snow plowing 101?

[tnmtn]

i was contacted today about bidding on a commercial plow contract for next year. where i live we get very few major snows and a couple ice storms a year. i have no idea how far salt goes or how to bid it. i can imagine time it would take to plow the lot. should be pretty straightforward. so in a 1" ice storm do you figure an amount of salt per square foot? and if so how much ice would it take? completely lost on this one but it would be nice to have a little money coming in during a storm. any advice or suggestions i would sure appreciate.
thanks in advance.

[Grn Mtn]

what equipment will you have for plowing/salting? How large is the lot? What kind of contract is it (ie banks tend to want "zero tolorance")?

typically the more your area snows the less you can charge vis-versa the less it snows the more you can charge - this of course is also tied to the relative wealth of your region.

how much salt is needed depends on the temperature and moisture content. an average is 1 ton per acre. if an ice storm is predicted you have to pre-salt before the storm to prevent the ice crystals from locking into the pavement, and wet snow you will want to plow with the storm because waiting till its done can be killer on your truck. I have a church that only wants to be plowed on sunday's and no salt, well after one big storm this year of wet snow and ice on thursday I went to plow the church on saturday and i couldn't make a full pass, had to raise the blade and do it in sections, took almost 2 hrs when normally it takes 40 minutes with 2" of powder.

[tnmtn]

i would have been plowing with a blade on the front of a compact tlb. hadn't figured out how i would spread the salt. in the end decided not to pursue this one.