How To Prepare Your Lot for Snow Plowing

If you prepare your parking lot for winter snow plowing, you can help ensure smooth operations, maintain accessibility and prevent costly damage to your property and landscaping. If you’re a business owner that wants to help minimize the impact of a harsh winter on your business, this guide will show you how you can prepare your lot for professional snow plowing services.

Read our snow plowing FAQ, combined with the following list of things you can do to help make the snow plowing services you’ll receive more manageable throughout the season:

Preparing Your Lot for Snow Plowing

Clear out obstacles

The first step towards preparing your lot for snow plowing is to ensure a clear, unobstructed path for the snow plow. Imagine a snow plow driver arriving at your property, ready to work, only to find a lot cluttered with hard-to-see obstacles. Random obstacles on a lot makes the job difficult and can also lead to unnecessary damages and delays.

Let the plowing service know about things on your lot such as:

• parked vehicles
• dumpsters & waste bins
• outdoor furniture
• decorative pieces
• signage
• large piles of fallen leaves

And before the snowfall begins, take a walk around your lot and move anything that could obstruct the plowing truck, and have your employees park their cars in designated areas so they won’t interfere with the plowing.

Watch the weather forecasts

If you run a business it’s always a smart idea to stay updated on weather forecasts for your area. If you’re aware of an incoming storm you can inform your customers and employees, and get your lot free of obstacles so it’s ready for the big snowfall. This will also help the plowing company get in and out as quickly and safely as possible. 

Plan plowing early in the snow season

During the winter months you can keep in communication with your plowing company of choice, and discuss any specific concerns you may have and determine which areas require plowing. Let them know of any changes or additions to your property so as to avoid any mistakes or misunderstandings.

Mark driveway lines

Once your lot is cleared of obstacles you can also define the boundaries of the area for plowing. Snow blurs boundary lines and make it challenging for the snow plow driver to see the edges of driveways and sidewalks. Mark the boundary lines so you can avoid unintended property damage and a less effective snow removal.

To mark the edges of your driveways and other areas you can use driveway markers or snow stakes as visual guides to help define the area you need plowed. Markers help the plow driver avoid plowing into your landscaping or other important areas. If you don’t have any markers or stakes you can even use things like shovels or boxes or other objects you have around.

Consider using salt or sand if needed

If you want to help out a bit more you can sprinkle salt or sand over parts of your your lot and walkways – especially in areas prone to becoming icy. This will give extra traction for drivers and walkers and reduce the risk of slips and falls by customers and employees. Just look around for areas where sand and salt will actually be helpful and sprinkle away.

Establish a clear contract

Once you’ve decided that you’re going to use a plowing service for the season, get a comprehensive contract set up with the company you choose. The contract will should clearly state the exact terms of the service including the frequency of the plowing, the depth of snow required for a call, where plowing will be needed and other specific requirements you might have including the exact cost. This way both parties understand their responsibilities and disputes are reduced.