Planning For Snow and Ice Removal at Your Facility
With Long Island's severe winters, snow and ice removal are an inevitability. It's a tough job, but a necessary one in order to keep facilities safe and accessible by employees and guests alike. Planning ahead can help make it a less arduous task, so there are a few things that Long Island facility managers should start working on now in order to make life easier when winter weather hits.
Develop a Snow Removal plan
What's the best strategy for removing snow and ice? That can depend on how much square footage will need treatment. Will it be a small entryway or an entire parking lot? A small area might need nothing more than an employee and a snow shovel to make it usable. A larger area might call for a plow, or, if that's not feasible, treating it with a snow-melting agent. Sustainability is another factor to consider. Sand and salt are tough on concrete, asphalt, soil, and landscaping alike. Too much salt can easily kill expensive perennial plants, which means soil remediation and re-seeding in spring. It can also speed the corrosion of steel and cause damage to concrete.
Wherever possible, it's best to remove snow manually. Where chemical treatments are necessary, brine can be gentler -- but still effective -- alternative to straight salt or sand. Inspect the facility's grounds and note areas that will need particular attention. Believe it or not, the order in which you clear ice and snow matters. Heavily-trafficked areas should always be cleared first. This isn't just a safety issue, either. Packed snow is much harder and more time-consuming to remove than loose, fluffy snow. Save areas with the least traffic for last. You'll also need to figure out where ice and snow are going to go once they're cleared. Putting large piles of melting snow in the wrong area can allow water to infiltrate gaps in the pavement or even the building's foundation. It can then re-freeze, creating cracks and leaks. Find a safe place to pile snow throughout the season, where it can melt without damaging or disrupting anything.
Stock up on Snow Removal supplies
If you have a snow plow attachment, shovels, or blowers, now's the time to make sure that they're in good working order. If you need salt, sand, or other chemical melting agents, now's the time to check your inventory and order enough to last through winter. It'll be much more difficult to ensure a steady supply in the middle of the season -- not only will everyone else be buying it up, but severe storms can also disrupt supply lines and leave you scrambling. You may also wish to standardize your facility's snow removal equipment. Using the same type of plows or blowers across the board will make ordering replacement parts and performing repairs easier and less expensive.
Know how to care for your surfaces
If you plan on using a plow, it's important to gauge which attachments are best for your facility's surfaces. Steel blades are tougher and able to break up ice and remove snow at the same time but can scratch decorative surfaces and cement. They're also noisy, and the damage they leave behind can become very unsightly when the scraped-off traces of steel start to rust and stain. Rubber blades aren't as strong and don't clear ice as well, but they're quieter and far less likely to cause scratches and scrapes. Snow and ice are also bad for freshly-paved surfaces. These take time to cure, so they should be covered to protect them from water damage, salt, and plow blades.
Take a look at scheduling and staffing.
Poor scheduling can easily leave a facility shorthanded in winter. Some employees will inevitably be unable to come in on time if the weather's bad, and others may be tied up handling snow and ice removal. This means that other key tasks might get put on the back burner. You may wish to find a snow removal service instead. They can take care of everything for you, which may very well be worth the added expense. Be sure to have the contact information for more than one service, just in case one isn't able to follow through with the terms of the contract.
If you choose to engage a professional snow removal service, make sure that they're ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certified. This is a recent certification, but it's the best way to ensure that their work adheres to a quality standard. The worst time to prepare for a storm is in the middle of one. That's why it's crucial to have a plan, the supplies you need, and enough manpower to deal with ice and snow. Never assume that snow won't accumulate -- the longer you delay in removing it, the more difficult it'll be to get rid of and the more damage it'll cause. By inspecting your facility's grounds and creating a plan for when, where, and how to remove winter precipitation, you'll be able to keep on top of anything winter can throw at you.
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