Built to spec
Built to your engineered drawings, survey, and the real site conditions, not a one-size-fits-all approach forced to fit.
Commercial & Heavy-Civil Construction
Snow Plowing
Harrowgate Group plows commercial lots, private roads, and yards across the GTA and Ontario to a pattern mapped before the season, dispatched on a contracted trigger depth and repeated through a long event.
- Licensed, Insured & WSIB-Covered
- 20 Years in Business
Get a Quote
Tell us what you need and we’ll get you a quote. Licensed, insured & WSIB-covered · Free, no-obligation quote & on-site assessment.
Get a Quote
Licensed, insured & WSIB-covered · Free, no-obligation quote & on-site assessment.
20 Years in Business
Licensed, Insured & WSIB-Covered Completed to code & Ontario requirements Completed on site and built to the drawings Performed & installed on site across Ontario
Why Harrowgate Group
What to expect from snow plowing
Made to last
Durable materials and methods chosen for the load, traffic, and environment on site.
Quote-ready
Send specs, drawings, or photos and get a free, no-obligation site visit and estimate with no guesswork.
Code-conscious
Installation and site work completed in accordance with Ontario requirements.
Our Process
How we plan and deliver snow plowing
Snow plowing is the mechanical clearing of accumulated snow from a surface to a mapped pattern, dispatched at a contracted trigger depth and repeated as an event continues. Harrowgate Group plows commercial lots, drive aisles, private roads, and yards across the GTA and Ontario with our own equipment.
- 01 Send your inquiry, a few photos or a description of the site.
- 02 We come out, assess the site, take measurements, and confirm the scope.
- 03 We complete the snow plowing on site, to the load and finish the job needs.
- 04 We install it, finish to grade, and clean up, one accountable crew, start to finish.
Local Context
A closer look at snow plowing
Scope
Understanding snow plowing
How we plow
Every site is walked and staked in the fall, the pattern and the storage are mapped, equipment is matched to each area, and then every event is cleared to that same pattern.
Staking comes first. Curbs, islands, catch basins, hydrants, bollards, wheel stops, soft edges, and anything else that vanishes under accumulation is marked before the season, because an operator working in the dark in a whiteout cannot see them and a blade will find them at speed. This single step prevents most of the damage that shows up as a spring repair invoice.
The pattern determines efficiency. Snow should travel to its storage location in as few movements as possible, which means the direction of each pass is planned rather than improvised. Windrowing snow back and forth across a lot doubles the machine hours and leaves ridges across the parking rows that then have to be cleaned up separately.
Equipment is matched to the area. Loaders with box pushers carry high volume across open lots and yards and deliver it to storage rather than pushing it repeatedly. Plow trucks handle drive aisles, private roads, and travel routes where speed and manoeuvring matter. Skid steers with blades or pushers work curb lines, islands, tight corners, dumpster enclosures, and the spaces between parked vehicles where a large machine causes damage. Blade setup changes on concrete, pavers, and decorative surfaces to protect the finish.
On a long event we return and keep returning at the contracted interval. A single pass at the end leaves a packed base under traffic that no amount of de-icer will lift, and that base then takes days of scraping to recover.
Triggers, equipment, and site protection
Commercial trigger depths are commonly 2.5 cm or 5 cm. The depth, the response window, the priority order, and whether long events receive continuous service are all fixed in writing before the season rather than negotiated during a storm.
Fire routes and accessible parking are cleared on every visit regardless of accumulation, because both have to remain usable at all times. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act accessible stalls and the barrier-free path to the entrance have to be maintained, and they are never used for snow storage.
Storage placement is a drainage decision. Piles are located so meltwater runs to a catch basin rather than across a drive aisle where it refreezes overnight, clear of sightlines at the exits, and off fire routes. Once a site has run out of usable room, plowing stops being the answer and hauling begins.
Plowing alone does not make a surface safe. It leaves a thin bonded layer that becomes ice under traffic, which is why de-icing follows clearing on every commercial contract, at rates matched to pavement temperature. Sodium chloride is effective to roughly minus 10 degrees Celsius; colder events require magnesium or calcium chloride blends.
What goes wrong, and how we prevent it
Plowing failures are damage, windrows, packed base, and arriving too late for the property to use the result.
