Five Things You Can Do In Your Landscaping Efforts To Make Snow Removal Easier Next Winter

Flowers may be blooming and leaves budding in your area, but now is in fact a great time to think about snow removal. If snow removal at your home or facility is a huge burden every winter, you might want to take some time to reconsider your landscaping this summer.

The following are five things you can do in your landscaping that can make it easier for you to remove snow when winter comes around again:

Put snow melt zones alongside walkways, driveways, and parking areas

Snow melt zones are empty spaces in your landscaping along the perimeters of any areas that will need to be plowed after snowfall.

Open spaces along sidewalks, driveways, and parking lots allow snow removal crews a lot of room to run equipment. Also called "push zones", snow removal zones should ideally slope downwards away from the surface of the plowed area. This way, snowmelt will fall back away from the surface rather than refreezing on top of the surface and creating a safety hazard. 

Avoid uneven surface materials

If you want to make snow removal easy, avoid using uneven surface options like natural brick. Snowplows are not able to move as smoothly over brick as they can move over pavement.

Uneven surfaces create many crannies where snowplow equipment can become snagged. These snags can lead to severe damage to your surfaces and landscape features. 

Include some elevated landscaping features that will delineate surfaces that need to be plowed

Snow plow crews will have trouble determining where to go if there are no landscaping features that extend above snowfall. Features like railings, walls, and shrubbery can frame your driveways and parking areas so that plow crews can easily determine areas from which snow needs to be removed. 

Design parking lots to drain runoff

Ideally, a parking lot should slope lightly toward a drain or sewer area so that snowmelt can drain off the surface. Remember that if the slope of your parking lot allows snowmelt to re-cover the parking lot surface, you'll be dealing with water that refreezes over the surface and creates a pesky safety hazard all winter long. 

Simplify driveway and walkway design

A curvy, circuitous driveway or walkway is a nightmare to plow after a heavy snowfall. If you frequently and promptly need plowing in the winter, you might want to consider simplifying roadways by getting rid of unnecessary curves and complications.

Opt for straight lines when possible, and keep your walkways a uniform width to make snow removal as simple and quick a job as possible.

For more information about snow removal, contact Trucking H & H Enterprises or a similar company.

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