Designing for the Plow: Where Does the Snow Go?
- Salzman Services
- Jan 1
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 5
In the middle of July, when we are designing a driveway, it is easy to suffer from "Winter Amnesia."
We look at the beautiful pavers, the lush planting beds, and the elegant retaining walls, and we forget one massive, heavy reality: In six months, we are going to need a place to put 40 inches of snow.
Most landscape designs fail in January. They box the homeowner in. They place walls too close to the edge, leaving no room for the plow blade. They create bottlenecks that trap snow against the garage door.
Rugged Luxury means designing for the worst day of the year, not just the best. Here is how we engineer a driveway that handles the plow as beautifully as it handles the Porsche.
The Concept of "Snow Storage Zones"
Snow takes up physical space. When you scrape a 2,000-square-foot driveway, you create a pile that can be 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide. If you haven't designated a "zone" for that pile on the drawing board, it ends up in the worst possible places: on your expensive boxwoods, blocking your mailbox, or against your siding.
Explore our Native Plant Finder.
Design Flaw vs. Engineered Solution
The Common Mistake | The Solution |
The "Tunnel" Effect: Retaining walls built right up to the pavement edge on both sides. | The "Plow Buffer": Setting walls back 3–4 feet from the pavement to allow snow to roll off the blade without hitting stone. |
Dead-End Corners: Sharp 90-degree corners where the plow gets stuck. | Radius Flares: Flaring the edges of the driveway where it meets the street to allow trucks to turn and push snow clear. |
Foundation Piling: Pushing snow up against the house or garage brick. | Remote Storage: Grading the driveway to encourage pushing snow away from structures into a designated lawn area. |
Retaining Walls: The Enemy of the Plow?
We love retaining walls for handling slopes , but on a driveway, they can be a nightmare if placed incorrectly.
If a wall is flush with the asphalt or pavers, the plow driver has nowhere to angle their blade. They are forced to drive straight down the middle, leaving windrows of snow on both sides that narrow your driveway with every storm. By February, your two-car driveway becomes a one-car path.
The Fix: We design "shoulders." Just like a highway, your driveway needs a flat, sturdy shoulder (usually gravel or reinforced turf) before the vertical wall begins. This gives the snow a place to rest.
The Spring Thaw: Managing the Melt
That 6-foot mountain of snow represents thousands of gallons of water. When it melts in March, where does that water go?
If your Snow Storage Zone is located on the "high side" of the driveway, that water will run right back across your pavers, freeze at night, and turn your beautiful entrance into a skating rink .
We engineer the grading so that your storage zones are "downstream" from the pavement. We want the meltwater to flow into the lawn or a designated drainage swale , keeping the driving surface dry and safe.
Protecting the Hardscape
Finally, we have to protect the investment. A steel plow blade is tough on materials.
The Flush Border: We often install a cobblestone or paver border flush with the lawn. This gives the plow blade a smooth transition surface so it doesn't catch the edge of the grass and tear up your sod.
Marker Sleeves: In high-end driveways, we can install subtle sleeves into the ground that allow you to drop in fiberglass driveway markers in winter and remove them in summer. No more hammering stakes into frozen ground.
Comments