RunningBum
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2007
- Messages
- 13,249
My driveway is kind of built into the side of a hill. At one point especially, to make the driveway reasonably level from side to side, the builder dug into the hill. The driveway is about 3' lower than the ground along side the driveway in this spot, and less so at the top and bottom. It was the best option because putting the garage and driveway any other place would've resulted in a big drop from top to bottom.
When it snows, this spot drifts badly. 98% of the time the wind blows over the top of that hill, and the wind is blocked in my driveway, so the snow settles here. I can easily get a 4' high drift with 6" of snow. And worse, I'll go out and shovel, and if the wind is still blowing and we haven't had a thaw and refreeze, it fills back in. There are also some trees on the hill but they are mostly tall and deciduous and shouldn't block the wind too much, and removing them isn't really a good option.
We get from 20"-100" of snow in a year typically, but with those drifts it seems like a whole lot more! I really don't mind shoveling snow, but that drift usually blocks me in so that I have no choice but to shovel before going anyway. I'd be happy to just address that one problem area (actually there is a second smaller drift by the top of my driveway) and shovel the rest. I think a snow blower would have a lot of trouble with the wind packed drift. Getting someone out there to plow before I want to get out would be a challenge.
The most obvious solution is a snow fence, but my driveway is near the lot line, so it'd have to be in the middle of my neighbors front yard. That's just not an option. I also can't level out the hill there since not much of the hill is mine, and I suspect I'd just create a bigger windblock. Filling in what they dug out would create way too slanted of a driveway.
One idea I have is to put a warming mat or two down before a snow and plugging it in, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Heated-Melting-Walkway-Outdoor-HeatTrak/dp/B076HW43MS Does this seem reasonable? I'd have to lay out it before a storm and remove it before driving over it, but I could live with that. It's entirely possible that it would drift everywhere else, but I'm hoping that if I put one or two of these in the calmest spots, it's melt the snow as it landed and keep much of any kind of drift from forming. That company also makes a full driveway mat, but at $1600 for a 20'x2' strip, that seems excessive, and it wouldn't come close to covering my whole driveway.
Another idea is to put a big drum fan out there to create wind in the dead spot so it won't settle there. The hope would be that the snow would keep blowing enough to not drift, since drifts are formed in calm spots. But most fans aren't rated for outdoors. About all I've found is giant football sideline fans that cost a couple grand. I just happened to get a Northern Tool catalog in the mail and they have 15 pages of fans, but none seem to be able to be run out in the weather. Does a reasonably priced (under $200) weatherproof fan exist that would be big enough to keep blowing snow moving?
Any other ideas? I can still take on the drifts with my shovel, but as I get older this may turn into more of an issue. I have a vague notion I've brought this up before but I did a thorough search and couldn't find anything on it.
When it snows, this spot drifts badly. 98% of the time the wind blows over the top of that hill, and the wind is blocked in my driveway, so the snow settles here. I can easily get a 4' high drift with 6" of snow. And worse, I'll go out and shovel, and if the wind is still blowing and we haven't had a thaw and refreeze, it fills back in. There are also some trees on the hill but they are mostly tall and deciduous and shouldn't block the wind too much, and removing them isn't really a good option.
We get from 20"-100" of snow in a year typically, but with those drifts it seems like a whole lot more! I really don't mind shoveling snow, but that drift usually blocks me in so that I have no choice but to shovel before going anyway. I'd be happy to just address that one problem area (actually there is a second smaller drift by the top of my driveway) and shovel the rest. I think a snow blower would have a lot of trouble with the wind packed drift. Getting someone out there to plow before I want to get out would be a challenge.
The most obvious solution is a snow fence, but my driveway is near the lot line, so it'd have to be in the middle of my neighbors front yard. That's just not an option. I also can't level out the hill there since not much of the hill is mine, and I suspect I'd just create a bigger windblock. Filling in what they dug out would create way too slanted of a driveway.
One idea I have is to put a warming mat or two down before a snow and plugging it in, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Heated-Melting-Walkway-Outdoor-HeatTrak/dp/B076HW43MS Does this seem reasonable? I'd have to lay out it before a storm and remove it before driving over it, but I could live with that. It's entirely possible that it would drift everywhere else, but I'm hoping that if I put one or two of these in the calmest spots, it's melt the snow as it landed and keep much of any kind of drift from forming. That company also makes a full driveway mat, but at $1600 for a 20'x2' strip, that seems excessive, and it wouldn't come close to covering my whole driveway.
Another idea is to put a big drum fan out there to create wind in the dead spot so it won't settle there. The hope would be that the snow would keep blowing enough to not drift, since drifts are formed in calm spots. But most fans aren't rated for outdoors. About all I've found is giant football sideline fans that cost a couple grand. I just happened to get a Northern Tool catalog in the mail and they have 15 pages of fans, but none seem to be able to be run out in the weather. Does a reasonably priced (under $200) weatherproof fan exist that would be big enough to keep blowing snow moving?
Any other ideas? I can still take on the drifts with my shovel, but as I get older this may turn into more of an issue. I have a vague notion I've brought this up before but I did a thorough search and couldn't find anything on it.