I had a heated driveway on a home I bought in the early 90's, it was useless to melt away anything than a dusting, and we had a heck of a lot more snow then than now. I have no idea what was under there, some type of electrical coil as you could see the serpentine image when it worked. It was a very high watt per foot, but I do remember the power consumption was massive as it ran from a dedicated 220. I just never used it as it was less expensive to hire a landscape company to clear the snow if I wasn't able to.

There is no retrofit. You have to start from the base and build up. Tear out what you have and do a whole new driveway.It ain't cheap. To install. Or to run. It will cost thousands and thousands less to just hire a neighbor kid with a snow blower. Or buy your own snow blower. You may want to reassess your attachment to your current home if you are finding it's becoming unmanageable. It happens to all of us sooner or later. By the type you retrofit your entire home to age in place and hire out the exterior maintenance, you could have become a snowbird.

My brother removed the electrical heating when he redid the parking lot of his apartment complex because of the incredible costs of maintenance and electrical usage. It's cheaper to hire out snow removal.

I was hoping to get some product-related advice. We're 20 years past the 90s, and products have evolved. The neighborhood kids snow clearing is moot, as there are no neighbors. The winter of 2010 cost me over $1000 for snow clearing alone, and A LOT of effort to be able to find someone with the equipment to make it up that driveway in the first place. There is no one available at 3 or 4 AM to clear my path, so I can go to work. I do have snow removal equipment. A snow blower will not do the job on this property, unless you have hours available, and the constitution of a prize fighter to push this thing up the hill over and over.

I have thought through all options, and would have liked to hear from some with recent, actual experience with newer products. There are low-voltage systems on the market. Most do not require 220 V any longer. And yes, there is retrofitting, but I question this method of installation. Check out the Heatizon system, for instance. My driveway will be redone anyway, but one paving contractor insisted that retrofitting is the way to go. I cringe at the thought of getting cuts into a newly paved driveway, and wonder where the insulation underneath would come from.

I'm also not age-proofing the house, just wanted to add a significant convenience/safety improvement to it. This driveway has caused injuries, damaged cars, and in case of an emergency, no rescue vehicle will make it to the house during snow. So, please no more snow blowers and neighborhood kids comments. I was bright enough to come up with those ideas myself, and had lots of trials and errors over the years. A functional system would make the house significantly more marketable to more buyers. It requires skill to maneuver this driveway in the winter, and not everyone has it.

If I add up the wear and tear on the (old) John Deere, and the repairs, the salt and sand, my time, then still hiring outsiders at times anyway, waiting for them when I need to get going, snow tires each season, I think I am willing to put up with the added electrical expense on an as needed basis.

Here is how my garage floor is heated, it can be applied to drive ways - but it ain't cheap:

Install pex tubing, serpentined under the drive. You make several circuits, all attached to a manifold.

Use a hot water boiler with a circulator pump. Fill the system with anti-freeze (ethtlyene glychol) and you're all set.

"Fill the system with anti-freeze (ethtlyene glychol) and you're all set. "

You can consider the operating cots an extra mortgage payment.

Use calcium chloride to melt the stuff.

This post was edited by brickeyee on Thu, May 2, 13 at 14:01

Brickeyee: Years ago, my wife and I rejected several nice homes because they had 'problematic' driveways: shared, too long, too narrow, too steep, hazzardous entrance.

Well, I think concept of the water/glycol-based systems is great, but really expensive, considering the electricity for the pump, gas for the boiler (I run on LP), and then the system itself. I guess, none of this is really cheap, but like some said, some driveways are worth the investment, on others it's merely a luxury. I would never even consider heating a rather flat, and average driveway. But in my area, many lots are steep, and rather large. A huge Dodge with full equipment does not make it up there, and many a disgruntled guy took off again, telling me I was not kidding when I said the driveway was steep.

I will get some local references from folks with installed systems, to see how their experiences have been so far with a low-voltage system.

Here is a novel idea, get a jeep (cj) w/ a plow. I live in snow country , heated drive ways are a novelty, they don't work. The best they do is get rid of residual snow, which is done much cheaper and quicker w/ calcium chloride.
As a kid I worked at a hospital w/ a heated outdoor ramp for the emergency room. I was very interested at how well it worked.If and when I had my home this would be the first thing I installed,no more shoveling. It didn't and it was steam fed. It worked great in Nov and Mar. other than that, a waste.
It is much easier plowing down than up. One pass on the way down, back up , second pass. Fisher makes trailer hitch mounted spreaders ,on the third pass spread your chemical.

