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Snow jobs: Is $500 too much for a driveway?

Earlier this week, Mike Gillin's phone was ringing nonstop: People wanted help with the near-Herculean task of digging themselves out.

Earlier this week, Mike Gillin's phone was ringing nonstop: People wanted help with the near-Herculean task of digging themselves out.

But when Mother Nature dumps a season's worth of snow in less than 48 hours, the price of a cleared driveway doesn't come cheap. The storm left a hard-to-plow aftermath that owners of snow-removal services considered unusual. And homeowners were desperate.

"I think people would pay pretty much anything you ask them," said Gillin, owner of Ace & Sons in Lansdowne, Delaware County.

Days after the storm dumped as much as 30 inches in some spots, most snow-removal operators were, happily, raking it in. After seeing hardly a penny of work this season - less than two weeks ago, one Montgomery County company had been planning layoffs - business owners were overrun with requests.

And that's where demand met supply:

Some operators said they were charging as much as $500 as a flat fee or $90 an hour for residential cleanups.

They insisted the prices were fair: Many services have fixed rates based on the amount of snowfall. Others estimate based on what they see at each home. Either way, costs pile up when the inches do, and when each job takes more time and harder work.

For Greg Deeck, who runs Grassman Landscaping in Delaware County, "it's all paid by the inch," he said. He claimed prices for clearing driveways were so high - between $300 and $500, he said - that he was telling callers they'd be better off shoveling their walks themselves.

Gillin acknowledged others in the business were upping their post-blizzard prices but said he was "truthfully" trying to stick to his rate of about $90 an hour.

Pennsylvania's legislature in 2006 passed a law protecting consumers from price gouging - paying at least 20 percent higher than the typical rate - during states of emergency, such as this weekend's snowstorm.

As the first flurries fell last week, the state Attorney General's Office warned consumers to be on the lookout for price gouging by plow services, an offense punishable by a fine of as much as $10,000. By Tuesday the office had not yet logged any complaints, a spokeswoman said.

But when desperation grows, some residents are willing to do what it takes, the operators say.

"If they don't have it done . . . they don't make it out of their driveways," said Mike Gramlich, owner of M&D Landscaping in East Falls.

Gramlich estimates price case-by-case, he said. The more vast or complicated the property, the more prices spike.

But even with demand up - Gramlich estimated 150 calls in the last two days - he tried, he said, to keep prices reasonable. An ordinary driveway this weekend ran around $100, Gramlich said. Larger alleyways stretching along multiple homes yielded close to $400 or $500.

By Monday's end, the long hours and odd jobs had added up: Since Friday, his company had raked in close to $16,000, he said.

"For some of these back alleyways, the city is not going to come and do that work," said Gramlich, who said he mostly plowed around Manayunk, East Falls, and South Philadelphia.

Cliff Carter, owner of Cliff Carter Services in Northeast Philadelphia, uses a similar system: "You basically charge according to what the situation" is, said Carter, who picked up residential work this weekend after commercial jobs. For an average driveway, it's between $100 to $175, he said.

The way to avoid potentially high prices is to contract with a landscaper in advance, said Paul Coy, owner of Chip's Tree Service in Newtown Square who said he no longer offers snow-removal services but did so for 35 years.

"Most contractors have clients, so the price never comes into it," he said. "When it snows, it snows. I'll plow it and you'll already know" the price.

But for many who hadn't planned ahead or who didn't have neighbors to lend a helping hand, the obvious choice was to shell out the dough.

Said Gillin: "If it was a normal snow, it would probably be half the price of what it is today."

jmcdaniel@philly.com 610-313-8205 @McDanielJustine