What makes a good pervious concrete specification? This article explains how keeping your specifications up-to-date will allow you to promote good practices, have better performance, and protect you should there be any problems.
Read MoreWant to learn why pervious concrete is the most cost effective stormwater BMP? Bay Area Pervious Concrete's David Liguori will be providing a series of informational presentations in February and March. By attending the following events you will learn how a pervious concrete stormwater system can simplify your site designs, decrease project costs, while complying with municipal stormwater regulations.
February 3rd, 11:45am-1:00pm
APWA-Sacramento Chapter Luncheon
Dante Club, 2330 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Sacramento , CA , 95825
Pervious concrete stormwater management systems, which operate according to a principle known as LATIS, or Large Area Thin Infiltration Systems, are considerably more effective and less costly than other BMPs when designed appropriately. A 180° departure from conventional design, LATIS requires a major re-think. This presentation illustrates this new design approach and walks participants through the building of a system model to reduce overall project costs, while complying with regulations. Register here.
March 8th, 11:45am-1:00pm
East Bay Municipal Engineers Lunch Meeting
Legends at Diablo Creek, 4050 Port Chicago Hwy, Concord, CA 94520
Have you attended the introductory presentation and feel like you know enough to be dangerous? Take it to the next level and join us while we dive deeper into the details of designing and specifying a Pervious Concrete water management system based on LATIS ( Large Area Thin Infiltration System). We will go through the latest specifications released in the fall of 2016, take apart several designs, study various details, cover base and subgrade prep as well as the finer aspects of infiltration.
This presentation will give you what you need to put pen to paper and supercharge, by simplifying, your site design. Register here.
Can’t make it to one of these events? Have your organization’s lunch and learn coordinator contact us to schedule a presentation at your office.
Have you considered using pervious concrete on your project, then wished it came in a more appealing color or texture? At Bay Area Pervious Concrete it does! We have developed a wide array of finish options to choose from. Finish options can even be combined to create a truly customized look that will complement your chic, modern design, or something classic and timeless.
Read MoreSanta Cruz County is providing a tour of five of its recent low-impact development projects. At each stop on the tour you will be able to gain insights from the project managers, engineers, architects and contractors that worked on the projects. In addition, the tour features Bay Area Pervious Concrete's installation at Heart of Soquel Park. David Liguori will be at the Heart of Soquel Park tour stop to talk about the pervious concrete courtyard and parking lot we installed at the park in 2015.
Read MoreDavid Liguori recently presented in front of a packed house at the American Public Works Association, Northern California Chapter's 2016 conference. With nearly 70 public works and civil engineers filling the pervious concrete session of the two day conference there were not enough chairs to go around.
Read MoreYes, you read that right, pervious concrete in SPACE! David Liguori, of BAPC, recently worked with the Microbial Ecology / Biogeochemistry Research Laboratory of the NASA Ames Research Center, to design a new form of pervious concrete that is being tested for use in future space flight missions.
Read MoreBay Area Pervious Concrete created a multi-generational and multi-functional driveway for the Tah Mah Lah Residence, the "greenest house in America". Held to a high environmental impact standard, the driveway performs beyond typical requirements, providing regeneration of groundwater resources and representing a 64% savings in embodied carbon. It also features BAPC's latest finish option, Portola!
Read MoreAre you looking for a natural-looking, low-impact hardscape material? BAPC would like to introduce our latest new finish option - Portola™!
Our Portola Pervious Concrete™ provides a similar aesthetic to Decomposed Granite (DG), while providing the same durability, permeability and low-maintenance as the rest of our pervious concrete. All without the mess and maintenance challenges of DG.
During the last winter rain storm of 2016 David went to visit some of our work at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, CA. It was really rainy the day he visited, so in this episode you can really see the difference in how stormwater is handled by an impervious pavement versus a pervious pavement.
Read MoreThere is a new pervious parking lot in Richmond, CA. Located at the new Harbourview Apartments this parking lot is 100% pervious concrete. Parking lots are the perfect application for pervious concrete. They epitomize the principal of the Large Area Thin Infiltration Systems (LATIS). Converting the pavement into a passive storm water detention system, that meets Provision C.3 Municipal regulations, without giving up valuable land to rain gardens, bioswales or detention ponds. By utilizing pervious concrete for the entire parking lot, this project was able to build more rentable units and achieve the most cost-effective solution, all while meeting Provision C.3 regulations.
Read MoreEl Niño brought us a gift this winter, some much needed rain! The most recent storm allowed us to finally bring you another in our Stormwater Sleuthing Video series. This episode features a real-life demonstration of the performance of pervious concrete at our recently completed project at El Camino Park in Palo Alto, as compared to traditional asphalt and concrete.
Read MoreA big portion of our efforts at BAPC is in education. We love those days when we get to leave the office and engage with others to build more understanding around pervious concrete. We always look forward to meeting new people, having great conversations, and exhibiting the benefits of pervious concrete. The more people we meet the more love for pervious concrete is spread. Check out some of the events we will be at this year!
