With dropping temperatures and increasing precipitation, it’s only a matter of time before snow hits our city once again. We put together our winterizing tips for your commercial property below. We will be offering more helpful content around winter best practices throughout the season, so keep a close eye on our blog and newsletter.
If you’re located in the GTA and would like our team to provide winter services to your commercial property, please let us know or fill out the form found at the bottom of this post.
Commercial Winterizing Tips
- Repair potential problem spots in walkways, particularly low spots where water gathers and can turn to ice in cold temperatures.
- Last year’s December ice storm in Toronto caused around $200 million in damages according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Minimize the damage a similar event can cause your business this year by getting rid of any dangerous branches that could cause damage if they fall.
- Yet another reason to take care of your trees: they can affect camera angles as well as path lighting.
- Add fall and winter planters to entrances and exits at your property, uplifting residents and guests during what promises to be a grey season. If you need inspiration on what to place in them, we put together a blog post on our top 10 picks to add to fall planters.
- Prepare your parking lot for the snowy season. Plowing will commence as soon as snow hits, so repair any pot holes in the parking lot to make removal easy.
- Prepare salt box distribution for important areas, keeping in mind pedestrian areas like stairs, walkways, and ramps.
- If you have your own equipment, take this time to make sure that it’s all ready for the upcoming winter season, e.g. change hydraulic fluids, filters, etc. Take time to care for your machinery during the season as well, especially the equipment that comes in contact with chemicals.
- If you’re doing the snow removal yourself, make sure you have the right amount of chemicals on hand. Base it on the area that will need them, e.g. parking lots, roads, driveways, walking paths, etc.
- Consider using chemicals that are more environmentally friendly, like Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA) – which is low in toxicity and biodegradable, or Potassium chloride – which will not harm vegetation, see more salt alternatives here. If salt deicers run off into bodies of water and result in high-concentrations of salt, that stresses plant and animals found in that water and can eliminate salt-intolerant species.
- Make sure your crew is trained on proper application methods, keeping in mind surface characteristics like road width, design, traffic, and proximity to water sources. If you know your commercial property is in an environmentally sensitive area, consider using alternatives like sand or gravel.
If you’d like our team to service your commercial property this winter, please fill out the form below
