Choosing a snow trigger depth you will not regret in February

Every winter contract in the GTA comes down to a single number agreed in October: the depth of snow at which your property gets serviced. Pick it badly and you will either be shovelling on the worst morning of the year, or paying for visits you did not need.

What a trigger depth actually is

It is the accumulation at which the contractor is obliged to come. At 2 cm, a light overnight dusting puts you on the route. At 8 cm, a moderate snowfall may not. The number is not about how much snow bothers you aesthetically — it is about what you can safely drive and walk through at six in the morning.

Residential: usually somewhere around 5 cm

For a typical two-car driveway with a car that has to leave in the morning, a trigger in the range of 5 cm works for most people. Below that, a car with winter tires handles it, and a shovel clears the walk in five minutes.

Two situations argue for a lower trigger: a steep driveway, where even a thin layer becomes ice after one pass of tires, and a household where somebody cannot safely clear a walk themselves.

Commercial: lower, and not negotiable

Any property the public walks on is a different calculation, because the moment somebody slips in your parking lot it is a liability question. Commercial lots are typically serviced at a lower trigger, cleared before opening hours, and salted as a matter of course rather than on request.

Keep records. A log of when the lot was cleared and salted is the single most useful thing a property manager can have after an incident.

The windrow at the end of the driveway

The most common winter complaint in the GTA is not the snowfall — it is the bank of compacted snow the city plow leaves across the bottom of the driveway, often after the contractor has already been. A good contract says what happens then: either the property is serviced after the municipal plow has passed, or it gets a return pass.

Ask before you sign: is the city windrow included, and what happens if the municipal plow comes after you have cleared?

Seasonal or per visit

Seasonal is one price for the whole winter. In a heavy year you are well ahead; in a mild one you have paid for certainty. Per visit is cheaper in a quiet winter and brutal in a bad one — and per-visit customers are, everywhere, serviced after contracted ones.

If you have to be out of the driveway every morning, seasonal is the only sensible choice.

Winter contracts