Snow Removal

In most circumstances, we wait until snow has finished falling before commencing services. The exact timing is determined by the snowfall, by our maintenance manager, by traffic considerations and by our individual crews. During regular snow events (less than approximately 10cm), routes are typically completed within 8 hours. Although we do our best to service your property before morning and evening commutes, we cannot guarantee the timing.

During heavy snow events (greater than approximately 10cm) our snow manager will sometimes split services into multiple visits. On the first visit crews may postpone detailed work to give access to all of their clients as quickly as possible. Following a 12 hour rest, the crews then return for a second visit to service any details postponed on the first visit. First visits are typically completed within 10 to 18 hours or more during heavy snow events, depending on conditions.

Cleared snow will be placed on your property at the crew's discretion. Following heavy accumulations of snow, space can become limited, and it is understood that snow piles can interfere with your listed service areas, or otherwise interfere with access or parking on your property. Given the challenges of winter, our company does its best but cannot commit to honoring client requests regarding the location or placement of snow under any circumstances. Removal of snow from your property and relocation of snow on your property is not included in this agreement.

Our crews are *NOT* able to clear snow underneath or within 1 foot of parked vehicles. If parked vehicles are blocking access to any portion of your property, those areas will also *NOT* be able to be serviced. Please do your best to ensure all resident and visitor cars are parked to allow access to the property and the snow piling areas. Our services do not include clearing of snow from off of parked cars.

A windrow is snow that is left at the end of the driveway after a city plow has cleared the road. We will clear the windrow if the city plow has passed through before our visit. Our teams are usually able to clear windrows during our second passes on heavy snow events but typically do not do return visits for windrows on regular snow events or following the second visit of a heavy snow event.

We offer snow removal services, not ice removal services. Ice build-up forms as a result of freezing rain or snow, drainage issues, compaction or the thaw/freeze cycle. When ice accumulates, our snow removal equipment (snow shovels, snow blowers and plows) are unable to break it up. Our crews are not equipped with metal ice-breakers or chippers. Ice-melter is our best defense against ice build-up and we encourage clients to apply it as necessary to control ice build-up between our visits. If you need ice broken up it is an extra billable service, please contact the office.

We do our best to limit noise overnight - on light snowfalls, our crews limit their use of plows and snowblowers within reason. However, on heavier snowfalls, we require the assistance of powered equipment to do our work that has the potential to disturb you or your neighbours during our visits at any time of day or night.

Invoices are sent by email and can be paid online with Visa or Mastercard, or you can send in a cheque (to Gardenzilla at 618 O'Connor Dr., East York, ON M4C 3A1) or email money transfer (to payments@gardenzilla.ca). Payments must be received within 15 days.
* your seasonal snow clearance rate is divided into five equal monthly payments
* the first monthly payment is invoiced on October 1st which is a non-refundable deposit acting as your final payment for March 15th services up until April 14th.
* the second invoice is issued on November 15th provides snow clearance services up until December 14th.
* the third invoice is issued on December 15th provides snow clearance services up until January 14th.
* the fourth invoice is issued on January 15th provides snow clearance services up until February 14th.
* the fifth and final monthly invoice is issued on February 15th provides snow clearance services up until March 14th, with the final month already paid by initial deposit.
* for clients who choose the ecosalt option, the cost of any ecosalt supplied is invoiced alongside the regular monthly payment that follows, on December 15th (for all ecosalt used up to that date), on January 15th, and on February 15th
* a final invoice will be issued on April 15th for any ecosalt supplied after February 15th
* PLEASE NOTE: If a payment becomes 30 days overdue without notifying us, your contract will be cancelled and services forfeited until payment is made. If you have saved your credit card with us and/or you want invoices auto-billed, your card *will* be charged as per this schedule. Feel free to contact us for more information.

There is no long term commitment. You can cancel your services at any time by phoning or emailing our office, and you can cancel that day, or schedule a future date for cancellation (for example, for the closing date on a home sale). You are responsible for all charges up until that date, per our payment schedule, and including any applied ecosalt. Your deposit is non-refundable, and is forfeited if you cancel your services.

Whether it snows more or less often than usual, there is no change in our pricing. If it doesn't snow, we still provide a dedicated team (paid for being on call whether or not it snows), expensive winter vehicles and equipment, and are available in the event it does snow. On some winters we have to go out more - on others, we have to go out less.

If you have a request following a snow service for something we missed, please let us know within 12 hours of our service. Our crews have 12 hours of rest after every time they go out before they go back again for touchups or a second pass.

Yes - all ice melters have the potential to damage plants and hard (stone, paved, concrete, etc.) surfaces. New concrete and boxwoods, in particular, can be damaged by our ice melter products. We are not responsible for any damage to plants or hard surfaces caused by the ice melter. We'll do our best to respect any requests you make about the way we apply the ecosalt (for example, avoiding areas near boxwoods), but if you are more worried about damage from ecosalt than you are about ice buildup, we recommend you go with a no-salt option.

* we cannot be held liable under any circumstances for the work performed or failure to perform work under this service agreement
* specifically, we are not responsible nor can we be held responsible for slip and fall incidents or for damage to property under this service agreement
* availability and pricing of our ecosalt product is dependent on availability from our suppliers. During heavy winters, there can be shortages that mean ecosalt is unavailable, or our price increases sharply - we will advise customers when this is the case.

We invoice by email, and accept online payments with Visa or Mastercard. We also accept cheques (made out to Gardenzilla), and email money transfers (sent to payments@gardenzilla.ca).

No. We no longer offer on-demand snow shoveling or removal services. We prefer to focus on delivering a reliable, high-quality service for our monthly customers.

Yes. We carry $2 million in general liability insurance for landscaping and snow removal, and our staff are covered for workplace injuries through the WSIB. We are happy to provide proof of coverage on request.