What Your Snow Removal Contractor Should Know About Your Pavement

Snow removal is where most damage happens

Four hundred inches at Donner Summit has to be moved, and moving it means a steel edge dragged across your pavement dozens of times a season. Even a skilled operator will find every high spot, seam, and edge you have.

Very little of that damage is malice or carelessness. Most of it comes from the operator not knowing what is under the snow. Fix that and you fix most of the problem. A short walk of the property in the fall with the person who will actually be plowing it is the cheapest pavement protection available.

Write it down. A verbal conversation in October is forgotten by the time a substitute driver runs the route in February.

Mark everything before the snow

Stake pavement edges so the operator knows where asphalt ends and shoulder begins. Riding off the edge is the single most common cause of edge breakup, and once there is a drop-off it gets worse every pass.

Mark every fixed object. Manhole and valve covers, drain grates, cleanouts, curb ends, wheel stops, bollards, irrigation heads, and any raised structure. A blade catching a proud manhole frame at speed does real damage to both.

Also mark low areas that ice up and any known soft spots. If the operator knows a section goes soft in April, they can work it more gently during spring thaw when the base is weakest.

Blade setup and technique

Shoes or skids on the blade keep the steel edge off the pavement surface. A small gap prevents most gouging and scraping and still moves the snow. Rubber or polyurethane cutting edges are gentler than steel where they are practical.

Direction of the push matters. Plowing across a seam or a joint is easier on pavement than plowing into it. Backdragging on driveways reduces the amount of edge contact. Slower is better on aged pavement, since blade damage rises sharply with speed.

Sanding for traction is standard here and it is fine. Just plan to sweep in spring. Sand left on the surface acts as an abrasive under tires and grinds down both sealcoat and striping.

Ask what equipment will actually show up. A skid steer, a truck plow, and a loader all behave differently on the same lot, and the operator should know which surfaces are which.

Where the snow goes

Decide snow storage locations before the season, not during a storm at two in the morning. Piles should be placed downhill of pavement so meltwater runs to soil or a swale, not across the asphalt.

Never stack snow over a drain, a culvert inlet, or a swale. Blocking drainage in December means water has nowhere to go in March. Rotating storage locations year to year also prevents one corner from being saturated and softened every single spring.

Get all of this in writing with your contractor, including who is responsible for damage and what condition the pavement was in going into winter. Photograph the property each fall. Then get cracks sealed and the surface coated before the snow comes, because a tight sealed surface takes blade contact better than an oxidized one. Our work season runs June through September. Call (530) 587-4161 and we will look at it.

Sweep in spring. Sand and cinders left on the pavement after melt grind at both the surface and the striping all summer, and they end up plugging drainage.

Quick answers

See the rest of the pavement library, or if you are trying to identify something specific, start with pavement problems.