Read MoreThe Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is a non-profit organization that protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. It was very important that their office's renovation represented their commitment to their environmental mission. Working with their designer Steve Kikuchi, from Kikuchi + Kankel Design Group, they decided to use pervious concrete for their new parking lot.
Integral color and decorative accent borders of conventional concrete were utilized in order for the parking lot to complement the building's design. So this does not look like any other parking lot you've ever seen.
The City of Pleasanton is trying to solve two issues they are having along their Arroyo Mocho Trail, flooding and maintenance costs. The project represents a testing site for the city to study and compare surface performance and maintenance costs of asphalt, decomposed granite and pervious concrete. Pervious concrete was specifically installed in an area that is prone to flooding. We, at BAPC, are pretty confident they will find similar results that other cities have when it comes to the high performance and low maintenance costs of pervious concrete.
Read MoreAnother Bay Area city has endorsed pervious concrete. The City of Palo Alto utilized pervious concrete at the newly renovated El Camino Park. What's better than that? They also offer pervious concrete rebates!
Read MoreYou can never make another first impression. So why waste it? These homes in Portola Valley took full advantage of our Polished Pervious Concrete to cement a grand first impression upon all their visitors.
Read MoreThe last time that the category of El Niño was considered Very Stong was the winter of 1997-1998, where many California communities suffered from mudslides and flooding. This year's El Niño is showing signs that it could be even stronger. There is a strong chance that the Bay Area could see as much as twice the annual precipitation, maybe above 40 inches of rain. This could greatly impact the state by damaging homes, disrupting transportation systems, schools, and businesses - potentially costing state residents billions of dollars. Many cities are preparing for the additional rainfall by cleaning out their waterways and storm systems. California officials are warning people to prepare for potential flooding conditions. You may be asking, "What can I do to reduce the risk of flooding for my home or business?"
One thing you can do is by replacing sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, patios, and roads with pervious concrete. Luckily, installing pervious concrete is one type of El Niño preparation you may be able to receive a rebate for. Saving you money upfront and in the long run!
Over the past few weeks we have seen the internet explode with interest over the recently announced Topmix Permeable concrete from Tarmac Lafarge in the UK. People are marveling over concrete that allows water to not only go through it, and back into the ground, but at an incredible rate. The video we featured on our last blog post is impressive and demonstrated just how fast. We were excited to see so much interest in pervious concrete by so many different people. However, we did notice some discrepancies in the way that pervious concrete was discussed in some of the media outlets, and we wanted to take some time to clarify a couple things.
Some of the media outlets portrayed pervious concrete as a new product that was not available in the United States - which is false. Pervious concrete has been used for stormwater management throughout the US for over 40 years. What's different, or innovative, about Tarmac's Topmix Permeable concrete is it boasts a whopping 35% air void space, which is why it infiltrates at such a high rate. Tarmac representatives have stated in interviews that the product has some limitations on where, and when, it should be used. They are not recommending Topmix Permeable for high-traffic areas, in places where vehicles make lots of tight turns, or in places with freeze-thaw cycles, as it will eventually start breaking up the surface layer. Some media corespondents have portrayed that all pervious concrete had these limitations - which is also false. While Topmix Permeable may have these limitations, more traditional pervious concrete does not share the same limitations. In the US, mix designs have evolved and have already solved the issues of heavy traffic, weight loads, turning vehicle traffic, and freeze/thaw cycles.
Through trial and error the pervious concrete industry has discovered that 20% air void space provides the proper balance between strength, durability, and high infiltration rates. The additional bonds provided by only having 20% air voids, allows for a stronger, longer-lasting material, with just as much infiltration capacity to mitigate all of a site's stormwater.
The internet has been calling this pervious concrete "Super permeable" and Magical." If you agree, you don't have to travel to the UK to see it or have it! Bay Area Pervious Concrete has been installing super pervious concrete management systems for nearly a decade. This viral video, from the UK firm Lafarge Tarmac, is a great representative of how fast pervious concrete can infiltrate water, but how does pervious concrete handle longer water events - like heavy rain storms? A real life test of pervious concrete. In our Stormwater Sleuthing video David compares two driveways after at least 12 hours of steady rainfall.
Read MoreWhen most people think of road pavement, they think of asphalt. The new East Dunne Ave housing development in Morgan Hill, CA decided to do something different. They had Bay Area Pervious Concrete install pervious concrete from curb to curb for the new Seville Drive. Pervious concrete works great for roadways. Pervious concrete roadways have a lifespan of 30-50 years before it may need to be replaced. They are largely maintenance free for their entire lifespan. The extra benefit of pervious concrete is that it is a stormwater management system that doubles as a pavement.
Unlike pervious concrete roads, asphalt roadways have short lifespans, and require regular maintenance. Asphalt roads must be replaced, or resealed, every 10-15 years. This increases the maintenance necessary and inconvenience for residents. Typical asphalt roads also do not provide any stormwater management services. In fact they can actually contribute to poor stormwater management by concentrating pollutants that collect on the surface and rapidly shedding them into local waterways.
