Running out of room at their current location, the South San Francisco Scavenger Company recently purchased a large property to store their debris boxes and garbage bins. The 66,000 square foot yard, however, was a combination of dirt and gravel, and not at all suitable for their needs. The initial plan was to pave the yard with asphalt, until the City informed them they could not do anything that would increase the quantity of stormwater-runoff from the property.
Read More“One of these things is not like the other,” Ernie from Sesame Street said it best. For those that claim impervious surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete, and pervious surfaces are synonymous, that is not true. Bay Area Pervious Concrete’s David Liguori went out on the field this week to report on some real-time comparisons between these two surfaces during our most recent storm, and the evidence is striking.
Read MoreMr. Liguori has returned!
With the first heavy rainfall of the year, David was quick to grab his coat to report out on the field to bring you another episode in our Stormwater Sleuthing series. This episode features the highly effective performance of pervious concrete in a parking lot during a two-day torrential rainstorm. The project was installed about a year ago at Golden Hill Cemetery in Colma, CA and is still working as intended. As they say in the pervious concrete industry, when it rains, it drains!
Read MoreWant to know how much base rock you need under your pervious concrete pavement? We've done all the calculations for you! Designed with low infiltration soils, like Class C & D, in mind these design tables allow you to quickly size the infiltration bed underneath your pervious concrete. Tables feature calculations for infiltration rates as low as 0.025 inches per hour!
Read MoreBack in 2013 Bay Area Pervious Concrete was hired to install some BAPC Polished Pervious Concrete™ on the newly expanded campus of White Hill Middle School in Fairfax, CA. The project's site designs were done by our friends at Sherwood Engineers. Recently, a group of Sherwood Engineers project managers took a tour of the school to review how the site improvements fared after five years of use. They were kind enough to share some photos with us.
Read MoreIt's April, so it's the perfect time for some spring cleaning! Time to clean out those dusty pervious concrete specifications and design details you have laying around, and replace them with something new and fresh. We have released new updates on all the favorites!
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Specifications
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Read MoreMost of the time in Northern California we enjoy fairly mild weather and sunshine, but it's not always sunny in the Golden State. The San Francisco bay area is known for its fog. This can provide some unique installation conditions, especially when you are installing pervious concrete on the top of the highest peak of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mount Umunhum.
Read MoreAffordable housing doesn't have to mean your project is stuck with old conventional materials to save cost. The Met Apartment buildings in San Jose, CA are part of a newly constructed community development project by Charities Housing that will be adding 100 affordable housing units to the city. Built to the City's Green Building Guidelines the project showcases a variety of sustainability features. One of these features is the pervious concrete drive lane that will serve as the entrance into the buildings' shared parking garage. This drive lane is anticipated to be a high volume area for residents coming and going from the complex.
Read MoreDuring 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 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.
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![Don't Let This Godzilla El Niño Smash Up Your City - Protect It with Pervious Concrete]()
The 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!
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![Pervious Concrete Has Been Supporting Heavy Loads, Tire Abrasion and Freeze-Thaw Cycles for Years]()
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.
Read MoreThe 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.
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![Why Use Asphalt? In Morgan Hill They Use Pervious Concrete Curb to Curb]()
When 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.
Read MoreThe Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program (SCVURPPP) announced that the San Jose Environmental Innovation Center (SJEIC) was among the winners of the 2015 Site Design for Protecting Water Quality.
Read MorePark 20 apartments chose colored and Polished pervious concrete for their emergency vehicle access road, installed by Bay area Pervious Concrete.
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