Winter · November 2026 · 5 min read
The plow that fills your driveway apron is doing its job. Clearing it is ours.
Winter service generates more misunderstandings than every other season combined, and almost all of them come down to who is responsible for what.
Here is how it works on our route.
Most towns around here put sidewalk clearing on the abutting property owner within a set number of hours after snow stops. If you have frontage on a school walking route, that gets enforced. We can add walks to your service, but they are not automatic with a driveway plow.
Pushing snow across or into a public way is prohibited in Massachusetts and creates a real hazard on narrow Norwood Center streets. Every property we plow needs a stacking area, and we identify it before winter, not at two in the morning during a storm.
The town plow will come back after the storm and leave a hard ridge across your driveway entrance. That is a second visit for us on most storms, which is why we return after the town has finished rather than only during the storm.
Stakes along the driveway, at the mailbox post and at any low wall or bed corner. Blacktop edges and irrigation heads are invisible after eight inches, and stakes are cheaper than repairs.
We plow at a set trigger depth, typically three inches, and bill per storm rather than by the season. A long stretch of dry cold costs you nothing, and a February blizzard is priced the same as the first push in December.
Plowing clears snow, it does not stop a freeze thaw glaze on a north facing walk. Treated walkways are a separate line item, and we use calcium chloride blends near planted beds because rock salt kills bed edges and lawn margins.
Winter routes fill by early November. If you want a driveway on the list, get on it before the first forecast.
