Snow Removal in Courtice: Gold and Platinum Plow the Driveway, Silver Clears the Windrow

Snow is sold inside a membership that covers lawn season and snow season together, billed in twelve equal payments on the last day of the month. Three tiers, and the winter difference between them is the first thing to get straight. Gold at $189 a month plus HST and Platinum at $279 a month plus HST plow the driveway. Silver at $129 a month plus HST does not plow the driveway. Silver gets a separate daytime pass that clears the windrow across the foot of the drive by 5 PM, plus four banked full clears a season on request, and no salting. Every driveway claim on this page names the tier it belongs to, which is more than most winter contracts will do for you.

Courtice has no transit to fall back on, so the driveway is the whole plan

Say the honest version of this out loud. In Courtice, if the driveway is blocked, the day does not happen. There is no subway, no frequent local bus, no station within a walk. The car is the transport and the driveway is the road out. Everything else on this page follows from that one fact.

After the snow stops the route runs in a fixed order. Commercial and medical access properties first, overnight. Then Platinum members, sequenced first, with a 6:30 AM target. Then Gold members, with a 7:00 AM target. Then Silver members on a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

Now hold that against what the largest operator serving this area already publishes: in a heavy storm it may be up to twenty four hours after the snow stops before it reaches a property, and in a storm running over more than one day it clears once a day. That is fair of them to put in writing, and in a town with no transit fallback it also means a day at home. Our targets are 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM, before the drive down to the 401 or across to Oshawa.

They are targets, not guarantees. Trucks break down and storms do as they like. What we will do is publish the trigger, publish the order of service and tell you where you sit in it before you sign anything. We do not write a snowfall guarantee, because nobody can honour one.

The 3 cm trigger, and why it is printed on the page

We go out at 3 cm. It is automatic and you do not phone to start it.

Most companies serving Courtice publish no trigger depth anywhere on their site, and the silence is not accidental. A trigger that is nowhere in writing is decided on the morning, by somebody looking at a full route and a borderline snowfall, and it rarely gets decided your way. Three centimetres, written down, takes the judgement out of it. It is about the depth where a car starts pushing snow instead of driving over it, and it is well below the depth where a drive packs into ice that stays for two weeks.

The three memberships, and exactly what each one does in winter

Silver, $129 a month plus HST

Silver does not plow the driveway and carries no 7 AM target. What Silver buys in winter is a separate daytime pass by 5 PM that removes the windrow, the packed ridge left across the bottom of the drive when the plow runs your street, plus four banked full driveway clears a season that you call on when you want them. There is no salting on Silver, ever. It is the right tier for a household that will shovel its own drive and wants the heaviest part, the plug at the end, taken off by a machine.

Gold, $189 a month plus HST

Gold plows the driveway and carries the 7:00 AM target after overnight snow. For most Courtice households this is the tier that matches the actual problem: the drive open before the morning run, cleared by a machine rather than by you in the dark before work. Salt on Gold is available as a salt only trip at $25 when you want it.

Platinum, $279 a month plus HST

Platinum is sequenced first, with a 6:30 AM target, unlimited automatic salting, and first choice of service day in lawn season. The salting is worth reading twice. In this market salt is usually billed per application, or left to the homeowner and a bag of it by the garage door. On Platinum it goes down when the conditions call for it, without a phone call and without a separate bill. On a sloped drive off Prestonvale after a thaw and a refreeze, that is the difference between a driveway and a slide.

The windrow at the end of your driveway

When the plow runs your street it leaves a ridge of compacted snow across every driveway on the block. It is the densest snow on the property, packed hard by a blade, and it tends to arrive about ten minutes after you finished clearing the rest of the drive by hand.

On Gold and Platinum the windrow is cleared as part of the morning driveway clear. If the plow comes back through later the same day and blocks you in again after we have been, a windrow return trip is $45. On Silver the windrow pass is the service itself: a daytime run by 5 PM, timed to happen after the street has been plowed rather than before.

Snow removal in Prestonvale, Courtice Road, Townline, Hancock and Pebblestone

Courtice runs north to south along a handful of roads and the snow job changes as you go up.

Up towards Pebblestone and the north end of Courtice Road, the streets are newer, the driveways are wide and often double, and there is still open farmland on the windward side of a good number of them. Wind crosses open ground, picks up snow and drops it against the first thing that stops it, which is your driveway and your garage door. A wide double drive after a night of drifting is most of an hour with a shovel and a few minutes with a machine.

