What to check before signing a commercial snow contract
Twelve questions. A contractor who answers all twelve crisply in October is a contractor who has thought about February.
The checklist
Print it, take it to every bid meeting, and ask the same twelve of everyone. Comparing answers is far more useful than comparing prices, because price is the easiest thing to quote low and adjust later.
| # | Ask this | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is the trigger depth, and is dispatch automatic? | "One inch, automatic, no call needed." |
| 2 | How is a multi-pass storm billed? | A specific rule, stated in the agreement. |
| 3 | Is de-icing included or separate? | Separate, with a stated rate. |
| 4 | What do you use below 15 °F? | "Calcium chloride, or we advise waiting." |
| 5 | Do you keep timestamped service logs? | "Yes — and here is a sample." |
| 6 | How long are logs retained? | A specific period, longer than one season. |
| 7 | Can you send a COI naming us? | "Yes, before we start." |
| 8 | What is the priority sequence? | Accessible parking and entrances first. |
| 9 | Where does snow get stacked? | Marked on a site map before the season. |
| 10 | What happens when storage fills? | Relocation or hauling, quoted in advance. |
| 11 | Are sidewalks and steps included? | Explicitly yes or explicitly no. |
| 12 | Any fuel or storm surcharges? | "None." Anything else, get it in writing. |
Vagueness on any of these is not an oversight. It is the part of the contract that gets resolved in the contractor's favor later.
The three that cause most disputes
Multi-pass billing. A fourteen-hour event reasonably needs two passes. Whether that is one billable visit or two should be a sentence in the agreement, not a conversation in March.
Sidewalk scope. Walks and steps are hand labor at a different cost per square foot than plowing, so they are frequently excluded quietly. "Snow removal" in a proposal often means the lot. Get it named.
Snow storage capacity. Every lot has a finite number of stacking locations and by February they are full. What happens then — relocation, hauling, or nothing — should be priced before it is needed.
Why accessible parking sequencing is not optional
Accessible spaces, the access aisle beside them, and the route to the entrance come before general lot clearing. Every time.
A lot cleared efficiently with the pile dumped in the accessible aisle is a compliance failure that also strands a real person, and it is exactly the detail that appears in a claim file. Ask where it sits in the sequence and get the answer on the site map.
On price
Compare it last. Our commercial rate is $0.057 per square foot per visit with a $150 minimum, and anything over 7,000 square feet moves to volume pricing — a real conversation about site complexity rather than the same formula with a bigger number.
A bid meaningfully below the market is usually cheaper somewhere specific: a deeper trigger, no logs, no sidewalks, or thinner insurance. The twelve questions find out which.
How we run commercial work is at commercial snow and ice management, and the documentation argument is at snow, ice and liability.
Questions people actually ask
What is the single most important clause?
The trigger depth with automatic dispatch. Without it you are buying a phone call, and during a serious event the phone call is what fails. One inch is standard for commercial because public invitation raises the duty of care.
Should de-icing be bundled into the plow rate?
We would argue no. Bundled, you pay for it whether the temperature made it useful or not, and the contractor has no incentive to tell you when it is too cold to work. Separate pricing keeps that advice honest.
What documentation should I insist on?
Timestamped logs recording arrival, departure, conditions, areas cleared, material applied and rate — retained and retrievable. Claims surface a year or more later and that record is what defends you.
How do I verify insurance?
Ask for a certificate of insurance naming your entity, before work starts, and check the coverage dates. Any legitimate contractor sends one without being pushed. An uninsured contractor does not reduce your exposure, they increase it.
What about snow storage?
Agree and mark locations before the season, when piles do not yet exist. Otherwise you get snow over a storm drain, in the sight line at an exit, or on landscaping that dies by May. Ask what happens when those locations fill.
Should the contract cover sidewalks?
Explicitly, yes or no — never by implication. Walks and steps are hand labor and cost real money, and "snow removal" in a proposal frequently means the lot only. That gap is discovered at 7am on the wrong morning.
Related guides
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2026-09-11 Commercial & property managementHow commercial snow removal is priced in Michigan
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3 min readAsk us all twelve
We publish the answers to most of them already. The rest come in writing before anything is signed.