A Positive Step Forward in Richmond

Presently there are a select group of people, corporations, and government officials that, despite the lack of local regulations for low impact development designs, are genuinely concerned about how to meet a community's ongoing needs for growth while minimizing any negative impact to the surrounding environment and ecosystem. 

SCC has had the pleasure of working together with a local developer, designer, and general contractor that shares our thoughts and concerns and chose to use SCC's Epave pervious concrete to make a difference on their project. 

You too can make a positive difference to your community's environment by specifying or using Epave products.  Low impact development is real, affordable, and necessary process that we hope others will also support with greater urgency now and in the future.

Call SCC today to find out how Epave products can help you and your project deal with stormwater runoff and pollution control that other systems can not.

If you are in a community outside of Canada call us to see how you can purchase and use Hidro 600 in your mix designs to take your pervious concrete to an equal level to that of Epave.

Click here to download a copy of the project sheet

Cementech Volumetric Mixers & Hidro 600

Until now, pervious concrete has been difficult to create using volumetric mixers. The pervious concrete created using these mixers typically contains no additives resulting in a mix that is difficult to handle, has very little working time, reduced permeability, and is often not very strong.

Hidro 600 - The Additive For Pervious Concrete

Using a Cementech volumetric mixer along with the addition of Hidro 600, the additive for pervious concrete, a premium pervious concrete is now easily created which rivals that typically created using ready mix.

Robust Paste Promotes Paste Bridging

This "no panic" pervious was recently demonstrated at the 2013 World of Concrete in Las Vegas where a small pad of Hidro 600 pervious concrete was placed & finished, but left uncovered in the hot dry weather. Though we recommend placing poly over all Hidro 600 pervious concrete to provide the greatest product hydration and resultant strength possible, we believe this clearly demonstrated the fact that there is no panic anymore to cover Hidro 600 pervious concrete.

Fresh Concrete, No Poly, No Indentations!

Yet another resultant of Hidro 600 in pervious concrete is its ability to consolidate quickly and provide high early strength. This characteristic was demonstrated by allowing people to walk on the fresh concrete only minutes after consolidating & finishing the demonstration slab. No indentations were made in the fresh concrete.

1 Day Old Hidro 600 Pervious Concrete

The high early strength characteristic achieved by using Hidro 600 was further proven the following day when a fully loaded Cementech truck drove over the newly created pad from the day before without creating even a single crack.





Contact us today to learn more about Hidro 600, or to place your order. With Hidro 600, your volumetric mixer is capable of creating unrivalled quality pervious concrete.

The Vibrating Fresno - A New Pervious Concrete Tool

With the development of new products such as Hidro 600, often it is necessary to develop new tools and techniques to adapt and make the installation of these products more efficient or effective.

One new tool that has quickly become an integral part of our installation success is a vibrating blue steel fresno. This fresno device is a final finishing tool, which provides both vibration and compaction. This combination has improved our product finish, installation speed, and product performance.


The unit consists of a typical 12" x 48" blue steel fresno, on top of which a vibratory unit (invented by Lura Enterprises) is mounted. 

The vibratory unit is run off of battery power making it extremely manoeuvrable.





With the addition of this single tool you can ensure that your pervious concrete will be some of the flattest and most durable available on the market.

Hidro 600 & the vibratory fresno, a new standard for pervious concrete.

Contact us today to place an order for this revolutionary new product.

Epave - The Name For Quality Pervious Concrete

This post has been changed. To learn more about epave click here.

Pervious Concrete - Elevate Your Thinking

The Market at the Quay

Pervious concrete has been well established in slab on grade applications such as parking lots, pathways, sidewalks, driveways, and patios, but have you ever considered using pervious concrete on a second floor, or a roof?

Sustainable Concrete Canada is always challenged with new innovative applications for pervious concrete. Placing pervious concrete on a second floor, or roof, is an applications that is quickly gaining in popularity. With Hidro 600 in your pervious concrete you can successfully meet any desire for elevated pervious concrete.

Pervious Concrete Over Drainage Board

Presently the two most common conventional construction products used for second floor patio applications are paving stones and conventional concrete.  With these traditional materials the non pervious surface must be sloped to a surface drain, or for some paving stones the surface can be level, but the bottoms of the pavers must be shimmed to accommodate the sloped structure below which is quite labour intensive.

