Do you pay to have your driveway plowed? If so, how much?

[cedahlia]

Our neighbor across the street plowed our driveway for us today following the big snow, and we'd like to give him something as a thank you. We had never met this neighbor before, but he introduced himself and offered to do it when he saw us digging out the huge mound of snow that the state plow left at the end of our driveway. So, we introduced ourselves and took him up on the offer.

Our driveway is pretty long (we live in the country, so it's much longer than your typical suburban 3-4 car length driveway.) It took him about 5-10 minutes altogether to plow our driveway and the turn-around area at the end of it. So I'm just wondering what an appropriate payment would be. For the record, he didn't ask for any repayment, but we'd like to give him something for helping us out.

If I could get an idea of what other people typically pay to have this done, that would help us figure out what to leave in his mailbox as a thank you.

Thanks for your input guys! :-)

[complain jane]

1. Neighbors across the street bring out the big snow blower

and do ours. I bake him a big batch of cookies. Once we gave them a gift certificate to a local restaurant.

[Hardrada]

20. Someone keeps snowblowing ours for free!!

And I'm a night person so I never wake up soon enough to find out who it is. Strange but true.

[Twist_U_Up]

2. buy him a six pack he will be dilirious

and you might get to drink 1 or 2 shootin the crap with your new neighbor,thus more plows for cheap in the future.

[trof]

3. I agree, gift rather than money.

Unless he plows driveways for a living.

[cedahlia]

10. Okay...a gift

I do bake very well...I don't know about beer as you never know who is a recovering alchoholic. But cookies/brownies/pies are probably a pretty safe bet, right?

[Twist_U_Up]

21. gas card maybe ?

[kuozzman]

4. I slept with my neighbor who plowed my driveway. n/t

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. Take him a pie, or a bottle, or a six pack.

:)

[DrZeeLit]

6. Yes, we pay to have ours plowed.

This morning the guy who does it was up early and got it done before I was out of bed.

We are in the country, too. In Vermont. And we have a long driveway.
We've had different "services" in the past few years because some young guys start up and then change plans.

Originally, we paid two guys $100 per quarter to work around the house, including brush removal in summer and fall, and plowing in the winter/spring. Last year we changed to a "professional" service because our two guys grew up and left the area. The new service was $15.00 per plowing. It snowed more often and we ended up paying quite a lot last year (over our $100 per season). They didn't live in our immediate vicinity, so I think they came out sometimes when we didn't have that much snow.

We have a guy up the hill from us now. What great is that he knows when the snow level makes it necessary to plow. I think he's $12.00 per time.

Probably $15 is a basic price.

[trotsky]

7. Beer - a gift for all occasions.

I agree with the above folks - rather than wrangle with a fixed dollar amount, just get a 12 pack of really good beer for him.

[bigwillq]

8. My neighbor plows it for $20!

Let's see who the sickos are.....:P

[kohodog]

9. We have a long driveway too

Our neighbor is a landscaper and depends on the income. For us it's $35, but we only do it when there is 5 or 6 inches which doesn't happen all that often (CT shore). We have a subaru and it gets up our steep driveway in any condition.

[n2mark]

11. He may not be a drinker so I would slip him a 20

but I always overpay when someone helps me out. You could invite him over for dinner.

Although he was able to plow your driveway, he didn't have to do this.... his kindness should be well rewarded. Maybe it only took him 15 minutes to do this, but he didn't have to plow your driveway. I bet he saved you a lot of time and energy.

[cedahlia]

12. right

I was thinking that alchohol might be very appreciated by some people, but it could be the worst gift ever to someone in recovery. We don't know this guy at all so it's better to stick with something safe and inoffensive like money or a baked good! Although I guess baked goods might not be good for some people, like diabetics. Maybe money is in fact the best thing after all.

[1monster]

13. No. But then there aren't any snow plows in Florida. When it snows here,

the whole county/state shuts down even if it is an unmeasurable amount of snow, cause no one has snow tires and most folks don't have a clue as to how to drive in it.

If it does snow, and you are on the wrong side of the bridge, you have to find somewhere else to spend the night; they close the bridges and there is no way to the other side...

on edit: the last time it snowed here was in 1985 or 1986 and that was more sleet than snow. I made it across the bridge from work to home just in time!

[liberalhistorian]

14. We pay our service about

15 bucks each time they plow the driveway, but we have a just a regular-size driveway. You might want to give him more if you have a much longer driveway.

[Nite Owl]

15. Pretty big driveway

I pay $30. NY

[NJCher]

16. I'm jealous

You guys are getting by cheap. We paid $105 for 2/3 of the driveway to be cleaned. Our other neighbor spent $75 for the first third. So altogether, $180.

It's a long driveway; actually it's a private road. It's the length of a football field.


Cher

[2Design]

17. Gift certificate to your favorite local restaurant -

this helps the local economy and gives them a night out they might not do for themselves - even if they have to put more money to the night - they can buy more with the 'extra' money

Pick any of the numbers people have thrown out

I would appreciate the going out more than baked goods and you are right about the alcohol - you don't know

[elfin]

18. $60 fpr the SEASON was what

my previous guy charged. Then he retired. Now I pay $35 up front then $18 per time for a medium driveway. It's the cheapest and most reliable I could find.

The $35 upfront charge is new this year - he got burned due to very light snow seasons in Milwaukee. This year he is doing just fine. I guess it all averages out.

[Floogeldy]

19. Gift certificates for pizzas

[sleipnir]

22. Once my girlfriend paid good money to get it plowed.

I mean, really, it's not that much work, but if you can't do it yourself you need someone to plow it for you, all the better. Just do it behind my back.

[cedahlia]

23. Thanks for all the suggestions everybody!

I appreciate your input! We're leaning towards a gift certificate to a restaurant or $20-30 in cash.

[Arkana]

24. We used to

Then my father broke down and bought a huge-ass snowblower. LOVES it.

[cedahlia]

25. Snowblower

Unfortunately we can't use a snowblower because our driveway is gravel. If our driveway wasn't so long, we'd just shovel it out, but it's very long. Mr. cedahlia does have a plow hooked up to our tractor, but we have yet to get snow chains for it, so it kept spinning tires today when we tried to use it. He's getting a pickup truck soon that he'll also be buying a plow for, but that's down the road...probably not til spring. We just bought this house this past summer, so this is our first winter of living in the country...we're learning. :-) Luckily, we had a nice neighbor to help us out.

[MattBaggins]

26. Hell no!!!!!!!

Thats what I got me a woman fer...

Sorry just kidding folks