When you buy a home in Rexburg you get all of the seasons with it, including winter. Anybody that has lived through a Rexburg winter knows that it is not for the faint of heart. Temperatures can get down into the negative teens and with the wind blowing the wind chill factor can easily be -20 to -30 below. All that cold comes with snow. Lots of snow. Buying a property with easy snow removal is one thing anybody looking in Southeast Idaho should consider. The problem is most people don’t buy a home in the winter in Southeast Idaho. They usually buy in the spring or summer. Not understanding what the winters can be like can lead to buying property that can keep you busy all winter long shoveling, snow blowing, and plowing snow.
Landscaping Effects Snow Removal
One major consideration for buying a house in a place where it snows half the year is landscaping. Landscaping should be done in a way that allows you to freely blow snow without the risk of rocks snapping the shear pins on a snowblower. Look for walkways and driveways with boarders on them. Do they have dirt, wood chips, or rocks as a covering? If they have large wood chips or rocks, you better be prepared to change your shear pins often or change the ground cover to something less threatening to machines. This type of landscaping can get in the auger and really cause problems. This type of ground cover can also break plastic snow shovels and bend metal shovels. If you have a lot of ground to cover, look for homes with landscaping that has grass borders along driveways and anywhere snow needs to be cleared.
How Many Feet Need To Be Cleared
Idaho has a really diverse range of property sizes. In downtown Rexburg or Rigby, you will find homes with driveways that may only be a single car wide and maybe two cars deep. Other homes may be on one or two acres with the home being set back on the property that needs a long driveway and walkways. As you look at property these characteristics matter. Homes that are closer to the street usually have less driveway to clear of snow and a smaller opening for the snowplows to seal off with their sometimes massive wall of snow that they plow across the front of your property. Walkways from the street or across the front of the property all add footage to your snow removal work. The less you have, or the less that is vital for use in the winter, the less work you have to do each time it snows and you have a property with easy snow removal.
A Property With Easy Snow Removal Doesn’t Include Salt
One way to make life easier when removing snow from a home is to use ice melting salt. It really does work. Basically salt lowers the freezing temperature of water. When the water cannot freeze, the cold dry air quickly cause the water to evaporate, leaving your walkways clear of ice when the temperatures get really cold. But there is a downside to using salt. Living things do not like salt in great quantities. Salting your walkways and driveway in the winter may lead to dead shrubs, trees, and grass in the spring when the snow melts and the salt is deposited in the ground. There are many companies selling ice melting solutions, some that even say friendly to “nature”. But don’t take their word for it. Nature doesn’t necessarily include your shrubs, flowers, and grass. All of this is important when you are looking for a house to buy because not being able to use salt directly equals more work for you.
