive over winter should either be moved now or marked clearly enough to be seen from a truck.

Find your drains and hydrants

Know where water goes when it melts. A downspout discharging across a walk is a sheet of ice by January. Extending it a few feet, or redirecting it into the lawn, takes ten minutes in October and removes a slip hazard for the whole season. If there is a hydrant on your frontage, keep the approach to it in mind when you think about where snow gets piled.

Decide where the snow goes

Every driveway has a natural place to stack snow, and it is worth thinking about before the first storm rather than during it. Uphill of the drive is usually wrong, because meltwater runs straight back across the pavement and refreezes. Downhill and away from walkways is usually right. Also think about sight lines: a pile at the end of the drive that blocks your view of the street is a problem you will live with until March.

Sort your plan out early

Route capacity in a snow season is genuinely finite, and the route is built before the season rather than during it. If you know you want service this winter, arranging it in the autumn is worth more than arranging it the night before a storm, and it costs the same.

Our snow removal page has the full price list, and what snow removal actually costs explains how the tiers and depth bands work.