A long finished gravel driveway running between mown verges to a wooded property in Western North Carolina.

Snow Removal · Asheville

Snow Removal and Ice Control in Asheville and WNC

Name: M&S Land Management
Address: Asheville, NC, US
Telephone: (828) 540-6856

Snow work for mountain ground.

Snow in Western North Carolina is lighter and less frequent than up north, but the ground makes it serious: steep drives, shaded slopes that hold ice for days, freezing rain and private roads nobody else plows. M&S Land Management plows, salts, hauls and clears walks for homes and businesses around Asheville, and sets up seasonal snow contracts before the first storm.

Free on-site estimates
Owner-run by McKinley
Residential and commercial

Call (828) 540-6856 Get a Free Estimate

Snow Removal · Asheville

How snow removal works in the mountains

Why mountain snow is harder than it looks

Asheville does not get the long winters of the Midwest. Most years bring a few real snows and more ice than snow. The trouble is where it lands. A drive that climbs a ridge turns into a sled run under a thin glaze. A north-facing slope under rhododendron and pines can hold ice for days after the sun has cleared the south side of the valley. And a house high on a ridge can get a real snow while downtown gets cold rain.

That is why depth alone is a poor guide. A light snow on a flat lot in town is a nuisance. The same snow on a steep gravel drive, followed by a hard freeze, can keep a car parked for days. McKinley builds steep drives and private roads for a living, so the snow work starts from how the ground and the water behave, not just from how much fell overnight.

Who plows what around Asheville

In North Carolina a road belongs to NCDOT, to a town, or to nobody public at all. Buncombe County maintains no roads. NCDOT works the interstates and main routes first and the secondary roads after. The City of Asheville handles its own streets. Private roads and driveways are on nobody's list, and in the mountains a lot of homes sit on exactly that kind of road, cut up a cove or along a ridge to reach a handful of houses.

If you live on a private road, the snow is yours to deal with, along with the road itself. The guide to private road repair in Western NC covers who is responsible. For snow, the practical answer is one agreement for the whole road, so the plow runs from the state road to the last house instead of stopping at a property line.

Homes: drives, turnarounds and walks

For a home, the job is getting a car up and down safely and getting people from the car to the door. That means the drive, the turnaround or parking pad, and the steps and walk to the house. Steep driveway snow plowing has its own page because a gravel drive on a grade needs a different approach: leave a packed layer so the blade keeps the stone, keep the ditches and culvert inlets open, and grit the steep pitches.

Walks, porch steps and ramps are cleared by hand and treated so they hold up overnight. See sidewalk and entrance clearing. For long drives and shared roads, see snow plowing. Homeowners can call storm by storm, but a seasonal agreement puts the drive on a route, in an order set before the season starts, with the drive walked and staked while the ground is still bare.

Businesses: lots, entrances and contracts

Businesses need the lot open and the entrance safe before people arrive. Churches need lots and walks clear before services, offices before the first car, retail before opening and through the day. Property managers and HOAs need it handled without a phone call every storm. All of that goes into a commercial snow contract: the trigger, the route order, what gets salted, who clears the walks and where the piles go.

On tight mountain lots the piles soon run out of room, so snow hauling loads them with the skid steer into the dump truck and moves them off the pavement. For commercial sites in the Upstate around Spartanburg and Greer, where the threat is usually an ice event more than snow, contracts center on salting and ice management for lots, entrances and walks.

Set it up before the first storm

The first storm is a hard time to find a contractor. Every phone is ringing, and properties already on a route come first. Sign in the fall and McKinley can walk the property while the ground is bare, stake the edges, drains, culvert ends, rocks and curbs, and agree a site map and route order with you. Those stakes are what keep a blade off the things that snow hides.

If you are comparing quotes or setting one up for an HOA or road association, the snow and ice contract guide for Western NC walks through the contract types, what to put in writing and how to compare bids fairly. Then call (828) 540-6856 for a free on-site estimate, a walk of the property and a written plan for the winter.

A tracked skid steer with a mulching head clearing woodland.

Commercial customers

Commercial Snow Contracts

Seasonal, per-push and per-event snow and ice contracts, walked and mapped before the first storm.

