How To Snowplow A Parking Lot

Owning a snow plow will immediately make all your winter maintenance tasks so much easier to accomplish. When it comes to a big job, though, like plowing an entire parking lot, you’ll want to be ready for anything. Maneuvering around on icy, snowy ground will reduce your traction and it can be hard to operate your plow effectively. But with a few tricks, you can easily accomplish this job without spending too much time or effort on it, sparing you from lingering too long in the cold.

Your friends at Atlantic Tractor want to help you succeed in your mission, so we’ve prepared this guide on how to plow a parking lot. The process is simple enough, but it pays to plan ahead and know how you’ll approach the task efficiently.

Familiarize Yourself With The Lot

The first step is to learn the lay of the land. In this case, it’s the snow-covered parking lot stretching out before you. Whether you’re working for a client whose lot is new to you or maintaining your own lot that you’ve cleared many times before, it pays to get acquainted with the layout so you know where every feature is and what you’ll need to avoid. You don’t want to run into speed bumps, unexpected curbs or hidden fire hydrants, after all, and you’ll ideally want to preserve any landscaping or trees in the area.

Determine Where To Pile Snow

As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, plowing snow doesn’t make it vanish into thin air. All you’re doing is moving it around so it’s not in your way, but it still needs a place to sit. Anyone familiar with heavy winter storms has seen the mountains of dirty, gravelly snow in the corners of parking lots, so that’s what you’re going to do. Talk with your client to determine where they would like the pile to be so it isn’t too intrusive as it melts.

One major tip for this process is to make sure you aren’t piling snow anywhere important. That means that the pile shouldn’t inhibit visibility or block traffic, it shouldn’t be piled over drains, it shouldn’t be in the middle of the lot and it shouldn’t block handicapped parking spaces. Given these restrictions, you can undoubtedly find a smart place out of the way to pile up your plowed snow.

Get Ahead Of The Storm

Once you see flakes accumulating on the ground, you may feel that you should wait until the storm is over before you begin plowing. However, getting a head start will make your job much easier because you won’t be plowing as much at first. If you’re using a really powerful snow blower, though, you may be able to delay without adding too much effort to the task.

Begin your plowing by moving as close to the building in question as possible with your plow raised. Drop the blade and reverse the blower to drag snow back with you. You’ll want to give yourself enough room to approach from the other side later on.

Go back and forth to clear the parking lot, pushing snow into the appropriate piling area. If your plow is wide, you won’t have to go over the area as many times. Once you’ve made headway in the larger lot, you can start to work around the edges. If you come across patches you simply can’t clear with your snow plow, you’ll need to finish them up by hand with a shovel and some salt. After this, your job should be done! Time to admire your handiwork, then head inside for a hot cup of cocoa.

Still looking for a snow blower that can handle all your removal needs? Visit one of the many Atlantic Tractor locations in the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware to view our used equipment inventory. We are happy to ship our inventory between dealerships to better serve you, too! If your snow plow needs maintenance, you’ll want to contact our parts and service department so our professional mechanics can help put you on the right track.