Hancock and the streets off it are the newer east side, with full size driveways and not much yet in the way of mature trees to break the wind.

Prestonvale is established Courtice, closer to the lake side of town, with longer drives and some genuine slope on them. Slope plus a thaw and refreeze is the case for salting, and it is the reason Platinum gets mentioned more often down there than anywhere else on the route.

Townline is the Oshawa boundary, which is useful to you: our Oshawa and Courtice work runs off the same truck on the same night, so an address near Townline sits in a strong part of the route rather than at the far end of it.

We book by geography, one truck, one route. Courtice and Bowmanville run together at the east end, so the more members on one street, the earlier everybody on that street is finished.

What it costs, and how you actually pay for it

The membership is billed in twelve equal payments on the last day of each month, by card on file. It covers lawn season and snow season together, so there is no separate snow contract to sign in November and no seasonal lump sum to find in December.

Silver is $129 a month plus HST. Gold is $189 a month plus HST. Platinum is $279 a month plus HST.

Paying the year up front saves 5 percent: $1,470.60 Silver, $2,154.60 Gold, $3,180.60 Platinum.

There are two extras and no others. A salt only trip is $25. A windrow return trip, for when the plow reblocks you after we have already cleared, is $45.

Refer a neighbour and you both take 30 percent off one month, with a floor of $50 each, so neither side is left with a token discount.

Season dates, and the day the Courtice snow route closes

Snow season runs mid November to mid April. The snow route closes 15 November and that date does not move.

One truck carries a fixed number of driveways and still makes a 6:30 AM and a 7:00 AM target. Once those places are gone they are gone. Telling you that in October is more use to you than taking your money in January and missing the morning.

Who you are actually calling

Andrew, the owner, runs the truck. One truck, one operator, fully insured and HST registered.

Office hours are Monday to Friday 7 AM to 7 PM and Saturday 7 AM to 5 PM. Closed Sunday. We reply the same day, Monday to Saturday, not seven days a week, because a promise that breaks every Sunday is worth less than no promise at all. During a snow event somebody is watching messages through the overnight and the early morning run, which is a different thing from office hours and is the part that matters at 4 AM.

Phone 905-244-5779. Email andrew@northlinepropertycare.ca. Green in summer. Clear in winter.

Questions Courtice homeowners ask

At what depth of snow do you come out in Courtice?

Northline clears at a 3 cm trigger. Once 3 cm has fallen the route runs automatically and you do not need to call. The order after a storm is commercial and medical access first overnight, then Platinum members by a 6:30 AM target, then Gold members by a 7:00 AM target, then Silver members on a separate daytime windrow pass by 5 PM.

Does the $129 Silver membership plow my driveway?

No. Silver does not plow the driveway and has no 7 AM target. Silver includes a separate daytime pass by 5 PM that clears the windrow at the end of the driveway, four banked full driveway clears a season on request, and no salting. Driveway plowing is on Gold at $189 a month plus HST and Platinum at $279 a month plus HST.

Is salting included, and what does it cost?

Unlimited automatic salting is included on Platinum at $279 a month plus HST and is applied when conditions call for it, without being asked. On Gold, salt is available as a salt only trip at $25. There is no salting on Silver at any time.

Which streets in Courtice do you cover?

The Courtice snow route covers Prestonvale, Courtice Road, Townline, Hancock and Pebblestone. Courtice and Bowmanville are run together at the east end of the route, and addresses near Townline sit alongside the Oshawa work on the same night.

Can I join partway through the winter?

The snow route closes on 15 November and that date does not move, because one truck can carry only a fixed number of driveways and still reach a 6:30 AM and a 7:00 AM target. Ask anyway and we will tell you honestly whether there is a place left or whether you are booking for next season.

Book snow removal in Courtice before 15 November

Call 905-244-5779 or email andrew@northlinepropertycare.ca and tell us your street. We will say where you land on the route and whether the morning target is realistic for your address before you commit to anything.

Everything we do in Courtice

• Lawn care and snow removal in Courtice: the combined membership, month by month.
• All three memberships and what each one clears, with the arithmetic shown.
• What snow removal costs in Durham Region, seasonal, per visit and per month side by side.
• Commercial snow removal in Courtice and Durham Region, on a 5 cm trigger and a photographed site log.
• Our hours and service area, and what happens on a storm morning.
• Snow removal in Bowmanville, the next town over on the same route.
• Snow removal in Oshawa, the next town over on the same route.
• Frequently asked questions about billing, triggers and cancellation.