Snow Preparedness-First time home buyer (Boston, Newton: how much, buying, closing)

[ramaka]

Hi Folks:
Hopefully, I will be a first time home buyer soon. The new place has a decent driveway and quite a big yard space. I would like to know what toys/tools needed to be snow prepared? I just bought a BigFoot snow showel of Home Depot which was a part of their daily deal. If I opt for a DIY snow removal, which budget friendly snow blower would you highly recommend? Snow salt? Your inputs is highly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Shizim]

whats a "decent" driveway? how many car lengths and width? i have a friend that goes out every couple of hrs with a little single stage Toro. i wait until its done and go out with a 2 stage Airens and do it all at once. its really up to you.

a single stage will get you closet to the pavement without leaving that 1/2 inch of snow/slush. however if there are more than a few inches of snow or its really heavy/wet a single stage will not suffice.

[ramaka]

Thanks for your reply, shizim. The driveway is about 6 cars (3 cars length and 2 cars width). Would it be expensive to ask someone to clear the snow or DIY buying a good snow showel? Are you planning to stock up on the snow salt, since I remember last year there was a huge shortage.

[Shizim]

i would assume it would cost you $50 a storm to get the driveway cleaned out.

maybe i am lazy (actually i know i am) but a 6 car driveway is not something i would enjoy shoveling......

a good snowblower can last 10+ years. its well worth the investment. i have had mine since 2006 and it runs like new. just get it tuned up annually (or do it yourself, its not hard).

and yes. I am going to buy some rock salt/sand mix in the next few weeks and leave it in my shed. I was able to find it whenever i needed it last year though.

[masshawk]

Good call thinking of this early -- stores do run out right before a big storm. I don't stock up, just have one extra jug of salt (which we don't actually use that much) and an extra shovel on hand (we've broken 3 shovels over the past couple years). Our driveway is only 2 cars long and 2.5 cars wide so we thought "Hey, there's 3 of us able bodied adults, let's just DIY shovel" yeah that got old real quick. The biggest pain is the giant bank of hardpacked, icy crud that the plows dam up the end of the driveway with when they go by. We got a secondhand snowblower this year. Don't know how much it costs to ask someone else to do it, though I have heard the kids these days charge upwards of $20

[Parsec]

Personally I would not shovel a 6-car driveway, but relatively speaking that's still considered a small to average size driveway if you don't live in a city like Waltham or Newton. I wouldn't spend the money on a 2-stage snowblower. I'd buy a Toro single stage. It costs almost as much as the cheaper 2-stage snowblowers, but its easily the best single stage on the market and will last you a long time. As others have noted, the biggest advantage of a single stage is you don't need to go back out with a shovel to skim the extra 1/2" of snow off the driveway because it scrapes right down to the pavement, unlike the 2-stage snowblowers. I can easily push mine in 8" of snow, so it's good for most storms. If we expect a bigger storm then I'll go out to make my 1st pass in the middle of the storm, then again after the storm is over.

[ramaka]

Thanks all! Any recommendations for a good budget friendly snow blower brand name and model no? Also, which is better a gas or electric washer and dryer?

[Dm84]

I have a driveway of similar size (mine can hold about 3 more cars). I can shovel about 3" of accumulation by myself in about an hour. Anything more than that I have a plow service come and it's about $50 each time they come (Severe snowstorms usually require 2-3 plowings).

I went through about 300 pounds of Calcium Chloride and 300 pounds of sand last year (driveway is on a slope). Do not buy rock salt no matter how cheap it is. I usually keep 100 pounds of CaCl and sand on hand at a time. Sand is dirt cheap at about $3 for 50 lbs and CaCl generally runs me $10 for 40 lbs.

Dryer type is really dependent on the hookups your house comes with. If there's an electric outlet for the dryer already in place, it may not be worth it to have a gas line installed there. If you're starting from scratch, go gas.

[GeoffD]

Ramka, what town is this in? If you're near the coast, you see a lot less snow than if you're well inland northwest of Boston. Snowblowers are expensive and require maintenance. They also don't deal well with the wet slop that Boston sees much of the time unless you buy an expensive two stage snowblower. Boston only gets an average of 45" of snow. It sounds like you have a 60 foot driveway. You don't have to shovel it edge-to-edge. Most winters, you can shovel the light snowfalls yourself and have somebody plow your driveway the few times it really snows.

[absood]

I am in the similar shoes, first time home buyer, closing on house next month in Shrewsbury, ma.
The house has 60 foot driveway.

I am inclining towards electric snow blower.. would electric blower suffice in the 65" of annual snowfall of this area?
I am little hesitant to go for gas mower, because of all the maintenance.

kindly advice!