Santa Cruz loves Pervious Concrete

....for park multi-use trails!!

Revisited the trail in March 2015.

While we know pervious concrete is a great multi-use trail material, the City of Santa Cruz spent years seeking the perfect trail material before they settled on pervious concrete for the Arana Gulch multi-use trail project. They needed something that was safe and non-slip in all weather conditions, accessible for wheelchairs in all weather, protected water quality, was permeable, low maintenance, and looks the part- clearly pervious concrete! 

The City agreed that pervious concrete met all their needs and then some. Below is the list of features they considered in selecting pervious concrete:

• Durable;  does not rut, ravel or crack easily 
• Strong; stays firm, level and safe
• Long life expectancy
• Low glare
• Integral color of native earth
• Low maintenance
• Good for wheelchairs, strollers etc.
• Less inviting for skateboards and fast traffic
• Accommodates light maintenance vehicles
• Rustic appearance
• Porous 
• Cost effective

We don’t need to quote them further, read their original blog post for more details. Great work, Santa Cruz!! Even more great they hired BAPC to install it. Above you can see a photo of the Broadway Brommer Arana Gulch path that we installed.  If you use the Arana Gulch Broadway Brommer Multi-Use path, send us your photos, and we would love to post them!

Pervious Concrete for Stanford Faculty Housing

We just finished another residential driveway, this time in the faculty housing area of Stanford University’s campus. This mix features an integral concrete color called ‘Sandstone’ and a modern landscaping. What do you think? 

The view from the front steps:

The view, heading to the street:

Pervious Parking Stalls in Aptos

Parking stalls never looked so good! Here you can see, courtesy of Google maps, the top down look at parking stalls for this large apartment complex in Soquel, California. Below, you can see up close, pervious parking stalls with marking paint. While we don’t encourage AC pavement draining onto adjacent pervious concrete as a design concept, this went in well, and will be in service for a long time. Find more photos below! 

Evolution Architectural Pervious Concrete Certificate of Endorsement!

We are excited to announce that we, at Bay Area Pervious Concrete, hold an Evolution Architectural Pervious Concrete Certificate of Endorsement from Evolution Paving to install their Architectural Fine Pervious Concrete sidewalk mix! We have worked with Evolution paving on a project in Sonoma, more photos here, installing the fine sidewalk mix, and we have it down - pun intended. 

Please contact us for pricing and references so that we can install for you soon!

Polished Pervious Driveway with COLOR

When we came up with Polished Pervious™ our Research and Development crew immediately saw the great possibility of using integral color with polished pervious concrete. Getting it installed on a project proved to take a bit longer - but now it is here and it looks STUNNING! 
Well, see for yourself-

What do you think? Do you like this look?

Commodore Park in San Jose is now ready for a Frisbee!

San Jose’s newest park features a colored pervious concrete path going around the park! And it is finally open! Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program honored the City of San José with an award for Commodore Park’s Site Design and Low Impact Development for Storm Water Pollution. The award recognizes the park's low-impact development features that are helping to protect water quality by filtering stormwater through plants and soil, while allowing stormwater to infiltrate into the ground to help replenish groundwater. 

Time to load up the family, grab the frisbee and explore this great new space. It has children’s playground equipment, adult’s exercise equipment, picnic areas and a grassy expanse, all accessed by ADA friendly pervious concrete. It is a lovely space to spend the day.

If you head out there, please send us photos of you enjoying the park! We will post them here! :)

White Hill Middle School Gets a Brand New Courtyard

White Hill Middle School up in Marin County is the first school to put in polished pervious concrete! WRNS Studio designed it in the main courtyard area between classrooms as well the shaded amphitheater style steps, shown below.

The finishing touches were just getting completed as teachers were prepping classrooms in anticipation of classes starting. It was very exciting!

We were able to get this fantastic design installed with the help of a dedicated team of design professionals. Joel Williams and Pauline Souza from WRNS Studios were invaluable as design advocates for pervious concrete from the beginning of the project. Mike Hastings, from Sherwood Engineering, was the civil on the project, and his collaboration and cooperation on the technical aspects enabled us keep momentum going. We look forward to working with both of these firms in the future, for more pervious concrete projects!!

And here is our favorite shot - a close up of the nice tidy finish, and the subtle color variations in the polished finish the school administrators were looking for.

