The first three winters I lived in my house, I didn’t do anything about the snow in my driveway. I work at home and pretty much could afford to be snowed in. I eventually realized that I was the ONLY one in the entire neighborhood to be this lazy/cheap. And that not being able to get out of your driveway makes you need/want to get out even more.
This year I have hired a plow service, and I love it. Every time it snows 2" or more, they plow. Being that it’s a contract for an entire season there’s always a chance I will end up having over-paid per plow. But hearing my neighbors outside at 4AM snow-blowing, and then hearing them again at 6AM…or hearing other neighbors outside shovelling…yeah, I am fine with over-paying for plow.
I snow blow my driveway, but on particularly bad days (say 12+ inches over less then 8 hours) I bring our work plow home. My driveway is only about 2 car lengths long, but my house is on an inside corner of an “L” shaped block, so when the city plow makes the turn all the snow comes off it’s blade. I typically have 3 times as much snow in front of my driveway as the amount of the snowfall.
Over the last 24 hours we’ve had about 12 inches of snow, but since I was able to snowblow three times in those 24 hours the mess the plow left never got over 2 feet and I can do it with my snow blower.
Also, I really only use the work plow when it’s bad because it’s just easier (and safer) for me to drive that home then my little Civic when there’s a ton of snow on the ground.
I drive a pickup and I’ll just drive over it if we got less then 1’ of snow. If it’s over that I just call into work because I’m not driving the 50 miles if the storm was worse then that.
So far the worst I’ve seen it was about 8" overnight and I just pull back in in the same tracks I left in the heat from my truck melts the snow over night and I’ve never had a build up enough that I couldn’t just drive out.
We live in a townhome, bu we have to do the sidewalk and parking spaces ourselves. It’s not that bad, except for this past week when we’ve gotten 40-50 inches of snow. Though it hasn’t been too hard to keep up with as it seems everyone is helping everyone else out. Though there’s not a whole lot of places to put the snow any more.
My homeowner association dues, cover weekly mowing of my yard from April - October, and snow removal from my driveway and front walk during the winter months.
Nice to drive home and see everyone in the neighborhood with cleared driveways in the winter and freshly mowed lawns on every Friday afternoon in the summer.
I have a snow broom and shovel. Also a short driveway. I voted “snow blower” as the closest option. Could’ve gone for the “someone in my household shovels my less than 25’ driveway”, but I use the snow broom a lot more.
Although we pay the condo association to cover the cost of snowblowing the sidewalks and hiring a plow for the parking lot, we still have to dig out our own cars and parking spaces. The condo association’s snowblower burned out in this snow, so they’ll have to buy a new one, and we’ve had to have the plows back frequently, and some tree limbs and one tree are down. Since we are already facing a special assessment to cover the costs of some units flooding some months back, this likely means another whopping big bill.
I put that someone shovels it ‘for free’, but that’s not technically accurate. I have tenants (I own the apartment building I live in) that I have a sort of “understanding” with; if they have to be a few days late or a few bucks short on their rent and can’t catch up for a month or two, I let them slide, in spite of the clause in their lease that would allow me to charge them a late fee. But then when I need salt put down in my walking path, car shoveled out, whatever, these tenants are there and more than happy to help me out.
It’s not so much ‘free’ as a ‘barter system’ type arrangement.
Our driveway is long enough that it’s really not possible to do by hand or with a snow blower - it’d literally take hours even with our very heavy duty Husqvarna “I’m a badass snow-blower get-outta-my-way” machine.
Not really wanting to put the money into a truck and a blade, we decided when we moved in to pay for snow removal, and it was a great decision. Guy only charges us $25 a plow, and knows how to do it. He also has a back hoe and dumptruck available to haul away snow if it gets too crazy. Has not happened yet, but last year he told us it came close.
Now, Mr. Athena only needs to clear the front steps & walkway, and our deck. The deck is a bit of a job, but we try to keep it clear after finding out our Homeowner’s insurance policy specifically excluded decks that collapsed because of snow. Plus, we have short dogs, and it doesn’t take much snow to make it completely unwieldy for them.
(And lest you think I’m lazy… I am perfectly capable of doing snow removal myself, but Mr. Athena yells at me every time I do it that I’m doing it wrong and just go inside and cook or something and let him do the heavy lifting. I’m like :rolleyes: but whatever.)
We have a parking pad in the back with alley access. I usually dig out my car and enough space to open the gate and about five feet into the alley so I can maneuver the car out. What sucks is that the alley never gets plowed and is the length of two blocks. My neighbors who drive rear wheeled drive cars are kind of screwed since they can’t get out until the snow melts.
When we first moved in we shoveled the driveway ourselves. When there was a BIG snowstorm, we’d be out there pathetically waving our shovels around and the neighbors with snowblowers would sometimes take pity on us and do our driveway. After a HUGE snowstorm, a dude with a plow on his truck was going door to door and we paid him $20. Later, our neighbor across the street plowed his driveway and ours for free, he liked to fire up the snowblower. Then he moved and we bought our own Toro. But this year we’ve just been keeping up with the shovelling because there’s never more than 2" - 4" falling overnight. I am lazy, so I shovel the tire ruts, sprinkle salt in them, and once I get a running start into the driveway, the tires catch hold of the salted ruts and I get into the garage OK after one or two tries.
Most of the time when it snows here is a small enough amount to drive over and it warms up and melts over the next few days. The management company is supposed to take care of snow removal, but our buiding (2 units) is far away from everything else they manage and we are typically forgotten.
Right now we’re getting snowed on rather a lot. My son and I shovelled just enough of the driveway (which is about 50’) to keep one of the cars close to but off of the street. Once it stops snowing, or maybe tomorrow, we’ll go out and clean off the car and that little bit of the driveway to keep from feeling trapped. Maybe Friday or so I’ll call the management co. and mention that our lease says they do snow removal. (nicely, of course).
People are advertising on Craigslist for snow removal - $100/driveway (or more). If I had it I’d happily pay someone to do it, but don’t have the cash.
Someone shovels our 25’+ driveway. Me. The driveway is around 100-odd feet, running the length of the property with the garage in the back corner of the lot.
My wife once suggested to my mother that they go in on a snow blower for me for Christmas. My mother demurred, saying it was probably the only exercise I get. Thanks, mom :dubious:
We have a horrible driveway. It curves all the way around and behind the house, where it opens into a HUGE parking pad that is a monumental PITA to shovel, because you get to the point where you can’t pitch the snow – you actually have to carry a loaded snow shovel to the edge to dump it.
We had a snow thrower when we moved here, but my #(*&##@ husband killed it through neglect. So now it’s up to me, my husband and my 14-y-o son to shovel. It’s a massive job. I hate it.
I shovel it myself, but in the 9 years we live here I’ve had to shovel maybe three times. And it’s never been more than 3-5 inches deep. I’d just drive over it except our driveway is pretty steep, so if the snow gets packed down it turns into a slope of ice that even 4WD can’t climb.
