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 Removal
Harrowgate Group clears and treats commercial property across the GTA and Ontario on a written service plan, with our own trucks, loaders, and sidewalk crews, dispatched on a contracted trigger depth and logged on every visit.
- 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 removal
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 removal
Commercial snow removal is the contracted clearing and de-icing of a property through the winter, covering the parking areas, drive aisles, fire routes, loading areas, sidewalks, and entrances. Harrowgate Group performs the work across the GTA and Ontario on a written service level that fixes the trigger depth, the response window, the clearing order, and the de-icing standard before the season starts.
- 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 removal 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 removal
Scope
Understanding snow removal
How we run a winter season
Every account starts with a pre-season site walk in the fall and ends with a documented spring cleanup. In between, the site sits on an assigned route with named crews, staged material, and a fixed sequence run the same way on every event.
The pre-season walk is where most of the value is created. We stake curbs, islands, catch basins, hydrants, bollards, and soft edges so nothing gets clipped once they are buried. We map the plow pattern, the direction snow moves, and where it gets stacked, keeping piles off catch basins, fire routes, sightlines at the exits, and accessible parking.
We measure the sidewalk runs and the entrances, confirm which surfaces are zero tolerance, and note anything that has caused an ice problem before, a downspout discharging across a walkway, a low spot that ponds and refreezes, a ramp that drains the wrong way.
During an event the sequence is fixed. We watch the forecast and pre-treat with brine or treated salt ahead of a storm where the timing and the surface allow it, which stops the snow bonding to the pavement and makes the first pass far more effective. We dispatch at the contracted trigger depth rather than waiting for the storm to finish.
Plow trucks and loaders with box pushers clear the lot to the mapped pattern; skid steers handle the tight areas, the islands, and the curb lines; sidewalk machines and hand crews clear the walks, the entrances, the stairs, and the accessible routes alongside the lot rather than after it. On a long event we come back and keep coming back, because a single pass at the end leaves a packed base that no amount of salt will fix.
De-icing happens after clearing, not instead of it. Salt applied on top of packed snow does very little; salt applied to a cleared surface breaks the bond and holds it through the freeze cycle. Rates are set to the surface temperature and the forecast, not thrown down by habit. Every visit is logged with the dispatch trigger, the time on and off site, the areas cleared, the material applied and where, and the conditions found on arrival.
Materials, service levels, and Ontario standards
Trigger depths on commercial sites are commonly set at 2.5 cm or 5 cm, with sidewalks and entrances often triggered lower than the parking areas. Material selection follows temperature: sodium chloride is effective to roughly minus 10 degrees Celsius, below which magnesium or calcium chloride blends do the work.
Brine, a salt solution applied before an event, is the anti-icing tool. It prevents the bond forming rather than breaking one that already has, uses less chloride than reactive salting, and does not bounce or scatter off the surface the way dry rock salt does. Pre-wetting dry salt at the spreader achieves a similar effect: the material activates faster and stays where it lands instead of ending up in the landscaping.
Chloride use is governed in Canada by the Code of Practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts, which applies to organizations using more than 500 tonnes a year on a five year rolling average, and to any organization operating in a salt vulnerable area. Calibrated spreaders, application rates matched to pavement temperature, and covered material storage are the practices that keep chloride out of the storm system and off the landscaping.
Two Ontario obligations shape how a commercial site has to be serviced. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, accessible parking spaces and the barrier-free path from them to the entrance have to be maintained, which means an accessible stall is not available as snow storage.
Municipal clearing bylaws set the deadline for the public sidewalk fronting a property; in Toronto the requirement is to clear it within 12 hours of the snowfall ending, and to apply sand or salt if the surface stays slippery, with fines attached. Both are written into the service plan rather than left to interpretation.
Salt also attacks the things it lands on. Chloride drives corrosion in reinforcing steel and causes surface scaling on concrete that has not fully cured, so new pours, ramps, and garage decks get treated with more care and, where appropriate, alternative products. That is the same durability problem our concrete crews spend the rest of the year solving.
Have drawings for snow removal? Send them over and we will scope it.
Finished On Site
Completed on site and built to last
Clean site work and a tidy finish, coordinated with your engineers, the other trades, and the surrounding site conditions, built to the engineered drawings and the applicable codes.
- Coordinated with the surrounding build
- Durable finishes for real-world wear
- Quote-ready support from scope to completion
FAQ
Snow Removal FAQ
What is the difference between snow removal and snow plowing?
Plowing is the mechanical clearing of snow from a surface. Snow removal is the full winter service: plowing, sidewalk and entrance clearing, de-icing, snow stacking, hauling when the site runs out of room, and the service record for each visit. Most commercial contracts need the whole service, not just the plow.
What trigger depth should a commercial property use?
Commercial sites commonly dispatch at 2.5 cm or 5 cm of accumulation, with sidewalks and entrances often triggered lower than the parking areas. The right number depends on when the property has to open and how much pedestrian traffic it carries. Harrowgate Group sets it in writing before the season so there is no dispute mid-storm.
Is the snow contractor liable if someone slips?
Section 6.1 of Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act requires written notice within 60 days of a snow or ice injury, served on the occupier or on the contractor hired to clear the site. The contractor is a named party in that chain. A complete, time-stamped service record is the practical defence, which is why Harrowgate Group logs every visit.
Why does salt sometimes not work?
Two reasons. It was applied over packed snow instead of a cleared surface, so it never reached the pavement. Or the surface was too cold: sodium chloride loses practical effectiveness around minus 10 degrees Celsius, and below that a magnesium or calcium chloride blend is needed. Harrowgate Group clears first and matches material to pavement temperature.
How soon do I need to book winter service?
Late summer and early fall. Routes are built around the equipment and crews assigned to them, and a route fills. Booking in August or September also leaves time for the pre-season site walk, staking, and route mapping that make the first storm go properly rather than being figured out during it.
Can snow be stored in accessible parking spaces?
No. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, accessible parking and the barrier-free path from it to the entrance have to remain available, so using an accessible stall for snow storage is a compliance failure. Harrowgate Group maps storage locations before the season specifically to avoid it.
When does snow need to be hauled off site instead of stacked?
When the piles start costing the property parking it needs, blocking sightlines at an exit, burying catch basins so meltwater runs across the drive aisle and refreezes, or encroaching on fire routes and accessible stalls. On tight urban sites, hauling is planned into the season rather than called in as an emergency.
What do you need to quote a season?
A site plan or an aerial and the address is enough to start. Lot area, sidewalk lengths, the number of entrances, the hours the property has to be open, and any history of ice complaints let us price it accurately. Send drawings or a description through the quote form and we will walk the site.
Still have a question about snow removal? Ask our team directly.
Explore
Related Harrowgate services
Commercial Snow Removal, the full service level for business property, by site type.
Salting and De-Icing, anti-icing, brine, and material rates set to pavement temperature.
Snow Plowing, the mechanical clearing itself, run to a mapped pattern on a contracted trigger.
Sidewalk and Walkway Snow Clearing, the pedestrian surfaces where most claims start.
Snow Hauling and Off-Site Removal, for sites that run out of room to stack.
Seasonal Snow Contracts, how the service level and pricing structure get fixed in writing.
Heated Ramps and Snowmelt Systems, the permanent fix for a ramp that ices every year.
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 removal
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 Removal Across the GTA
View all service areas →Harrowgate Group provides snow removal, delivered and installed with quote-ready support across Toronto and surrounding Ontario communities.
