5 Ways To Minimize Damage On Your Commercial Property During The Winter Season
Preparing your commercial property for winter?
If you want to prevent property damage from this winter’s plowing and ice removal, don't forget to invite your snow removal company.
There are some things we need to know before the snow starts piling up.
How to protect your property against winter damage?
Here’s how we do it.
Let’s Take a Walk
There’s a chill in the air, and that means it’s time for a walk through your property — a key step in preventing damage on your commercial property.
We look for several things on these walkthroughs:
Survey The Ground
Is there anything protruding from the ground that could be damaged once it’s covered by snow?
Manhole covers, water meter covers, utility hardware — all of these things stick up out of the ground an inch or so. That’s enough to catch the edge of a snow plow blade, snow blower or shovel.
If a piece of concrete sidewalk is sticking up even just an inch, our machines can hit that and break it.
A pre-snow walkthrough can spot all these risks, minimizing damage on your commercial property. If we know about them, we can avoid them.
We’ll mark these areas with snow stakes or safety cones to keep them damage free.
Pavers? Show Us
A walkthrough shows us if your property has areas of pavers. Paver areas need a rubber-edged plow blade — a regular blade can pull pavers up or damage them.
Some pavers require a different, gentler ice melt product, too, especially if they’re made of clay.
Site Maps
These overhead maps of your property help our crews clear your property efficiently and avoid damage.
They show us exactly where to plow, shovel and de-ice. They indicate where to pile the snow — and where not to pile it.
And they note any areas of concern, so we can minimize damage on your commercial property.
Snow Stakes
Snow stakes help us keep track of all those danger areas we mentioned earlier, from fire hydrants to retaining walls.
We also stake the curb lines along roadways, so our plow drivers can avoid hitting them in deep snow.
Stakes tuck into the ground, so if there’s no turf area our crews will place safety cones instead, in the hours before a storm.
Speed bumps can get destroyed if you don’t lift the plow blade. Cones work great to mark them.
Keeping Plant Life Safe
Our snow removal crews are diligent about protecting your trees and shrubs from damage, too.
We try not to pile too much snow on shrubs, which can break their branches.
We avoid piling too much snow around trees on parking lot islands, which can damage their bark.
And when we apply snow melt product, we keep it on hard surfaces so the chemicals don’t damage your turf. We don’t apply excess — just the amount needed to melt the ice.
Use One Company for Landscaping and Snow Removal
When one company handles all your commercial property’s landscape needs, from turf care to fall clean-up to snow and ice removal, it makes preventing damage on your commercial property a lot easier.
During spring, summer and fall, our crews really get to know your property, from how wide your sidewalks are to the locations of fire hydrants, curbs and drains.
We have an extra interest in keeping your plant material safe from damage. We’ve worked hard to select it, plant it and care for it all year.
Trust Your Property’s Winter Safety to Level Green
When snow starts to pile up, it hides everything, making your property vulnerable to the heavy equipment needed to clear your property and keep it safe.
The walk throughs, site maps and snow stakes we plan for now are all about preventing damage on your commercial property later.
Level Green Landscaping provides customized snow removal and ice management services to our clients that we already service throughout the year.
If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers.
Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.
Contact us at 202-544-0968.
You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.
We’d love to hear from you — before the snow piles up.
Douglass Delano
Doug Delano (and Bill Hardy) opened Level Green Landscaping LLC in 2002 to offer Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia reliable commercial landscape maintenance services.