Do you have one? What's he charge and a little description of what's involved? I'm kinda hard headed, been doing my straight no hills 120 ft drive and 50 x 50 parking area by hand, mostly with one of these and a shovel Just hired a plow guy, just came for the first time told me $45...not sure if that is per storm or per visit as it's still snowing and he will likely come again.
I am a plow guy....that's a very fair price. Cheaper than I'd charge. Cash goes a long way for us plow drivers.
Holy crap that's alot of shoveling! $45.00 doesn't sound to bad to me but don't know if your guy is doing per storm or per plow, you should ask him...
IF I have my drive plowed, it's about $30 for the horseshoe (about 60' per leg) and up alongside the pole barn about 80'. Since the tractor's on the fritz again (seems to happen every winter) I hand shovel the walk down to the driveway. That's about 35' or so, then I also hand shovel out to the woodshed (that's only about 15' or so) if we get more than a couple inches of snow. I'd go broke having it plowed every snowfall if we have a heavy snow winter. The first winter I bought the $300 plow for the GT, it snow more than a couple times a week for several weeks. Paid for itself very quickly.
There is a place on FB where people sell stuff to this area. Many guys on that page with new adds for snow removal asking $20. I'm betting that with this storm, it will be more. My yard is on the large size, but not long. I would pay whatever most of them seem reasonable. Most all of them are fair. I mentioned it to my son, but he is stubborn and wants to clean it up by himself.
My brother does a bit of plowing. I think the last time I asked him, he was getting about 2.00 a minute with a 25.00 minimum. Now he is a professional machine operator who has 9' V-plow on a 3/4 ton Chevy-he did my driveway a few years ago-it took him about 5 minutes-takes me 30-45 minutes with my 26 hp Kubota and loader.
I plowed with my buddy for years.. 45 dollars is per push... not a bad price.. here a lot of price is how far he extra has to go on his normal loop to get to you.. if you figure your drive is 120 x 10 feet wide or 1200 sq ft plus 2500 Sq ft parking.. that's a lot of time with a shovel.. especially in maine.. so yes you are hard headed.. but if you figure your time would a snowblower be easier either a push or on front of lawnmower? do you have a 4 wheeler? little plow for front are pretty cheap in summer.. lots of options..
Some of it depends on the drive way, One's I really hated were those with a circle -Take a full size 3/4 or 1ton pickup add in another 5ft or so for the plow out front,just can't make those tight radius turns, compounded by the snow load on the plow shoving you mostly in a direction you are not trying to go. Powder snow isn't too bad , but that wet sticky ( i call it wet cement stuff) can really mess your day up not to mention customers yard. I stopped doing private drives about 6 years ago- just not worth the hassle anymore for me. I have been winding down so only do three commercial lots now. About an hour apiece- unless we get a megga dump the it can be a couple hours each depending on the type of snow.
A few summers ago I bought a package off Craigslist for my Wheel Horse that included a tiller, snow blade, rear hitch, and chrome hub caps. I sold everything but the snow blade and got all my money back, essentially getting the snow plow for free. I bought that little tractor just to plow my 200' driveway and my back loves me for it.
The Yooper Scooper can work wonders but that one looks a bit on the small side. For the size of your driveway you might be amazed at how quickly you can clear the snow but some of this depends upon the surface. Flat and smooth? Wonderful. Rough, not so good. The price you were quoted is probably not out of line but, if you were a next door neighbor of ours, you would get that cleared free of charge, thank you.
Agreed. I plowed for 20 years and gave it up at the end of last winter. My minimum for bringing the Dodge 2500 out was $50. Some folks might find that to be outrageous for the 10-15 minutes it would take to do an average driveway. What they don't consider is what it can cost to maintain that truck. I had to figure on new front brake pads every 2 years. I might be able to get 4 years out of the rear pads. Ball joints every 3 years. That's a lot of extra weight on the front end. New tires every 2 years. You wouldn't think that the tires would wear that fast on snow but you're running on dry pavement as you make the pass. Being in 4 wheel drive on a cleared drive eats the tires pretty quick. Over the years I also had to replace 2 windshield wiper motors, had 3 complete exhaust systems, the actuator that engages the 4WD was replaced 4 times and then there's the transmission. That truck has had 4 transmissions. The last two were the most heavy duty that Jasper made; and they aren't cheap. In the years I had to replace the tranny, I was lucky to break even. Then there is the cost to the body and frame. Constant use in the salt covered roads will eventually result in a serious rust problem. But to be fair, I had a couple years that were $tellar. I think it was 2011 when we had two 20" storms 2 days apart. Just myself and my truck made 5k that week. But I quite literally lived in my truck for an entire week. I ate fast food for every meal all week. When I got tired I would clear a lot, back into a parking space, take a couple hour nap and get back on the road. It was grueling. I even had a cop pull into a lot when I was sleeping to make sure I was OK. Very nice of him. So last year after our 32" snow I decided I had had enough. I was hoping to be able to sit at home and watch the snow this winter. But lo and behold; it hasn't really snowed this winter. We've had a grand total of 3.1" this year. Ah well, there will be other winters to sit back and just watch the snow and feed the fire.
^nailed it! I spent over $4000 in repairs last year, and $2000 this year so far. Lost money both years. $45 per push for that size driveway is only putting about $25 profit in the guys pocket.....and that's pretax.
And that's one of the main reasons I decided to give it up. Over the course of my 20 years I was just barely in the black. So not worth it. And let's not forget the fuel. Diesel was in the $4.00/gal range for quite awhile. With a 34 gallon tank, that was $125 per fill-up. I typically used 3/4 of a tank for my route. There's $95.00 every time I went out.
