The November Checklist: What Triangle HOA and Apartment Managers Should Do Before the First Freeze
By Kendrick Hunter, owner of Hunter Excavating in Durham, NC.
Short version: if you manage an HOA or apartment community in Durham or anywhere else in the Triangle, November is when to get winter set up. Get the snow and ice contract signed, walk the property with your contractor and stake what a plow can't see, clean out catch basins and gutters once the leaves are down, take care of dead limbs over parking and walkways, stock ice melt, and send residents the plan. The City of Durham doesn't clear parking lots or sidewalks and gets to residential streets last, and nobody public plows a private community road.
RDU usually sees its first freeze somewhere between late October and early November. The storms that need a plow or a salt spreader come later, and the weeks in between are the easy time to get ready. Board members can still approve spending at a regular meeting, and your contractor has time to walk the property in daylight instead of seeing it for the first time in the dark.
Know who clears what
After a storm, the first question in most communities is who was supposed to clear what. The City of Durham's snow removal plan puts bridges and major roads like Roxboro Street, Cornwallis Road, Fayetteville Street and NC 55 first. Residential streets get plowed only after the primary and secondary streets are done, and the city's goal is to have 75 percent of primary streets at bare pavement within 48 hours after the precipitation stops. City crews don't clear parking lots, sidewalks or driveway entrances, and the city asks property owners not to push lot snow into city streets.
That leaves a lot on the association. Your parking lots, sidewalks, mail kiosk and clubhouse are yours to clear in every storm. If your community's streets are private, or were never taken over by the city or NCDOT, they're yours too, so find out now which streets you're responsible for. And when a city plow does come by, it leaves a ridge of packed snow across your entrance. Put the entrance on your contractor's list for a second pass after the city truck goes through.
Get the snow and ice contract signed
Once a storm shows up in the forecast, every contractor in the Triangle is getting the same calls, and the properties already under contract get served first. For an HOA, that means putting the contract in front of the board at the November meeting. The December meeting may land after the first storm.
Before you sign, make sure the contract says which areas are covered (streets, lots, sidewalks, steps, the mail kiosk, dumpster pads), what starts service (a set snow depth, or any ice at all), and what order the crew works in. Ask for a certificate of insurance and keep it on file. Whether a seasonal agreement or per-storm service fits better depends on the size of the community and how much the board wants to leave to chance. Our Durham snow removal page explains how we handle both.
Walk the property and mark what a plow can't see
Under two inches of snow, a curb, a traffic island and a drain grate all look the same. Walk the property with your contractor in daylight and put stakes or reflective markers at curb ends, islands, speed bumps, parking blocks, fire hydrants, drain inlets, and irrigation heads near the pavement edge.
Take photos while you're out there. Curbs get chipped and sod edges get torn up in a normal winter, and before-photos settle whether the damage happened this season or three years ago.
Mark the priority areas on a site map as you go: building entrances, accessible parking and ramps, the mail kiosk, fire lanes, dumpster pads, and the leasing office or clubhouse. Attach that map to the contract so the crew working at 4 a.m. is following the plan you approved.
Clean drains, gutters and downspouts after the leaves are down
A catch basin packed with November leaves won't take meltwater in January. The water backs up across the lot and refreezes overnight, usually right where people walk. Clean the inlets after most of the leaves have fallen, and check the gutters on any building with an entrance underneath. An overflowing gutter drips onto the same stretch of sidewalk every afternoon and freezes there every night.
Downspouts that empty across a walkway cause the same problem. Extending them or piping them underground fixes it for good, and our post on diagnosing a faulty drainage system walks through how we track these problems down. Low spots in the lot that hold water after every rain will hold ice too. Mark them for extra salt this winter, and if they're bad, regrading in the spring is the permanent fix.
Deal with limbs over parking, walks and roofs
When ice coats a tree, the limbs that come down are usually the ones that were already dead or cracked, and pines hanging over parking lots are a common source. Walk the property for dead limbs and hanging branches over parking spaces, sidewalks, playgrounds and roofs, and have them taken down now, while a crew can reach them without working around cars buried in snow. Our tree trimming and removal crew does this work all year.
Stock ice melt and tools where they'll be used
Bagged ice melt disappears from Triangle stores as soon as a storm shows up in the forecast. Buy it in November and store it dry, near the doors where it will be used: the leasing office, the clubhouse, and each building entrance if staff will be treating steps. For steps and entrances on the coldest mornings, keep a bag of calcium chloride, which still works after rock salt has quit.
Write down who does what. If maintenance staff treats the front steps at 6 a.m. and the contractor handles the lots and walks, put that in writing so neither one assumes the other did it.
Decide where the snow goes
Pick snow storage spots now and put them on the site map. Keep piles off drain inlets, fire lanes and accessible spaces, out of the sight lines at your entrances, and off the uphill side of walkways, where melt will run across and refreeze. Pushing it into a city street isn't an option, since Durham asks property owners not to.
Send residents the plan before the first storm
A short winter notice in November saves a lot of calls in January. Tell residents who clears what, when to move cars so the plows can reach the lots, where to report an icy spot, and the after-hours number. Post it at the mail kiosk as well as sending it by email, since everyone walks past the kiosk. Apartment communities should also add it to the move-in packet for anyone who signs a lease over the winter.
Get the storm paperwork ready
Set up a simple storm log with when precipitation started, when the crew arrived, what they did, and photos of the conditions. Keep a contact list with your contractor, the board president or owner, maintenance, a tree company and a towing company. If someone falls on the property, the log and the contractor's service records are how you show the work was done.
The whole checklist
Find out which community streets are public and which are private
Put your entrances on the contractor's list for a pass after the city plow
Get the snow and ice contract approved and signed
File the contractor's certificate of insurance
Walk the property with the contractor and stake hazards
Take before-photos of curbs, islands and sod edges
Mark priority areas on a site map and attach it to the contract
Clean catch basins and inlets after the leaves are down
Clean gutters over entrances and reroute downspouts that empty across walks
Mark low spots that hold water
Remove dead and hanging limbs over parking, walks and roofs
Buy ice melt and store it dry near the doors that need it
Write down what staff handles and what the contractor handles
Pick snow storage spots and add them to the site map
Send residents the winter notice and post it at the mail kiosk
Set up a storm log and a contact list
Questions property managers ask us
When should an HOA sign a snow removal contract?
Before December. Properties under contract are already on the route when a storm is forecast, and everyone else is calling around at the same time.
Who clears the sidewalks in an HOA?
The city doesn't clear sidewalks, so inside a community it falls to the association or the individual owners. Your governing documents should say which. If they don't, settle it before the first storm.
Do we need a contract if it barely snows here?
The bigger risk in the Triangle is ice, and one icy morning on an entrance or a ramp is enough to cause a fall. Communities that only need help once or twice a winter can use per-storm service instead of a seasonal agreement.
Should our maintenance staff do the salting, or the contractor?
Either works. Problems start when nobody decided, so write the split into the contract.
Get your community on the route
We serve HOAs, apartment communities and property managers throughout Durham, including Hope Valley, Woodcroft, Southpoint and Treyburn, and across the Triangle in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Research Triangle Park, Hillsborough, Mebane and Chapel Hill. Call (336) 988-7585 or request a free quote, and we'll walk the property with you before the first storm.
Hunter Excavating
1904 Front St, Suite 410, Durham, NC 27705
(336) 988-7585
Comments