With both pavers & conventional concrete it is common for there to be a height differential at a doorway threshold, between the interior and exterior slabs, to ensure water ingression does not occur. With pervious concrete the two slabs can now be completely flush. Using a pervious concrete slab can therefore make any patio completely ADA accessible (handicap accessible).

Surrey Memorial Hospital

The following benefits can be realized with the use of pervious concrete on a second floor or roof:

• due to the reduced density of pervious concrete (approx. 20% reduction) there is a dead load reduction on the structure.
• there is no longer a need to slope the surface eliminating surface ponding and other elevation related issues. 
• Any patio furniture will sit level, such as in a commercial application like a restaurant. This will likely allow the landlord to get a higher lease rate for more net usable space, and the tenant more profit through the ability to have more table space and ultimately more customers.
• For a roof application you can use pervious concrete as a membrane ballast. With various techniques you can improve your SRI value for the roof. With PCC (noted below) you can choose the SRI value you wish to target.

Pervious Concrete & PCC

With the use of our PCC (Pervious Colour Coatings) product you can also add colour to any design to meet even the most artistic designer's imaginations.

The typical pervious concrete system section for an elevated application varies based upon the building / occupant usage below the elevated structure, but it typically consists of:

1. Elevated structure (Steel or Concrete)
2. Waterproof membrane
3. Insulation (where required)
4. Drainage board
5. Pervious concrete. 

Click here to see a short instructional video on this topic. Call us today to see how SCC and Hidro 600 can make your pervious concrete project a success.

Glasswing Going for Gold in Kelowna

For those of you in the construction industry, by now you are well aware of the name LEED and the standards that they recognize for excellence. For those of you unfamiliar though, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is intended to provide building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations, and maintenance solutions.

Download Project Sheet

For one particular design firm, Architecturally Distinct Solutions (ADS) from Kelowna BC, their desire has been to create a home that will set a new standard for their area with their goal being to achieve LEED Gold. This particular home / project has been named the "Glasswing".

The Glasswing residential project was a unique opportunity for Sustainable Concrete Canada to directly contribute to the commendable goal of obtaining LEED Gold through the supply and installation of our pervious concrete. All the concrete was created using our proprietary additive Hidro 600.

The project sheet (shown on the right) outlines some of the facts about this project, as well as some of the unique project details. You can also see a quick promotional video about this project on our YouTube channel by clicking here.

Congratulations also to OK builders as this was their first pervious concrete project with SCC in the area. Their commitment to quality and service is unrivalled. Anyone in the Okanagan area will benefit from the same level of quality and professionalism on their project. Use the team of OK builders and Sustainable Concrete Canada for your pervious concrete project in the Okanagan.

Read more about the Glasswing project on the Fortis BC website or the Architecturally Distinct Facebook Page

Hidro 600 - The Difference is in the Paste

In the world of concrete, paste is created by combining water with cement (or supplementary cementitious materials). For pervious concrete, paste is critical to the success of the product.

Flow Cone - Conventional Mix

Pervious concrete mix designs are very different from conventional mix designs because water alone is not the answer. Conventional concrete mix designs are "water first" and aided or improved with the addition of additives. Pervious concrete mix designs are "additives first" and water second. If you have ever experienced a mix that is setting up too fast or getting too "hot & and sticky" to discharge out of the truck properly, you know the addition of water will not save the load.

Flow Cone - Hidro 600 Mix

The Hidro 600 Paste Binds Superbly to Any Aggregate

For pervious concrete, the paste needs to be fluid enough to mix easily, coat your aggregate, adequately, hydrate the cement particles, and provide the workability needed for quick discharge and placement.  It is impossible to gain all the previously mentioned attributes with just water alone. Additives are essential to achieve an optimal mix. To aid in creating a good performing paste, many additives have been tried and used (see picture above for a conventional mix design paste consistency). However, until Hidro 600 no single additive has successfully provided all the characteristics necessary to create a pervious concrete product that performs to a level needed by industry.

Hidro 600, without the aid of other additives, creates a paste that easily coats, yet binds superbly to any aggregate. The fluidity of the paste ensures complete hydration of each cement particle and allows for; thorough and complete mixing, easy discharge, and excellent workability during placement. Hidro 600 also works in all climate conditions without changing dosage rates.

Click here to see a short video that demonstrates the new and revolutionary properties of a mix containing Hidro 600, or Click here to visit Sustainable Concrete Additives and learn more.