RESIDENTIAL
Residential snow removal Ottawa homeowners can plan around
A residential snow removal Ottawa season pass covers the driveway, the walkway and steps, and the ridge the city plow leaves behind — dispatched automatically once 5cm falls, without a phone call and without you home.
- Driveway, walkway and windrow on one visit
- Dispatched automatically at 5cm
- Insured, permitted operators
- Price fixed in writing before the season starts
WHAT YOU GET
Four surfaces, one visit
A driveway cleared to the pavement is only useful if you can also reach the door and get past the ridge at the curb. All of it is handled on the same visit rather than billed as separate call-outs.
The driveway, cleared to the pavement
Not a single pass down the middle. The driveway is cleared to its full width and to the surface, with snow stacked where it will not block your sightline pulling out or bury the spot you park in.
The walkway and the steps
The front walk and the steps to the door, on the same visit as the driveway. This is the surface most falls happen on, and it is the one most often left off a quote — check for it on anything you compare.
The windrow the city plow leaves
The City of Ottawa confirms that clearing the ridge the plow pushes across your driveway is the property owner’s responsibility. It is in the base price here, not an add-on, and if the plow comes back after we have finished, so do we.
Salting, when you want it
Applied to the walk and steps and charged per application rather than bundled. Salting a surface that does not need it is a cost with no benefit, and repeated over-salting damages concrete and the lawn edges it runs off into.
THE SEASON PASS
How a season of residential snow removal Ottawa-wide works
One price for the winter, set before it starts, covering every snowfall over the trigger. Here is exactly what that means.
Coverage runs from November 1 to April 15. Every snowfall that reaches the 5cm trigger is cleared, however many of them the winter brings, up to 275cm of cumulative snow — and past that figure we keep clearing at no additional charge.
Sign-up opens in September and routes close before the first storm. A route holds a fixed number of properties and cannot be stretched once winter starts: a crew that adds ten driveways in January finishes an hour later, and the last ten customers are the ones who notice.
A season pass suits you if
You are here through the winter, you would rather have the cost fixed in October than arriving storm by storm, and you want the driveway open before the commute without having to ask. It also secures a slot on the route, which matters most on the nights everyone wants one.
One-time suits you better if
You travel for part of the winter, you have a short driveway you can usually manage, or you only want help after the storms that genuinely bury you. It costs more per visit and does not hold a place on a full route, which is the trade.
In an average Ottawa winter the season pass costs less for most two-car driveways. In a mild one it does not. The cost page shows both numbers for your driveway size so you can make that call with real figures.
DISPATCH
The 5cm trigger, and why it is written down
The most common complaint about snow contractors is not price. It is disagreeing about whether a storm counted. A written trigger removes that conversation entirely.
What the trigger means
Once accumulation reaches 5cm, your property is dispatched. You do not call, you do not need to be home, and nobody decides after the fact whether it was enough snow to bother. The figure is in your agreement, not in a sales conversation.
Why 5cm and not less
Below roughly 5cm most driveways are still passable, and sending a crew into every dusting would put the season price up for everyone without making a driveway more usable. If you want the lower threshold, priority dispatch drops it to 2.5cm.
How accumulation is measured
Against Environment Canada’s Ottawa reporting, not a guess out of the truck window. It is a public source you can check yourself, which is the point — a trigger only settles arguments if both sides can read the same number.
What priority dispatch changes
Priority moves you to 2.5cm and earlier in the route order. It costs more because it genuinely means more visits across a winter. It is worth it for a steep driveway, a shift worker leaving at 5am, or anyone for whom a passable driveway is not good enough.
A STORM NIGHT
What actually happens when it snows
Residential snow removal Ottawa crews are easiest to judge by what happens on the night, not by what a brochure promises. This is the sequence.
The forecast is watched, not the window
Routes are planned from the forecast before the snow starts, so crews are staged rather than scrambling once it is already falling.
The trigger is reached and the route goes out
At 5cm your property is on the list. Crews work overnight and into the early morning, in route order, so driveways are open before the commute rather than at lunchtime.
A long storm gets two visits
If snow is still falling heavily, we clear once during and return after it stops, rather than waiting for the end and leaving you stuck in the meantime. That is one storm, not two charges.
The plow comes back, so do we
City plows often pass after driveways have been cleared, leaving a fresh windrow. Returning for it is part of the service, not a second call-out.
A blocked driveway is not a used visit
If a car is in the way we clear what we can reach and leave the rest. Tell us and we return at no charge once it moves. A blocked visit is never counted as a completed clear.
WHERE WE WORK
Twelve areas across the Ottawa region
Residential snow removal Ottawa routes run in twelve areas this season, from Ottawa out to Arnprior, each one on the list because it can be run densely enough to keep the price honest and the timing reliable.
Route density is the whole economics of snow removal. A crew that spends its night driving between scattered properties clears fewer of them, and everyone on that route waits longer. The boundary is drawn where a crew can still finish overnight — twelve adjacent areas, not twelve scattered across the map.
Rockland, Embrun, Casselman, Osgoode, Greely, Riverside South, Findlay Creek and the near-rural edge are quotable at a zone adjustment but do not have their own route yet. If your postal code falls outside all of it, the calculator says so and offers a callback rather than quoting a promise we cannot keep.
Live service area
- Our branch
- Routes we run
QUESTIONS
Residential snow removal Ottawa — common questions
KEEP READING
Where to go next
The price, the single-storm alternative, and the mechanics of a storm night in more detail.
GET STARTED
See what your driveway costs for the season
Driveway size, plan and postal code, and the calculator returns a real range in about twenty seconds. Routes close before the first storm.