Why Ever Shovel the Driveway

I might be the only person who kind of enjoys shoveling, mowing the grass too. I wouldn't have bought a house with stuff to maintain if I didn't like maintaining it.

 

I rented a house with some other guys in college and we all had 4 wheel drive vehicles so we vowed to not lift a shovel one winter to see what happened. It got pretty bad. The snow got so rutted and compacted you risked breaking an ankle trying to get to your vehicle and it never melted when the sun came out like it would have if it had been shoveled. Plus it got to the point where girls didn't want to come over anymore so that pretty much ended that experiment.

 

I enjoy mowing, not clearing snow. Grass is not a immediate action required thing. If the lawn grows a extra day its ok, so I can relax and enjoy mowing.
Snow needs to be done now, or it piles up. So it needa to be done before work, or in a rush some other way.

 

People think I'm weird because I like chopping firewood

 

Splitting wood is better than going to the beach for me. And no hydraulic splitter here.

 

Me neither , just got my axe and mauls sharpened today

 

we have been lucky this winter with mild snows. plus the driveway is heated and has 12" diam drains underneath. the guy who built this place overkilled everything.

 

A heated driveway?
Where do you park your Lambo?

 

I meant real people , not fake people on the intertubes

 

about 35% of the homes here locally have heated drives if paved or concrete.
i guess this neighborhood has lazy kids!
i didn't build this place, just bought it last summer..

now if i could just find the switch for the automatic mow option.

 

Heated driveway is not that much more quan if you prep for it initially , the glycol solution in the piping doesn't really need to be that hot like interior hydronic systems . Nice option

 

I have a bad back so since I got the Taco I don't shovel anymore, back is happy, taco is happy.

 

....and snow melts.

 

Yep, and I only have about a 10 foot concrete ramp up into the backyard from back alley and the rest is about 70 foot of gravel.

 

That's what I was thinking about. I understand the potential safety issues. But I can think of all kinds of reasons the stated deadline could be either too restrictive or too liberal. I mean what if the storm ends at 10 AM. Why do you get till the next morming? Don't folks walk on the sidewalk in the afternoon?

Unless you are home and healthy every storm day I suppose the only way you can insure that you comply is to contract with a service that meets the rule of law, or pays your fine for you under breach of contract? Is that want all the folks who winter in the States do? Or ones who take vacations in the winter? Or travel for their work?

Maybe it's a way of job creation. Like not having self service gas stations in Oregon and NJ.

 

My drive is over 1/4 of a mile and all up hill, man I would hate to think even how much antifreeze that would take! Yeah by the time I got to the hard top with a shovel it would be spring! Just went to the town garage and fill a 55 gallon drum with sand to deal with the ice. Tacoma's fine (to an extent) but my wife would get a little testy having to walk up the hill because the Scion didn't make it.

 

The pex lines are usually 1/2" and run at about 12" OC in driveway applications IIRC and its usually a water / glycol mixture

 

I've never swept snow off the driveway, but i did sweep it the other day, right after volleyball. The trick is a good sun hat, lightweight shorts and sunscreen. air temp:76