Photos of the Finished Valley Oak Co-Housing Project

As the landscaping grows in, and the people move in, the pervious concrete hardscapes just get better looking! Check out the below photos for a more updated view of Evolution Paving’s Architectural Fine Pervious Concrete that we placed at the Valley Oaks Co-Housing project in Sonoma.

Tell us what you think!  Do these look like livable hardscapes to you? Honestly, I just want to pet that puppy! :)

Hard to Reach Installations - a backhoe for your hard to reach places?

Have you ever found yourself in a pinch, not getting material to the farthest corner of a pour? Have a backhoe handy? Exactly! See how we did it on a residential pervious pour in the hills of Palo Alto.

Perhaps it wasn’t the most efficient installation technique.....

UC Berkeley's newest path is pervious

The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing has a new home in the Melvin Calvin Laboratory building on UC Berkeley’s campus. And skirting the southwest edge is a new polished pervious concrete path! The next time you find yourself on campus, I hope you bring some water and pour some out on their new pervious path!
This is where the path is adjacent to Optometry Lane.

Sausalito Fairytale: Harrison Park

Harrison Park, a tiny oasis in the residential area of Sausalito boasts one of the only playgrounds in the city, as well as a pervious concrete path!  Take a look around and the next time you are there, check out Harrison Park in the hills of Sausalito!!

Have you been? What do you think?  Let us know in the comments below:

Stormwater Sleuthing - Episode 2 - Palo Alto

David Liguori is back in the field, this time comparing a long sloped asphalt driveway with a neighboring long and sloped pervious concrete driveway during a rainstorm last year.

Here Dave compares 2 sloped driveways in a rainstorm - one asphalt, and one pervious concrete. It is the great runoff comparison!

What did you think? Do you have a Stormwater Sleuthing location (in the Bay Area) that you would like David to investigate the next time it rains? Let us know in the comments below or contact us here. Thanks!

NRMCA Technician Training in Truckee - A Success!

David teaches the NRMCA Pervious Concrete Technician class by the NRMCA local sponsoring group ACI Northern California chapter. The class location was in Truckee, CA and after the class and test, the class went out the TNT Materials Yard for a demonstration pour. We had good pervious pouring weather and great participation! If you would like more information for upcoming NRMCA pervious concrete training classes, go to the ACI website here: www.ACI-NCAWNV.org.

Check out the photos below:

Pervious Patio at the Hyatt Regency SFO

The Hyatt wanted a new look and feel for two areas on either side of a walkway that connected the north entrance and the parking garage. They wanted to rip out the existing plants and replace it with a usable patio space. They also wanted pervious concrete - so they called us!

After we installed the Polished Pervious® concrete, we scored it, completing the look. The Hyatt put out this sleek and modern furniture, turning this previously unusable corner into a nice place to take a break! Below is the larger area, to the east of the pathway.

If you have a before and after job for us, let us know- contact us or leave a comment below!

Stormwater Sleuthing - Episode 1 - Woodside Runoff!

David Liguori went out into the field, during the last rain, to see what the stormwater runoff situation looked like in Woodside, California. Watch the video below to see what did and didn't run off!  

Come with David Liguori of Bay Area Pervious Concrete as he goes into the field, in the rain, to see first hand the issue of stormwater runoff - or lack there of - on pervious concrete versus other impervious hardscapes!

What did you think? Do you have a Stormwater Sleuthing location (in the Bay Area) that you would like David to investigate the next time it rains? Let us know in the comments below or contact us here. Thanks!

I Spy Video on PERVIOUS CONCRETE!

25 objects in just under 3 minutes -> How sharp are your eyes?

We have created an ISPY video on the World's Longest Driveway! Can you find all of the items listed below? Feel free to send this link to the keenest eyes you know. Use the full screen option, to catch all the great details! It took me 3 tries to catch everything - how many did it take you?  A list of the items is below the video.

Items to spy below. We recommend you increase the resolution to 720, otherwise, it is hard to see the details. How many did you catch the first time? How many times did it take for you to find them all? We recommend full screen to catch all the details!

Egg carton, Buzz Lightyear toy, V8 bottle, Clipboard, Rubber rat, Hammer, Talking lizards, Santa hat, Manila envelope, Wall-E figurine, Hackeysack, Tennis shoe, Hardshell glasses case, Blonde doll in a pink dress (polly pocket), Rubber chicken, Stack of CDs, Newspaper, Pliers, Roll of tape, Magnifying glass, Padlock and key, The Lost World paperback book, Stuffed animal monkey, Spray bottle & Bar Simpson doll

How many objects did you catch the first time?

