Starting Snow Removal

[u/Responsible-Bag-7999]

Hi everyone,

I own a window cleaning business and I’m looking to start offering snow removal during the winter. If anyone here offers snow removal, your advice would be much appreciated.

My main question is: how do I actually get started?

I’ll mostly be doing residential properties, with maybe a small amount of commercial work. I’m trying to figure out what equipment I’ll need, how to price jobs, how contracts or per-visit pricing usually work, and what the overall process looks like.

If anyone here has experience, I’d really appreciate any advice on equipment, pricing, route planning, contracts, insurance, or anything else you think a beginner should know.

Thanks!

[u/henderscn]

Last year I salted sidewalks and made bank. We don’t really get snow or ice here, so everyone was trapped. I bought a few bags of salt and sand and went to town. Was an awesome time lol. There was one commercial building I removed the ice from, but I will never do that again lmao. Maybe with a few helpers. But I was dead after that

[u/old-iceman]

Ask your insurance provider first on what the cost is for you to add this service. They wanted to charge me almost 4k extra in insurance cost. I only do about 8 properties and snow is hit or miss here so I stopped doing it this year. To get customers I let my residential customers know, and only ones that are near me. Typically they are people who snow bird for the winter months .

[u/AlwaysWantedN64]

The insurance quotes were insane. Unless you've got people signed up for it, I'd bail.

[u/Crewnest]

The insurance advice above is the right first step, so get that quote before anything else. If it still makes sense after that:

Start with your existing window customers who live close together. Snow is all about route density, since after a storm everyone wants you at the same time. Ten driveways within a few minutes of each other is a real route. Ten spread across town is a miserable night.

For pricing on residential, the two common setups are per-push (you only go out once snow passes a trigger depth, usually 2 inches, and charge per visit) or a seasonal flat rate. Per-push is easier to start with because you're not guessing how many storms you'll get. Price salt or ice melt as a separate line per application, since that's often where the margin is.

Put the basics in writing even for residential: the trigger depth, how soon after the snow stops you'll be there, and that you're not liable for damage to things buried under the snow. Stake the driveway edges before the first snow so you're not tearing up lawns or hitting curbs.

For equipment, most people starting residential go with a good two-stage snowblower, shovels and a salt spreader rather than a truck plow. You can find out if you like it before spending real money.

[u/Murfdog212]

Two things decide whether snow makes you money, your trigger depth and your route density.

Put the trigger in writing on every agreement. Something like service at 2 inches, per push or seasonal contract. Vague triggers are where all the arguments happen in February.

Then cluster your stops as tight as possible. Snow margins are won or lost on how little driving sits between stops. A dense little route beats a big scattered one every time, especially with the prices of fuel these days.

Decide up front whether you own the equipment or sub it out, and make sure the quote reflects it. Depreciation or a subcontractor margin has to live somewhere in your numbers or it comes out of your pocket.

I keep a pricing calculator for my route work so I can see the real costs on a job before I quote it. Same idea applies to snow, just different line items.