How much does it cost to plow a driveway in Westchester?

When Nelson walks a drive before the season, the first thing he looks at is not the length. It is where the snow goes. A straight drive with open lawn on both sides can be pushed to the edges all winter. A drive with a stone wall on one side, a drop on the other and a turnaround at the top has nowhere to put the snow, and by February the banks have eaten a foot of width. That means widening passes and sometimes moving snow, and that is time.

Then comes slope. A flat apron plows in one clean pass. A steep, curved drive in Pound Ridge or North Salem takes slower passes, and it needs salt or sand on the grade even when the plowing is perfect. Add parked cars, a basketball hoop, a mailbox post, landscape stakes and low branches, and every one of them slows the truck down. The cost follows the minutes the truck spends on your property.

The trigger is the snow depth at which the plow is sent. We pulled ten winters of NOAA daily snowfall for two stations in northern Westchester, and the median winter had about 4 snowfalls of 2 inches or more, with a range of 1 to 10 depending on the winter and the station. A 2 inch trigger on your drive means roughly that many visits in a typical year. Drop the trigger to 1 inch and the count climbs, because most snowfalls here are smaller than 2 inches.

So a quote for a 3 inch trigger and a quote for a 1 inch trigger are not the same service at two prices. They are two different amounts of work. Tell each company the same trigger, or you are comparing nothing.

Per storm means you pay for each visit. In a light winter you pay little, and in a heavy one you pay for every push. Seasonal means one agreed amount for the winter, and the company carries the risk of a big year while you carry the risk of a mild one. Neither is automatically cheaper. A seasonal account also gets a fixed place on the route, and that matters at 5 AM when a dozen drives are waiting. Per storm work is fitted in around the contracted accounts.

Ask how a long storm is handled. A foot of snow over two days can need a pass in the middle, not one push at the end. If return passes are not in the quote, the drive you wake up to may need equipment instead of a plow.

Read what is written, not the total. These are the things we spell out so you can see what is in and what is not: the trigger depth, what happens below it, whether return passes in a long storm are included, whether salt or sand is part of the visit, whether the apron the town plow closes back up is cleared, and whether steps, stoops and the front walk are cleared by hand. A plow does not do steps.

The most common gap is ice. Most snowfalls here are under 2 inches, so the slick mornings are often not plow mornings at all. If treating the surface is not in the quote, you will either call for it separately or go without. Rock salt also stops working around 15F pavement temperature, so a quote that says salt and says nothing about sand on a cold grade leaves the hard part open.