# Frozen pond in parking lots?



## dieselboy01 (Jan 18, 2011)

I don't have this problem in my lots but one business down the road from me does. This pond is at the entrance to the lot, which is the low spot and i bet the water/ice is about 6"-8" deep and around 25' wide and 20' long. 

We got a warm spell last week and got a sloppy rain/snow mix. Now temps are back in the 10*-20* range so everything is frozen. 

My question is what would you do about a frozen pond in one of your lots? 

Would you keep salting it to keep it from freezing and once it was slush just plow it out of they way?


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## framer1901 (Dec 18, 2005)

If it's solid, get your ice skates, cause you ain't gonna salt that away. There almost has to be something blocking a drainage path, whether it be a blocked/frozen drain or an area where the water can run off too - fix that first.


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## Laszlo Almasi (Feb 11, 2006)

Seeing as how it is a low spot, I'd tell the property owner they need to address the drainage and if none exists, they need to fix it so there is some drainage. Oh, and I would not take responsibility for that particular situation until it's fixed. If you have the lot as one of your accounts, make sure you have something in writing indicating you can't take responsibility for that ponding.


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## leolkfrm (Mar 11, 2010)

knowing the problem before the freeze, we would have tried to move it as it froze(slushed)...we also make a point to confirm drains are exposed during the thaws


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## BC Handyman (Dec 15, 2010)

I'm interested in this too, Lets say this......
there is a lot that has a low spot in middle, no drainage, pm says it will get fixed in spring, pm still needs it safe & idealy clear untill winter is over. What do we do as snow & ice contractors? Should it just be salted & sanded to eliminate slipping, or should it be removed? what would you do with it?


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## dieselboy01 (Jan 18, 2011)

It looks like the snow banks at the entrance of the lot are preventing the water from flowing into the ditch. I'll see if I can get a pic.

How would you write something up in your contract about ponding? 

I just want to be prepared if something like this were to happen on a lot i service.


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## quigleysiding (Oct 3, 2009)

dieselboy01;1771290 said:


> It looks like the snow banks at the entrance of the lot are preventing the water from flowing into the ditch. I'll see if I can get a pic.
> 
> How would you write something up in your contract about ponding?
> 
> I just want to be prepared if something like this were to happen on a lot i service.


We just poke a hole with the plow so the water can drain


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## andersman02 (May 5, 2012)

We have a lot simular but not quite as deep. about 3 ponds form only about 2 inches deep 10x 10 areas.

Havent had a problem so much this year. This lot gets salt after each storm do these stay wet for most of the time. If the pooling get excessive I will swing through and plow some of it off.


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## kimber750 (Sep 19, 2011)

We have one account that is upper level of parking garage with a court yard like area for employees. It is the lowest part of the upper deck with no drainage and block walls all around it. Most melt off runs to this area. After years of attempting keep it clear we finally came to the conclusion to just not maintain it at all. Having snow to walk on is better than 6" of ice. Realize this won't work for OP being an entrance.


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## Flawless440 (Dec 6, 2010)

Skid loader only thing to remove it.. Keep area salted, once it builds up again, hit it with loader..

We had a water main break for 3 weeks on a apartment community, had to bring a loader every couple days..


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## potskie (Feb 9, 2011)

framer1901;1771038 said:


> If it's solid, get your ice skates, cause you ain't gonna salt that away.


Better yet throw up some barriers and charge entry to your rink!

In all seriousness about all you can do is try to debond it with heavy salt and then peel it up with a loader on it's froze. The best solution is to not let it get like that obviously.


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## SnowGuy73 (Apr 7, 2003)

quigleysiding;1771355 said:


> We just poke a hole with the plow so the water can drain


Same here.


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## derekbroerse (Mar 6, 2004)

Two of mine have been notorious for this. (Two side by side properties, +-4 acres each) 

The wonderful beancounters in the office who designed the property figured that instead of building the structure as the high point of the property and the outer edges as the low point, they would make the structure and the outer edges the same height and (steeply) taper the parking lot towards drains in the center.... that way, they could save money on the drainage pipes by having them a lot shorter!!!

This, of course, was a BRILLIANT plan, since the piles of snow end up around the perimeter, so every nice sunny day we get they melt and run back into the parking lot, then re-freeze when the sun goes down--then I have to go back in and salt again--so in Year One I'm sure that negated any savings they had on pipe...

The best part is, this system requires electric pumps to run to pump away the water from the catch basins, with really nowhere to send it since this was a rural back road before they plunked these buildings down here in what was basically swampland, so we are talking a lot of water being pumped to shallow side-of-the-road rural drainage ditches.

Naturally, these pumps fail constantly, and need continual repairs and maintenance. At least I'm not the only one frustrated with it, the contractor that maintains them is sick and tired of it all as is the property manager. Since the parking lot is so steeply sloped for drainage, this makes massive lakes over a foot deep, deep enough to be over the frame rails of my Sonoma 4x4 if I drive in, pretty much touching the rocker panels. 

They are lucky I check the lot regularly during the winter and can tip them off when it happens before it becomes an ice problem. Contractor brings in trash pumps and hoses and pumps everything into the open field next door, but that takes days... nowadays they hire me to use the loader and rubber-edged pusher to squeegee 90% of it off the lot first, then they can pump out the chambers and access the electric pieces of crap down there...

Ever see the episode of Duck Dynasty where they flooded the loading dock to make a duck pond? That is pretty much every day thru winter and spring on the second property's dock, until now that part of the building has been vacant but in a few months the Ambulance Dispatch is moving in there.... ugh...


What a joke, they paid a design contractor huge money to design these parking lots and everything is either made artsy fartsy or just plain idiotic. Worst part is, these places won a pile of awards when they went up, the trophies are in a display case when you walk in the door... truth is, alot of the construction is shoddy at best too...


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