About us
I’m Andrew. This is my truck and my route.
Northline Property Care is one man, one truck and a route through Durham Region, based in Oshawa. The same person does your lawn and your driveway.
- Owner operated, Oshawa based
- Fully insured
- Every visit photographed
See all three memberships and what each one covers
Green in summer. Clear in winter.
Where this started
This company was built on a simple belief: when you take pride in your work, it shows.
I began my career in the skilled trades as a commercial plumber. That's where I learned what actually matters on a job site: attention to detail, showing up when you said you would, and doing the work properly whether or not anybody is watching. In the trades those things aren't slogans. They're the difference between a job you can stand behind and one that comes back on you.
Then I was injured in a car accident, and that career ended sooner than I planned. It was not the direction I would have chosen, but it forced a decision, and the decision was to go back and build something of my own.
So I went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, and started working toward running a company rather than working for one.
While my career changed, my appreciation for hands-on work never did.
Property care is where the two halves finally made sense together: the trades standard for how work should be done, and the business side that makes a company reliable enough to still be here in five years.
What each half brings to your property
The trades taught me the standard. A cut edge is either clean or it isn't. A driveway is either cleared to the pavement or somebody is going to slip on what's left. There's no 'close enough' in plumbing and there's no reason there should be one here.
The business degree taught me the part most contractors in this trade get wrong. Plenty of people can cut grass well. Far fewer can build a schedule that holds in June, price a route so it's still profitable in year three, carry the right insurance, keep proper records, and answer the phone in February. Most small operators in Durham disappear in their second summer, not because they could not do the work, but because nobody taught them the rest of it.
That's the honest reason for the membership model rather than per-visit work. A fixed monthly price across twelve months means the business is stable enough to still be here next winter, and that stability is what you're actually buying when you hire somebody to clear your driveway at 6 AM.
How we work
Good service starts with the basics, and the basics are unglamorous:
Show up when we said we would. Same day of the week, same person, every week of the season. If something changes, you hear it from us before you notice it yourself.
Tell you what's happening. Before a storm, not after it. If we find a problem on your property (salt burn along the driveway edge, a branch down, a patch that is struggling), we tell you, including when it's something we caused.
Pay attention to the details. The edges, the walkway, the blow-off before we leave. Those are what a property actually gets judged on, and they're the first things to go when somebody is rushing.
Take pride in what we leave behind. Every property gets left in a state I would be happy to have somebody drive past and know we did it.
The standards
Things we do on purpose, that you can hold us to
Not adjectives. Specific, checkable, and written down here so you can point at them if we ever fall short.
Cleared before you leave: the 7 AM target
After overnight snow, on Gold and Platinum your driveway, walkway and steps are done before you need to leave: 7 AM target, 6:30 for Platinum members.
On Gold and Platinum we clear at 5 cm, unlimited, with no per-storm charges. A brutal winter costs you the same as a mild one; that risk is ours to carry, not yours. Silver is a windrow service: we take the ridge the city leaves across the end of your drive, by 5 PM.
Cut at 3 inches, deliberately
Higher than most contractors cut, and it isn't laziness. Taller turf grows deeper roots, holds moisture through a dry August, and shades out the weed seed.
Since Ontario banned cosmetic pesticides in 2009, height and density are the weed program. Anyone offering to spray your lawn is offering to break the law on your property.
You hear problems from us first
If something gets damaged, or a visit wasn't up to standard, you'll hear about it from me before you find it.
That's a lower-stress way to run a business than hoping nobody notices, and it's the only version I would want as a customer.
Local, and what that actually means
We're based in Oshawa and we work across Durham Region: Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Bowmanville, Courtice and the surrounding parts of Clarington.
Almost every company claims to be local, including franchises run out of another province with a call centre attached. What it means here's narrower and more useful: we build routes street by street rather than taking scattered work across the region, so the properties we look after tend to be near each other. That's why we can be at your driveway early, and it's why we'd rather sign four neighbours than four strangers.
It also means you're dealing with the owner. When you call at 5 AM in a storm, the person who picks up is the person who can actually decide something.
We're a locally operated Canadian company, and where we can, we buy from Canadian suppliers and work with other local businesses. That's partly principle and partly practical: when local businesses support one another, the money stays in the region and everybody does better for it.
Honest about what we aren't
We're not the biggest company in Durham, and we're not trying to be. We aren't the cheapest either: there's usually somebody who will do it for less, and sometimes that is the right call for a property.
We don't spray for weeds, because that has been illegal in Ontario for cosmetic purposes since 2009 and we'd rather tell you that than take your money for it. We won't promise a bare driveway at minus 18 °C, because rock salt stops working below about minus 10 and no contractor can salt their way around physics.
And if a seasonal contract isn't good value for your property, we'll say so before you sign. We'd rather lose the sale than sell you something you don't need. That tends to come back around anyway, usually as a referral.
Insured, registered, and happy to prove it
Northline Property Care is a registered Ontario business carrying commercial general liability insurance, and we're glad to provide a certificate before any work starts, for a driveway or for a plaza. Commercial clients are named as Additional Insured as standard.
Please do ask: anyone operating machinery on your property should expect that question, and we are glad to answer it.
What it comes down to
Do good work. Treat people fairly. Take pride in every property we look after.
That's the whole thing. Everything else on this website (the memberships, the schedules, the standards) is just the machinery that makes those three possible week after week.
If that sounds like the sort of company you'd like looking after your property, tell us your address and we'll send you a real number the same day, Monday to Saturday.
Get a fixed monthly price for your property
Send me the address and I'll send you a real number the same day, Monday to Saturday. I price what is actually on the property, and if a membership is not good value for yours I'll say so.
Green in summer. Clear in winter.