Damage. Unstaked curbs and islands, oversized equipment in tight areas, and wrong blade setup produce gouged asphalt, sheared bollards, broken curb edges, and destroyed landscaping. Staking, matched equipment, and operators who ran the same site last season prevent nearly all of it.
Windrows across the parking. Clearing the aisles and leaving ridges across the stalls is fast for the contractor and expensive for the property, because it costs capacity all winter. We clear back to the stall line and clean up the rows.
Packed base. Waiting for a storm to finish before plowing lets traffic compact the accumulation into a bonded layer that takes days to recover. Dispatching on trigger and returning through the event prevents it.
Late arrival. An oversold route serves whoever calls loudest. Routes are sized to committed equipment and crews, which is why we decline additions a route cannot carry.
Plowing without treating. A plowed lot with no de-icer is still an ice claim waiting to happen, and section 6.1 of Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act puts both the occupier and the snow contractor in the notice chain when it does.
Have drawings for snow plowing? Send them over and we will scope it.
FAQ
Snow Plowing FAQ
At what depth do you plow?
Commonly 2.5 cm or 5 cm on commercial sites, fixed in the contract before the season. Fire routes and accessible stalls are cleared on every visit regardless of accumulation, and pedestrian surfaces usually run on a lower trigger than the parking areas.
Do you plow during a storm or wait until it stops?
During. Waiting until a storm ends lets traffic compact the accumulation into a bonded base that takes days of scraping to recover. Crews dispatch at the trigger and return at the contracted interval through a long event.
Is plowing enough on its own?
No. Plowing leaves a thin bonded layer that turns to ice under traffic. Commercial contracts pair plowing with de-icing applied to the cleared surface, plus separate clearing of walks and entrances, because those are the surfaces where injuries actually happen.
How do you prevent damage to curbs and landscaping?
Everything that disappears under snow is staked before the season, equipment is matched to the area rather than using one machine everywhere, and blade setup is adjusted on concrete, pavers, and decorative surfaces. Operators run the same sites season to season so they know the property.
What is a windrow and why does it matter?
A windrow is the ridge of snow a blade leaves at the end of a pass. Left across parking rows it costs the property stalls all winter and eventually freezes solid. Patterns are planned so snow travels to storage in as few movements as possible, and rows are cleaned back to the stall line.
Can you plow private roads and long shared drives?
Yes. Travel surfaces need to stay continuously open rather than being cleared once, and they rarely have adjacent room to stack, so both the equipment mix and the storage plan differ from a parking lot. These are usually serviced on a lower trigger with more frequent passes.
What equipment do you use?
Loaders with box pushers for volume across open lots and yards, plow trucks for drive aisles, private roads, and travel routes, and skid steers for curb lines, islands, tight corners, and areas around bollards and enclosures. Equipment is matched to the area rather than one machine used everywhere.
What do you need to quote plowing?
A site plan or aerial and the address, the pavement area, whether there is usable on-site snow storage, fire route and accessible stall locations, and the hours the property has to be usable. We walk the site before finalizing the plan.
Still have a question about snow plowing? Ask our team directly.
Explore
Related Harrowgate services
Snow Removal, the full winter service that plowing forms part of.
Salting and De-Icing, the treatment that has to follow the plow.
Parking Lot Snow Removal, lot-specific stacking and stall recovery.
Snow Hauling and Off-Site Removal, when there is nowhere left to push.
Municipal and Roadway Snow Plowing, route-based road contracts.
Asphalt Paving, repairing surface damage after a hard winter.
Our Work
View Our Projects See real projects across Toronto & Ontario
Commercial and heavy-civil construction delivered for developers, contractors, property managers, and municipalities.
Get a quote for snow plowing
Send drawings, a site plan, or a description of the scope. Harrowgate Group is licensed, insured, and WSIB-covered.
Licensed, Insured & WSIB-Covered, work managed and documented on every job
Send your project details
Tell us what you need and we’ll get you a quote. Licensed, insured & WSIB-covered · Free, no-obligation quote & on-site assessment.
Snow Plowing Across the GTA
View all service areas →Harrowgate Group provides snow plowing, delivered and installed with quote-ready support across Toronto and surrounding Ontario communities.
