Preparing for winter is a bit of a challenge for most people. There’s a lot that you need to take care of, from making sure your chimneys are clean and that your house’s roof is ready to handle heavy storms to ensure that your property is properly insulated and ready for the cold season. Before this season starts, you also need to think about how you will keep your parking lot clear of snow so that you can easily park and access your property. This, however, is not something that you can do only once and expect it to stay the same way throughout the entire season. Removing snow from your parking lot will require constant effort. In the brief guide below, we will give you 3 tips on how you can keep your parking lot clear of snow.
Move Snow to Safe Areas for Draining
When you remove snow from the entrance of your house or from your parking lot, chances are the run-off snow will just drain to other areas where it will freeze again. This means that the snow you move away can seep to other places where it becomes a problem or causes road or structural damage. When you clean your parking lot and plow the snow around your house, make sure you apply salt to the remaining snow to melt it and move the shoveled snow piles to a place where the drainage can go to a safe location.
Contact a Snow Removal Company
Before preparing for the winter, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions. Do you have the right equipment and tools that can help you prepare your property for the cold season? Can you remove the ice and winter-proof your house on your own? As stated on the blog post Need A Snow Plow?, If you cannot remove the ice in your parking lot on your own or do not have the time for it, you can always hire a snow removal service to help you out. Before signing a contract with a snow removal company or requesting any service, make sure it’s a trusted company that has experience in this field.
Secure Your Parking Lot
When snow is covering your parking lot or the entrance to your place, the melting snow will leak into the cracks in the ground and freeze again. This will cause cracks in the asphalt to grow wider and potentially create holes in the ground, which can ruin your parking area. To stop this from happening, make sure that you close your garage or parking lot and cover it before the winter to prevent ice from reaching it. Sealing your parking lot will save you a lot of effort, and save you the trouble of having to clear your parking lot every few days to keep the snow away.
The key to protecting your parking lot in the winter is to keep it clean throughout the year, especially in the summer and fall. Start by cleaning and removing chemicals and oils from the ground using a pressure washer to make sure the chemicals do not seep into the deepest layers of the asphalt. This can create cracks or holes in the ground. Following these 3 tips and cleaning your parking lot before the winter will protect it in the cold weather and keep it free of potholes and snow.
I am glad that I don’t have to worry as much about snow removal. I do try to keep my driveway clean so that I won’t slip on ice,etc. When it is over 3 inches the management takes care of it.
Thank God I don’t have to worry about that any more. Apartment living has a lot of advances. I have to admit there is a lot of information that I would never have dreamed about.
This makes me so glad I live in an HOA and they do all the snow removal. And all the grass mowing.