Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing what snow plowing costs?

[varmint]

Not sure which forum this belongs on, but here goes: My wife is always asking me, whenever I buy another piece of equipment, what someone would charge us to do this or that. I am curious what the going rates are for clearing a 700' long, hard gravel (sloping, but straight) lane of snow might be... some areas have banks on the side make it more difficult to deal with deep snowfalls, and an outside contractor would be starting at the bottom and working up. This is in Northern Baltimore county. I had no idea what people charge for this.

 

[srs]

Varmint, I heard that with the recent big snow we got one guy was charging $75.00 to do a 20 foot wide blacktop driveway about the length of 3 cars. He had to use his bucket to go in, get a bucket full back up, dump, etc. So I'm guessing a 700' driveway, especially after this storm, would get a few hundred dollars.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Depends on availability of equipment. Around here there are tons of us with tractors and plow trucks. Basically what I do, and I am cheap, is I look at a job and guess how long its going to take me. I charge $1 a minute so a 1/2 hour job is $30, ect.

I am using a tractor with a 7 1/2' plow and a 7' rear grader blade. I can clear the standard 300' drive in my area in about 20 minutes with our last snow of about 20" or so.

Here is a pic of my rig from a early 6" snow this season. The pics of my drive are from last winter with a 18" dump to show my work quality.

I do about 8 drives this season and if I keep at them I am done in about 1.5 hours plus doing 1 mile of road while traveling. Do the road for free just being a good neighbor since the plow trucks usually do not come my way until 2-3 days after the snow stops.

Chris

 

[GPintheMitten]

Varmint,

No offense to your wife, but you and your wife can do a bunch of calculations, but I assume you already own a tractor. Clearing snow on a 700' driveway is not a one-time project like say burying a cable with a backhoe.

So I think you at least need to own some basic snow clearing tools like a good back blade. Adding a loader or snowblower or snow plow costs more but you can use the loader for numerous tasks/projects. My advice is to not subject yourself to over-analysis on snow removal tool(s) if you can afford them.

For me, it would be irritating to watch someone else clear my drive when I was physically capable and owned a tractor, because my wife thought it was a little cheaper.

 

[spruce Deere]

Well varmint, The ability to have the tools one needs at the fingertips is priceless compared to waiting for and paying someone for something you COULD do for your self. For neighbors and such, thats up to you what you would charge. Diamondpilots formula is on the right track. He probably does the same drives each winter, does not travel very far, knows the owners, so he knows what he is in for on each drive. Enough to cover fuel, and keeps relations happy, be it neighbors or somebody down the road a little further. Where I live, its kinda the same way, high tractor population, but there is always the time the county plow forgets people DO live down the road with 16" of snow, the little ol' lady/ older couple, single mom or someone with health problems and just somebody happy to pay and have a small bull session with.

 

[PILOON]

Like Diamond Pilot, I eyeball the job figure approx time and base it on $60/hr.
For contract basis, 1/2 up front and balance Feb 1st or I stop plowing! (there are deadbeats out there).

Around here (lower Laurentians, north of Montreal) we figure 30 snow events/ season!
Hence 30 X the estimated time.
Being cottage country many long drives fetch as much as $1000/season.
Commercial sites such as restaurant parking's, spas etc fetch $3-4000. !

In suburban Montreal a typical contract price is $300. for 2-3 car length drive with maybe 30 clients per street- and all done with 80-ish hp blower tractors. (bylaws prohibit pushing snow onto the streets)

Our local contractors will have many unhappy clients this winter as all our usual snow events have gone south for your enjoyment.
BUT wait, we still will get that spring NOR-EASTER that always dumps 24-30 ins of heavy wet snow in about 6 hrs.

 

[Gittyup]

I would think the costs in Northern Baltimore County would be much higher than most places in Indiana due to the higher cost of living up there in general. It's not the cheapest place to live, for sure.

Hard to get a good number. Would depend on if you could get a guy down the road, or would have to pay a guy who had to trailer. If it were a trailored job, for me, it'd be $100 minimum just to cover towing, loading, and unloading on/off the trailer, not including the actual work.

Maybe a good ballpark number would be $150 per plowing on average from small snow to the big ones. 700' is quite a good bit of driveway, though. Thus, a plow blade pays for itself in about 2 years. A snow blower in about 4 or 5... or either immediately with just 1 or 2 big snows.


If you had to use a snow blower due to depth and no place to push it, it would obviously cost more than just plowing.

I have a neighbor that is an elderly woman living with just her adult daughter down a similar length stone lane. They are pressed right now. In need of heating oil, can't get anyone to clear their lane for a price they can afford. They were quoted $350 because no one closeby has a snow blower. I wish I could help them out. But, I don't have a blower either and it's the only way it can be done as deep as the snow is, and it's not flat either. This is in Carroll county maryland, which is usually a little cheaper than NBC with a lot of machinery all around.

 

[crashz]

A snow contractor will have a minimum cost for his operations. This includes all overhead costs such as insurance, hard costs, business costs and equipment costs. For a driveway, he will also factor in things such as:

- Location to his current routes and driving distances.
- Degree of difficultly in varying storms.
- Typical equipment needed (pickup with plow, snowblower, loader, etc).
- Placement of snow (if there is ample room, or if all snow needs to be left in one area).
- Risk of damage to property or equipment.
- Plowed surface.
- Ice control services (if plowing only, the risk is higher due to sliding on ice beneath snow).
- Road condition, typical traffic etc.
- Trigger depths
- Plowing during the storm, on call, or only after the storm.
- Blizzard clause (anything over an accumulated 12" within 24 hrs)

In my area north of Boston, I would be looking at charging at least $50 for each push of a maximum of 6" depth (anything over would be plowed twice and charged based on that) as my starting point and adding cost with the above factors.

 

[two_bit_score]

Not sure which forum this belongs on, but here goes: My wife is always asking me, whenever I buy another piece of equipment, what someone would charge us to do this or that. I am curious what the going rates are for clearing a 700' long, hard gravel (sloping, but straight) lane of snow might be... some areas have banks on the side make it more difficult to deal with deep snowfalls, and an outside contractor would be starting at the bottom and working up. This is in Northern Baltimore county. I had no idea what people charge for this.

Is she thinking of maybe putting you in business plowing snow? Maybe she is tired of you not having enough to do and thinks the extra money will at least off set your liquor bill?

Sounds like she is just making a reasonable effort at a cost analysis. Of course, we hate those when done by wives.

Like some have already pointed out she should be informed of the intangible costs. What's it worth to be able to do it at your convenience and needed time rather than wait until the contractor comes around? Is there anyone around doing this that is even economical? What other jobs can be acomplished with the equipment? Just a few of the many things to think about.

Think, man, think! You've got to anticipate these issues when you start the proposal process. There are already a lot of 'canned replies' stockpiled here on TBN to answer most of the routine objections like this so you are on the right track.

 

[wallace]

Not sure which forum this belongs on, but here goes: My wife is always asking me, whenever I buy another piece of equipment, what someone would charge us to do this or that. I am curious what the going rates are for clearing a 700' long, hard gravel (sloping, but straight) lane of snow might be... some areas have banks on the side make it more difficult to deal with deep snowfalls, and an outside contractor would be starting at the bottom and working up. This is in Northern Baltimore county. I had no idea what people charge for this.

I just spent all of last week in your area and we were running 2 machines and we were getting $150.00 per hour per machine
keep in mind this was not you average snow year.