Snow removal in Ajax, timed to the 6:40 train.

The Ajax route is built backwards from the station

Ajax sits on the Lakeshore East line, and many of the driveways I clear here belong to people standing on a platform before the street is awake. A train does not hold, so the times here are clock times: Platinum first on a 6:30 AM target, Gold on a 7 AM target, Silver a daytime pass by 5 PM.

They are targets, not guarantees. If your train goes before 6:30, tell me on the phone. I would rather lose the sale than sell you a morning I cannot hold.

Snow removal from Pickering Village to Audley

Ajax is three snow jobs inside one town.

Northeast Ajax and Audley are the newest streets, and they were built wide. Double driveways, and an apron in front of the garage that is wider again. That is a great deal of square footage to move by hand in the dark, and the 6:40 leaves at 6:40 whether the driveway is open or not.

Westney Heights, Applecroft, Salem Heights and Nottingham are established Ajax: full size driveways, mature trees taking the edge off the wind, and too long to clear by hand before a train.

Riverside runs along the Duffins Creek ravine. Pickering Village is older and tighter: short driveways, street parking, plow banks along the road edge all season. Pickering Beach takes its wind off the water. In Central Ajax and the west end some driveways are short enough that a paid season is poor value, and I will say so when I price yours.

The estate courts backing Deer Creek

Dexshire Drive, Buggey Lane, Bunhill Court, Fielding Court and Bunting Court hold the largest lots in Ajax, half an acre to well over two. A circular driveway and a long laneway take two to three times the clearing of a subdivision pad, so they are quoted on the estate bands: $1,750 a season from 0.35 to 1.0 acre, $2,600 from 1.0 to 3.0 acres.

Past 400 feet a laneway adds $200 for every further 100 feet, so on a property this size I pace it out before I quote rather than guessing off a satellite picture. Tell me where you park and I will price it from the road to there.

What the Ajax driveway costs

Gold is $189 a month plus HST and plows the driveway. Platinum is $279 a month plus HST, runs first and salts without being asked. Silver is $129 a month plus HST and does not plow the driveway: it takes the municipal windrow off the end of it by 5 PM, with four banked clears a season. If you want to read them against each other, all three are set out on one page.

Snow alone, without a membership, is a seasonal package: $800 small, $975 standard, $1,200 large, plus HST. With the lawn as well, the membership is the cheaper road to the same winter.

We go out at 3 cm and the route starts itself, with no call from you. Here is how a storm morning runs. A salt only trip is $25 and a windrow return trip is $45. The season is November 1 to May 1, and the route closes when it is full.

Every one of those figures is set out against the Town of Ajax by-laws, the provincial clearing standard and the Town's own 2019 windrow costing in a longer piece on what snow removal costs in Ajax and who is actually clearing what.

Before you buy this from anybody, check the Town first. Ajax charges a fee for its assisted snow removal, and the tier that takes the windrow and the municipal sidewalk alone is $41.13 including HST for the whole season. It is open to a household past 65 with nobody younger and able bodied in it, and to a resident whose doctor confirms a physical disability. If your household qualifies, take it, because no contractor in Durham Region can match that. The eligibility, the two conditions attached to it and the reason a private route exists alongside it are set out in who plows driveways in Ajax.

Questions from Ajax driveways

Will my Ajax driveway be done before the 6:40 train?

Platinum is sequenced first on a 6:30 AM target, Gold on a 7 AM target after overnight snow. Both are targets. Silver has no morning target: it is a daytime pass by 5 PM.

Does Silver plow my driveway?

No, and the price reflects it. Silver takes the ridge the city leaves across the foot of the driveway, after the street has been plowed, by 5 PM. Plowing starts at Gold.

What if the city plow blocks me in again after you have gone?

Call and I will come back for it. That trip is $45, and with a $25 salt run it is one of only two charges outside the monthly payment.

If the lawn needs doing as well, the year round Ajax page puts both seasons on one payment. A commercial property is a different trigger again, and that is the commercial snow page.

Summer on the same route: weekly lawn care in Ajax.