That was what the snow removal guys struggled with. Their first pass is up, and in 9 out of 10 cases, it's a fail.

If you have that many issues with the snow I doubt very much that a heated driveway will clean that much snow and or ice without incurring a bill about the same as the national debt!

Would it be possible to build an overhead structure instead, especially since you want it for only part of the driveway? May be more cost effective in the long run.

Can you reengineer the drive itself to some of the steepness and/or straighten out the part that is difficult to navigate. Maybe a landscaper or engineer can figure a way to reroute it.

The covering sounds like a neat idea. You can do a covered bridge type of thing for the steepest part. It would look neat if done well.

Buying your own used jeep and plow might not be a bad idea either.

You'll have to compare price to install and operate with these other ideas. At least you could take the jeep with you when you move, or include it as part of the house sale.

This site shows you can lay the pex on your existing drive, and add a layer of concrete or asphalt or pavers over that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snow & Ice Melt Systems

I like the idea of a "covered bridge" structure, kinda like your own driveway tunnel.

Rerouting the driveway is not possible unfortunately. There are steep rocks to the right, and a septic tank and drain field to the left. :(

Also warming up to the Jeep idea. Are they powerful enough?

More useful than a Jeep year round. Cheaper than trying to heat -10 earth with either electricity or hydrionics.

I wouldn't want to operate a Bobcat in driving snow, and they are terrible going up hills.If you are thinking on going the mobile equipment route a 3/4 ton 4 wheel pick up will out plow a Jeep any day. But someone has to operate it a few hours or more before getting out on the morning. A neighbour with a 1000 meter long drive actually bought an old highway snowplow from the region a few years ago, made quick work of it.

The 3rd largest railway in Canada was in the plant I operated. It would come to a standstill when hit by a big snowstorm. We bought a railway jenny that had a airplane jet engine mounted on it to clear track and switches. Like my grandfather said if you had enough money you could make Niagara Falls run backwards.

You have a problem that in ground heating will not solve.

Good luck. I won't offer the old, have you ever thought about moving to the bottom of the hill remark?

I'll leave the bottom of the hill for the drain field. :) But I am warming up to the idea of a second vehicle, but will have to juggle the numbers a bit. It would make sense to plow from the top down, and wide enough for a vehicle to get through. The John Deere lawn tractor with snow blower/plow just never made it back up the hill without a second person adding weight and push, despite using chains on the wheels, and added weights on the back. Plus you wind up being exposed to the elements.

Then your problem is solved if you are willing to plow yourself, start at the top and run back up the plowed pass, if you don't have time to clear the entire width make one pass only, then the detail clean latter.. No need to go out and but new, many a farmer out here use trucks with plows that are not plated or insured for the road. For the little mileage you will be putting on it an old war horse would be my choice without spending thousands, who cares if the AC doesn't work or the windows go up or down or it has a few dents in it. There are plenty available. A new blade would be prudent though.

Good luck, hopefully it won't snow for a few months.

" many a farmer out here use trucks with plows that are not plated or insured for the road."

You better have registration and insurance - If, if you would hit something in the road - a hugh liability.

Geoffrey,

Fret not, they use them on the farm not the road. The tractors and such aren't plated either, those they do use on the roads.

We had the concrete for our sloped south facing driveway colored a deep gray - not stained. It holds enough heat from the sun so that we don't have to shovel if we only get a few inches of snow and it doesn't ice up. It only added a few hundred dollars to the cost, but we have a typical 1/4 acre suburban lot.

We also had the slope leveled as much as we could so getting in and out of a vehicle was easier.

"A snow blower will not do the job on this property, unless you have hours available, and the constitution of a prize fighter to push this thing up the hill over and over. "

You need a decent size self propelled snow blower.

You put chains on the wheels and they work using a pair of hand grips for control and steering.

Or get yourself a decent size 4 wheel drive pickup with a blade.

Fill the bed about half way with the sand at the start of the winter.

Use some of it as the winter goes on, but mostly it is for rear wheel weight to help the 4 wheel drive work better.

Do NOT get a manual transmission.
You WILL toast the clutch trying to push snow.

This post was edited by brickeyee on Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 9:29

All this talk makes me glad I live in the south. AC bills are high in the summer, but getting to work is never a challenge. In the rare event that we get snow, everything closes until it melts (usually the next day!)

If the snowfall rate exceeds your heat input the thing will turn into a sheet of ice.