See the page Talk to McKinley

(828) 540-6856

Call or text the address and what needs clearing: a lot, a drive, walks or all three. McKinley sets the route and the terms with you before the first snow.

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What it includes

What that covers

Snow plowing. Parking lots, private roads, community roads and long drives.
Salting and ice control. Pre-treating, freezing rain, refreeze on shaded slopes.
Snow hauling. Piles loaded out when a tight lot has nowhere to push.
Walks and entrances. Sidewalks, steps, ramps and business frontage.
Steep gravel drives. Plowed to keep the stone, with grit on the pitches.
Seasonal contracts. Seasonal, per-push or per-event, walked before winter.

Call (828) 540-6856 Free Estimate

More snow and ice work

Snow service

Commercial Snow Contracts

Seasonal, per-push and per-event snow and ice contracts, walked and mapped before the first storm.

See the page Snow service

Salting and Ice Management

Pre-treating, salting and refreeze visits for ice storms, freezing rain and shaded mountain grades.

See the page Snow service

Sidewalk and Entrance Clearing

Walks, entrances, steps and ramps cleared and treated so people get from the car to the door safely.

See the page Snow service

Snow Hauling

Snow piles loaded out with the skid steer and dump truck when a tight mountain lot has nowhere to push.

See the page Snow service

Snow Plowing

Lots, private roads, mountain community roads and long drives, plowed in an order set before the season.

See the page

Snow removal by town

Snow work runs out from Asheville across Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood and Transylvania counties, and each town has its own mix of roads, grades and who plows the streets. See snow removal in Asheville, Hendersonville and Black Mountain, with Weaverville, Waynesville, Fletcher and Brevard covered on their own pages.

How a snow customer gets set up

Set up before the first storm.

You call

Call or text with the address, how steep the drive or road is and what needs clearing: lot, drive, walks or all of it.

McKinley walks it

He walks the property before the season, notes the grades, the shaded stretches and where the snow can go.

Terms in writing

Seasonal, per push or per event, the trigger, salt and walks are written down before anyone needs them.

Cleared when it falls

When the storm comes, the property is worked in the agreed order and treated where ice will form.

On the ground

The machines and the crew.

These are photographs from McKinley's actual jobs: the same equipment and the same crew that run the snow routes. See more recent work.

A steep gravel driveway rising to a house, edged with stone.

A cleared building lot showing exposed red clay after site preparation.

A gravel driveway turnaround built in a wooded lot.

Questions about snow work

Questions people ask

Not seeing yours? Call (828) 540-6856 and ask McKinley, or read the guides.

Answers & guides

All guides

Do you plow residential driveways or only commercial lots?

Both. Residential work covers driveways, turnarounds, parking pads, walks and steps, including long gravel drives and steep ones up a ridge. Commercial work covers parking lots, entrances, sidewalks and private roads for HOAs, churches, offices, retail and rental properties. Each property is walked and quoted on its own, because a short flat drive in town and a steep drive with a switchback are very different jobs.

Does Buncombe County or NCDOT plow my private road?

No. Buncombe County maintains no roads, and NCDOT plows only roads on the state system. A town plows its own streets. If your road is none of those, it is private, and clearing it falls to the people who use it. Many mountain roads are in that position. One agreement for the whole road, paid by the neighbors or the association, is usually the cleanest way to handle it.

How much snow before the plow comes out?

That is set in the agreement, not guessed on the day. A contract names a trigger depth for plowing, and many properties also want salt with any freezing rain at all. On a steep drive, a light snow followed by a hard freeze can matter more than a deep one, so mountain properties often set an ice trigger as well as a depth.

Will plowing ruin my gravel driveway?

It can if the blade is run down to the stone. On gravel the plow is set to ride a little high and leave a thin packed layer, which protects the surface and gives tires something to grip. Stone that does get moved is set back and graded in spring. Staking the edges before the season keeps the blade out of the ditches and off the culvert ends.

When should I sign a snow contract?

In the fall, before the first storm. That leaves time for a walk-through while the ground is bare, staking the edges and hazards, and agreeing the route order and the trigger. Once routes are full and the first storm is on the way, a new property is much harder to fit in, and nothing has been marked.

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