Making Snow-Melt Driveways a Good Investment

If you’re a resident of Utah, you know all about the issues presented by snow removal during the winter. Some of the biggest storms in the state can leave feet of snow on the ground, and homeowners have various methods for removing this snow for both safety and convenience.

At All Hours Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, we’re here to tell you about one such format that should get more attention: Radiant heat systems and snow-melt driveways. These systems completely rid you of the need to shovel or otherwise remove snow from your driveway, saving you major time and convenience. But did you realize that these systems can also save you significant sums of money? Let’s compare this format to other forms of snow removal, plus go over the best times to install snow-melt driveway products.

Comparing to Other Snow Removal Costs

To do some basic math here, we’ll use a hypothetical city that receives about 65 days of snowfall per year, roughly at or just above the nationwide average in cities that receive snow. We’ll also assume that professional snow plowing services cost roughly $40 per pop, while a new snow blower costs about $1,000 for a given year when you include the price plus gas and maintenance.

In this case, the cost of plowing services to you would be $2,640 for the year – using industry standard prices for snow-melt driveways, however, you’d already be in the black within this very first year, usually by around $1,000. And just from a monetary standpoint, you’d surpass the ROI of using a home snowblower within about seven years.

And don’t forget: All of the above is without even mentioning the convenience aspect, which is absolutely worth some sum of money. Using a snowblower might be cheaper than the first few years of a snow-melt driveway, but this is manual labor you or someone else in the house has to complete. When you combine this labor savings plus the eventual ROI superiority as long as you maintain your system for several years, snow-melt driveways quickly become a great investment.

Best Times to Install

There are three periods where it’s good to install snow-melt driveway solutions if you’re considering them:

• If you’re getting a new driveway
• If you’re re-paving an old driveway
• If you’re looking to expand your current driveway

Because construction will already be taking place in each of these cases, these are prime opportunities to add some electric heat under the driveway. Instead of tearing it up with no other purpose in mind, you might as well kill two hypothetical birds with one stone. Snow-melt systems can be added to asphalt, concrete or various other paver types, with cables that can handle any level of summer heat or winter cold.

For more on how snow-melt driveways can be a great investment for you, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC services, speak to the staff at All Hours Plumbing, Heating & Cooling today.