DEEPHAVEN, MINNESOTA
Your Deephaven driveway is cleared within 10 hours after snowfall stops. Not whenever a crew gets around to it, and not after every other stop on a sprawling route. Ten hours, every storm.
Deephaven covers a little under two and a half square miles, and much of it sits on the water along Carson's Bay and St. Louis Bay. That small footprint is part of why the standard holds. We cap the route instead of overselling it, so a storm that ends at midnight does not leave your drive buried into the afternoon.
The properties vary more than the city's size suggests. Cottagewood alone runs from lake cottages to large historic family estates, and a tight cottage drive with nowhere to stack snow clears nothing like a long estate approach. We learn each drive before the first storm, not during it.
Most Deephaven homeowners sign up once and let the season run. Your property goes on the route before the first snowfall, service triggers at 2 inches, and crews come when accumulation reaches it. You don't have to call. Driveway, front walk and steps are all included. When the route is full, we stop adding drives.
Homeowners around Lake Minnetonka have left us 80+ five-star Google reviews.
Every residential truck on our route runs a rubber-edge plow. A steel edge scrapes. It catches on paver joints, chips the lip of a concrete apron and strips fresh sealcoat, and the damage usually shows up in spring when nobody thinks to blame the plow. Rubber clears the snow and leaves the surface alone.
Before the ground freezes, we stake drive edges so a crew plowing in the dark knows where the pavement ends and the lawn or beds begin. Stone, brick and tight spots a truck shouldn't reach get hand and blower work. Behind every route is a winter operation of 15 to 20 crew, two wheel loaders, two compact track loaders, three plow trucks and two sidewalk machines, with a backup crew lined up before every storm.
Service runs on a 2 inch trigger. When accumulation hits it, your drive is on the route for that storm, and every visit is logged in Yeti, our snow management platform, with time-stamped service records and photos.
Getting the car out is half the job. The other half is getting from the drive to the front door without wading through snow. Walks and steps are included in residential service and get cleared on the same visit as the driveway, not on a return trip hours later.
Steps, stoops and side doors are hand work. Machines take the edges off stone and brick, so crews use shovels and blowers anywhere a machine would do damage. On a historic home with a stone or brick entry, that care matters more than shaving a few minutes off the visit.
A plowed drive is not a safe drive once it melts in the afternoon and freezes again overnight. That thin glaze is what sends people down on the front steps, and it forms after the snow is already gone.
We treat drives, walks and entry steps following MPCA Smart Salting best practices, putting salt where ice actually forms instead of spreading it everywhere. We also keep 100 tons of salt at our shop before the season starts, so a supply shortage after a big storm never holds up your service.
Lake lots can run out of room fast. Between the house, the garage and the shoreline, there is only so much open ground to push toward, and after a few big storms the banks start blocking sight lines and narrowing the drive.
When the banks are full, we move the snow to open ground elsewhere on the property or haul it off entirely, rather than stacking it higher.
Most standard Deephaven driveways run $200 to $250 per month, November through April. It's one seasonal price, billed monthly.
The price depends on three things: the size of the drive, how much walk and step work comes with it, and whether the snow has somewhere to go.
Driveway size. A standard drive is up to two cars wide (about 20 feet) and up to 60 feet long, or roughly 1,200 square feet. Drives wider than three cars, longer than 60 feet, or with a turnaround or courtyard cost more, at about one extra pass per additional 1,000 square feet. Approach drives longer than 150 feet are quoted individually.
Walks and steps. Standard includes up to 50 linear feet of walk and up to four steps. A second entry, a walk that wraps around the house, or a full staircase is hand work and prices higher per foot than an open walk.
Room to stack snow. If there's open ground at the end of the drive with space for a full season, there's no added cost. The price moves up when walls, beds or plantings sit right against the pavement, or when the drive ends at the garage with nowhere to push. Relocation and hauling are quoted separately and usually only come up on tight lots in heavy winters.
Seasonal or per push. Seasonal service is one price split into monthly payments from November through April, and seasonal clients are cleared first. Per push service is available too. Call us and we'll talk through whether it fits your property.
All pricing assumes a 2 inch trigger. A tighter trigger changes the price more than drive size does, so properties that want closer to bare pavement all winter are priced individually.
The City of Deephaven posts spring load limits on its streets from March 1 to May 1. During that window, Vine Hill Road and Minnetonka Blvd are posted at 6 ton and all other city roads at 4 ton. Andover Place, Old Kent Road and St. James Gate are 7 ton year round, and Cottagewood Road between Manor Road and Minnetonka Blvd is 4 ton per axle all year. The city's police enforce the limits, and residents are responsible for informing their service providers. That window overlaps the last two months of our season, and Freshwater works within the posted limits. Load limit details from the City of Deephaven.
Freshwater Landscaping
3425 Shoreline Dr Ste B, Wayzata, MN 55391
(612) 999-8067
Office: Mon-Sun 8am-6pm
Service triggers at 2 inches of snow, so your property goes on the route as soon as accumulation reaches it. Your driveway is cleared within 10 hours after the snowfall stops.
The City of Deephaven says residents are responsible for informing their service providers about its seasonal load limits, which run March 1 to May 1. Freshwater works within the posted limits.
From March 1 to May 1, Vine Hill Road and Minnetonka Blvd are limited to 6 ton and all other city roads to 4 ton. Andover Place, Old Kent Road and St. James Gate are 7 ton year round, and Cottagewood Road between Manor Road and Minnetonka Blvd is 4 ton per axle all year.
Yes. Walks and steps are included in residential service. Larger driveways, longer walks and extensive step work are priced accordingly.
Every visit is logged in Yeti, our snow management platform. Each service record is time-stamped and comes with photos.
Yes. Commercial clients choose their tier: 2 inch, 1 inch, half inch, or zero tolerance with crews staged on site clearing continuously. Every commercial visit is documented in Yeti with time-stamped service records and photos.
Residential seasonal snow removal in Deephaven runs $200 to $250 per month, November through April. It's one seasonal price billed monthly. Larger driveways, longer walks and extensive step work are priced accordingly.
A lot of our snow clients first hired us for something else: a new patio, a drainage fix, a tree that needed to come down. When winter came, they kept the same crew because it already knew the property.
It works in both directions. The team clearing your drive in February can edge the beds in May, mow weekly through the summer and take down a storm-damaged tree in the fall. You deal with one company and one phone number, and the crew already knows where the low spots are and where the drive ends.
That's also why we're careful in winter. We know what goes into building a paver drive on a proper base, so we're not going to damage one with a steel blade.
Routes fill and then we're closed. Tell us about your property and what needs clearing, and we'll get you a spot. The storm-alert checkbox is optional. Check it and you'll get a text the moment crews head out.