After a heavy snowfall, it is not always possible to use a powerful snow blower to clear the yard. In this case, you need to use special tools. The article tells about what kind of snow removal equipment there is, and how to choose the right one that suits the best.

Choosing inventory for cleaning the yard

When it becomes necessary to remove snow near the house, it is important to take into account the features of the upcoming work:

  1. It can be a thin layer of freshly fallen layer, deep, packed snow, or one that has already turned into ice.
  2. What matters is which surfaces you need to clean. We can talk about a path, a lawn, a roof of a house or garage, the surface of a personal car.
  3. Where is the cleaning planned to be carried out: only on the paths or it is necessary to remove snow from the entire area of ​​the yard.

Important! Depending on what kind of cleaning method is used, this work can sometimes require significant physical effort.

Various methods can be used to clear snow:

  1. Snow shovels. Usually, with their help, snow is thrown aside for a short distance. They are suitable for cleaning narrow or small areas. Otherwise, working in this way takes a lot of time and effort.
  2. Scraper or snow scraper. They resemble a very wide shovel. With its help, the snow is pushed in front of you until you reach the right place. Suitable for cleaning the yard, but it is difficult to clear dense snow this way and it is impossible to chip the ice.
  3. The engines use a vertical blade. Usually used in the same way as scrapers, but have several different designs to increase their efficiency.
  4. Ice axes are designed to break ice or clear dense, packed snow from a hard surface (for example, from asphalt). They are ineffective for clearing loose and medium density snow.

    Snow scraper (ice ax)

  5. Special scrapers are also used. They look like an ice ax, but they use a thin metal plate instead of an ax.
  6. When clearing snow from, for example, the roof of a private house or garage, using a conventional mop can be effective.
  7. If you need to free the car from snow, it is convenient to use special plastic brushes or shovels. They will help remove snow and prevent damage to the vehicle.
  8. In everyday life, a kind of chemical snowplow is also used. The most popular is to sprinkle with kitchen salt or sand. In the first case, an aggressive chemical environment is created that acts on the soil layer and on shoes. In the second, pollution occurs, which then will have to be removed. For this purpose, there are special chemicals on the market that combine the effectiveness of application with complete harmlessness.
  9. Freshly fallen snow can be removed with a broom.

Snow shovel

This snow removal tool for snow removal is used relatively often. Such a shovel differs from the usual one in greater width, high sides and lower weight.

When buying, it is important to choose a shovel made from the most suitable material. If resources are limited, a plastic shovel can be purchased. Iron or aluminum will be more reliable and efficient.

There are folding tools. You can purchase a shovel with telescopic handles, with which you can set it to the desired length.

Beekeeping equipment

Types of snow shovels

Various types of shovels are available. They differ in:

  • material from which they are made;
  • length and type of handle;
  • in shape and size.

Usually, galvanized iron, wood, plastic or aluminum are used for manufacturing.

The main advantage of wooden shovels is their low cost and the possibility of self-production. The disadvantages include the following:

  1. From exposure to moisture, they can begin to rot in a couple of weeks if you do not constantly dry them.
  2. These shovels have low strength - they quickly become dilapidated.
  3. They are either absent altogether, or there are only small sides.
  4. Due to their weak strength, wooden shovels break easily.

An aluminum shovel is heavy and relatively expensive, but strong and durable. Frost is not able to harm this tool.

Petrol snow blower

Important! The choice of a plastic tool is the golden mean. It combines light weight with high strength and reliability at a relatively low cost.

The weak point of this type of tool is that it does not tolerate blows and vulnerability when frost occurs above 25 degrees. However, there is a composite plastic with which shovels are made that are not afraid of severe frost.

Snow removal with scraper and engine

When it is necessary to remove freshly fallen or medium-density snow, the width of the snow plow bucket is of great importance for the quality and speed of cleaning the yard.

For this purpose, it is customary to use scrapers. Usually they are a very wide shovel, the handle for which resembles the letter "P" in shape. Such a tool is designed to move the snow, clearing the path. The working part of the scraper is in a position close to horizontal and is equipped with high boards at the back and on both sides.

Shovel scraper

The engine works on the same principle as the scraper. However, the tool blade is curved and vertical. Outwardly, using this tool is a bit like doing a bulldozer. When cleaning the territory, it simply moves the snow to the place the worker needs.

At the same time, there are structurally different engine options:

  1. The most common option is when it is pushed by holding the handles.
  2. The option is used when a horizontally located auger (special screw) is located in front of the tool. When moving forward, it rotates from friction on the ground, moving the snow to the side.
  3. There are engines that are mounted on two wheels or on a four-wheel frame. When working with such equipment, a person spends much less effort than usually in such cases.
  4. An inventory is used in which the blade is set obliquely (one side is slightly ahead of the other). In this case, during operation, the snow does not accumulate in front of the engine, but moves sideways.
Snow blower AL KO

Ice axes

These tools are equipped with strong and durable blades that allow you to remove not only hard packed snow, but also ice. However, use can damage the surface that is under the snow.

Ice axes are required when it comes to not just snowfall, but also an icy surface. This tool is a handle attached to a long handle. It is positioned so that its blade is horizontal. Its width is usually from 9 to 15 cm.

In the process of work, ice is chipped in small pieces with the help of vertical blows.

If there is a need for this tool, when choosing, it must be borne in mind that the heavier the tool, the easier the ice will break off from the impact. However, long-term work with such a tool will require significant efforts.

Interesting. If you choose a lighter tool, it will take considerable effort to break the ice, but it will be easier to work for a long period of time than in the previous case.

The tool can have different blade widths. If it is narrow, then such an ice ax is convenient to use when breaking off a thick layer of ice.If you use a wide blade, this will handle fairly weak ice and packed snow, but you can do this at a faster speed due to the wider blade.

If the snow is soft or of medium density, using an ice ax will be ineffective.

Using snow-removing equipment without the use of gasoline is effective, provided that the snow must be removed from a small area. However, it is best to choose the most appropriate tools for the given situation.