Pervious concrete and trees

How close can you pave to a tree?

Normally, it is inadvisable to pave inside the drip line of a tree. Depending on the size and age of a tree that can be a fairly sizable area. This can be problematic when traffic or use requires paving close to the tree. When traditional impervious pavements are installed near older established trees, it can spell the end of the tree. Is that true of pervious concrete?

It turns out there are two students at Texas A&M are doing this very research! Their recent work reveals pervious concrete does, in fact, enhance the growing conditions of established trees relative to traditional concrete. They poured traditional concrete around a few established trees, pervious concrete around a few established trees and left a few trees with no cover for the control, and measured tree health for a little over a year. The results: the trees surrounded by the pervious concrete had more trunk growth during the year then the trees surrounded by the traditional concrete!

What does this mean for you? The good news is that you can integrate pervious concrete paving into plant friendly parking lots and hardscape design, knowing that you are not compromising tree health. This also may open previously impossible parking or other paving possibilities due to the ability to extend the pervious concrete closer to the tree, well within the drip line. Yes, it can make installation tricky, but it can be done!

The takeaway is that pervious concrete is great for protecting mature trees. As you can see above, our clients think so too!

You can read more about pervious concrete effect on trees and their growth by reading the Texas A&M research paper listed on our Resources page.

2 Symptoms of Failed Pervious Concrete

2 Symptoms of Failed Pervious Concrete - Raveling and Sealing

Recently it has come to our attention that there appears to be a discrepancy in what a high-quality pervious concrete jobs looks like, and what has been passed off as high quality but in fact is not at all quality.

Failed installations have 2 main features: raveling and sealing.

Raveling is when the aggregate comes off of the slab as cement coated gravel. That can be an indication of poor mix design, poor installation technique or even misunderstand the weather's impact on the day of the pour.

Sealing is when the water pools and does not go through. It is possible to have sealing at the top, where it looks blotchy, or just beneath the surface such that the finish looks appropriate but does not drain. This is an indication of poor mix design. An experienced pervious concrete installer understands how critical the proper mix is and works closely with his ready-mix partners to get it right.

As we at BAPC have said before, pervious concrete is a tricky material and only those who are qualified, experienced and show a commitment to ongoing learning about techniques and mix designs are able to install and place pervious concrete with a consistent high quality.

We have created this video, complete with an amazing sound track, to illustrate what failed pervious concrete looks like, and what successful pervious concrete looks like. If you would like us to come out and evaluate your slab, or better yet, if you would like it done well the first time, please contact us.

The GREENEST mix - Pervious Concrete can get GREENER

The Greenest Mix we have ever devised!
Guest post, written by David Liguori

I wanted to give you a quick update on one of the more significant developments we’ve achieved lately.
 
In our continuing quest to further improve the performance of pervious concrete we have developed an “ultra-green” mix design for which we have recently received test data. The mix contains only 245 lbs. of cement, vs. 5-600 lbs. for regular concrete, and 245 lbs. of  supplementary cementitious materials (scm). The scm consists of a combination of fly ash and slag, both industrial waste products.
 
We used this mix this past January on a 2,000 ft. long (by 10’ wide) driveway in Palo Alto(photo above) and 3 months ago on a 5,000 sqft. driveway in Los Altos Hills (photo below). They are both performing quite impressively. Absolutely no surface raveling, all of which typically takes place in the first month or two if it’s going to happen, water infiltration rates of 700-1,200” per hour and compressive strengths above 3,000 psi.
 
As I am sure you know the addition of the scm’s slows down the rate of early strength gains but ultimately results in higher overall strength. In the case of the ultra-green mix our 28 day numbers are in the  2,600 – 2,900 psi range and to our delight the recent 90 day test came in at an outstanding 3,520psi. These type of results and data continue to increase our confidence in pervious concrete as viable long term stormwater management solution.

If you would like more details, contact us here and we will get in touch!

xx

This is the video from the longest (and greenest) pervious concrete driveway in the world!

This residential driveway is the world's longest pervious concrete driveway measuring half a mile long! It was designed and installed by Bay Area Pervious Concrete. If you would like to know more about pervious concrete and how it can absorb the puddles in your driveway, visit us at http://www.bayareaperviousconcrete.com.