Plowing, walkways and salt — booked before the season, not during it

Questions we get asked about this

Do you plow commercial parking lots as well as homes?

Yes, and the commercial work is the best-documented part of the record: a parking lot plowed with the walkways cleared, and the lot and walkways salted, invoiced as separate items so the customer can see what each one cost. Residential drives and walkways are on the books too. They are quoted differently because they are different jobs, not because one audience is charged more than another.

How much snow has to fall before you come out?

That is agreed with you when the property is quoted rather than assumed, because it is the single thing customers disagree about most. A commercial lot that has to open at seven and a rental drive are not the same trigger. We write down what was agreed and it goes on the quote with everything else.

Can you do several rental properties in one round?

Yes — clearing three properties in one visit is on the invoice record, and it is billed as one job rather than three call-outs. For a portfolio that is both cheaper and one line of paperwork instead of several.

Do you salt as well, or only clear?

Either. Salting is quoted as its own item — walkways, entrances, or a whole lot — and it is billed separately from the clearing so you can take one without the other. What it is not is a promise about the state of the surface afterwards; salt has a temperature below which it stops doing much, and any contractor telling you otherwise is selling you something they cannot deliver.

Have you been doing this long?

One winter, on the record we hold: twenty-six invoiced snow and salting lines across three customers between December and February — commercial plowing and salting run right through the season, property-manager clearing and salt, a multi-property round and residential work. We would rather write that than imply a decade of it. The equipment, the properties and the customers are real and the history is one season deep, and you are entitled to know which is which before you book another one.

Do you charge a call-out fee or a trip charge?

No — and no diagnostic fee and no charge for a return visit either. Attendance and diagnosis of the items you reported are included in the job price, and there is no minimum charge and no call-out minimum on any of the 84 written quotes this company has issued. Where a job is far enough out to need several days of round trips, a mobilisation figure is agreed with you in writing before anything starts, or the schedule is compressed into fewer longer days instead.

What happens if the job turns out to be bigger than the quote?

It becomes a written change order, priced and agreed before the work goes ahead, and it appears on the invoice by name. Anything outside the written scope is $65 an hour plus materials, and only with your approval — that rate is printed on every quote this company issues.

Do you mark up materials?

No. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, and the invoice record says so rather than the marketing: across eleven months, materials are $10,080 of $210,693 billed on labour-and-materials lines, which is 4.8% of it. On larger projects plenty of customers buy the materials themselves, and those are shown on the quote at no charge.

Are you insured, and do you hold a contractor licence?

Fully insured, and a W-9 and a certificate of insurance go out with every signed quote without being asked for. On licensing we are direct, because it is the question that matters and the one most trade websites blur: the Michigan residential builder licence is not held and no contractor licence is claimed or implied. Electrical and plumbing work here is repair and like-for-like replacement on what already exists — new circuits, panels, service upgrades, water-heater replacement and anything else requiring a licensed trade is referred out and named as such on the quote.