Snow Removal Is A Great Extra Service For Denver Pressure Washing Companies
We can’t be pressure washing when it’s snowing. Most of our customers don’t want their cars or trucks or sidewalks washed if snow is forecast and they can’t be washed until most or all of the snow has melted away. This makes snow removal service a perfect fit for our company. Denver tends to get some measurable snow once every week or two through the winter. Most of the winter this snow melts off the following day or two and we’re back to pressure washing.
Wash On Wheels Snow Plow Trucks
The primary purpose of snow removal is to provide a safe, or at least safer, surface for customers and employees to walk and drive on. In order to provide this outcome, snow removal consists of three different services: plowing, shoveling and ice melt application. Each location has its own requirements for if and when each of these services should be provided. For instance, we have one account that wants shoveling to start at a trigger depth of 1” and plowing to start at 2”. At this location we apply ice melt to any area snow has been removed from. At another account, plowing and shoveling both start when the snow hits 2”, but if there’s any ice regardless of the amount of snow, then we apply ice melt.
The last scenario often happens in Denver because it will snow around an inch early in the morning and be cloudy until early afternoon. Then the sun will come out for a couple hours and start the melting process until the temperatures drop below freezing again. This leaves a layer of ice under a thin layer of snow – a very slick condition. So even though the ‘trigger’ depth wasn’t reached for plowing or shoveling, we have to lay ice melt on the entire property before their morning shift shows up.
Most of our snow removal accounts have us clear their entire property which usually includes sidewalks, parking areas – especially handicap parking, dock areas, dumpster and compactor areas, cart corrals, fire exit doors and around fire hydrants. As we clear these areas, we have to push the snow to certain areas to facilitate the runoff as it melts. We don’t want to push the snow to the high ground, because then as it melts it would run across the cleared areas and leave icy patches night after night. We also have to be mindful of storm water drains. These have to stay clear of snow so the melting water will have somewhere to go.
Sometimes the timing of a snowstorm can make the snow removal difficult.
If it snows at midnight, it’s easy for us to push the snow from a parking lot because no vehicles are parked there and no one’s had a chance to pack it down by driving over it. However, if it snows during the day when the location is open for business, then the snow gets packed down by the vehicle and foot traffic, making it almost impossible to clear the snow away. Under these conditions, we usually have to do some shoveling and plowing during the day and then we go back out at night to clean up all the areas we couldn’t get to during the day because of parked vehicles.
However, when we go back, there’s usually been some melting from either the sunshine or the heat of the vehicles, so instead of pushing the fluffy snow of a midnight storm, we’re trying to push hard-packed snow and ice that’s bonded with the asphalt or concrete. The surface never clears as well when it snows during the day as it does when it snows at night. All we can do to make it better is to lay down lots of ice melt so when vehicles and people travel over it, it melts off more quickly.
Snow removal is a great fit for Wash On Wheels.
We have nearly as many years experience at snow removal as we do with pressure washing and the combination helps smooth out the working hours for our guys during the winter months.
Related pages and articles
- Press Releases
- Potential Health Hazard Removed At Swedish Hospital With Emergency Sidewalk Washing
- Equipment Cleaning At The International Sportsmen’s Exposition – Video
- Pressure Washing Heavy Equipment At A Mine
- Snow-melting road technology in the works
