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. 

Pervious Concrete Maintenance

All storm water management systems require maintenance. Pervious concrete systems are no exception to this rule, however the maintenance associated with pervious concrete systems is often misunderstood. Without proper education, this misunderstanding can lead to design professionals, or local government officials, unfairly favouring the use of conventional pavement systems.

To put this into prospective, in a recently submitted development proposal, which included the design of our pervious concrete system, we had a local government official state that their only concern with approving a pervious concrete system was that they believed that there was a high risk of future issues if the development was not maintained properly. This was a perceived concern even though a pervious concrete system at a 20% infiltration capacity usually operates at a rate greater than the 100 year storm. While the statement has some merit, to fairly analyze this question both systems must be reviewed.

With a conventional impervious pavement storm water system, maintenance is usually required in the following ways:

• Routine power sweeping of the pavement surface. The frequency of this is dependant on the type of development, however once a year is quite common for most commercial developments.
• Periodic cleaning of catch basins, manholes, and debris / oil interceptors. If these devices are not properly maintained, the system will not function properly or fail causing water backup, ponding, etc. Additionally, where maintenance is absent pollution and debris is often washed into the local waterways.
• Detention tanks, overflow devices, and above ground ponds also require maintenance. Some of the new segmental plastic tanks have rough bottoms and are very difficult to clean without adding manholes, which would then require confined space procedures, or digging up of the system, to rectify.
• Overtime fees for maintenance are a reality during various times of the year, particularly when leaves clog drains, or if manholes are blocked by snow during a snow melt.
• During winter, excessive salting and sanding to deal with a slippery asphalt surfaces is common.
• Repairing asphalt degraded from petroleum products drippings from parked cars is also a major issue, but not directly related to storm water unless the interceptors are not cleaned as noted above.

With a pervious concrete system some of the common maintenance procedures are: (click here for a short video on maintenance procedures)

• Have your landscape maintenance company use their blowers to removed any debris created during their work, or between periods of maintenance. This is very quick and usually of no additional charge.
• Vacuuming of the pavement surface. We recommend that this procedure be done twice a year, once in the spring, and again in the fall. Use a good walk behind vacuum, such as a Parker, which cleans into the pores of the pavement. It also picks up metal with a front end magnet and is powerful enough to pick up other general debris as large as pop cans.
• If there are any possible site design issues, make note of these during the routine vacuuming. If possible make changes to eliminate the issue causing the maintenance, or increase the preventative maintenance frequency for the problem area.
• For areas requiring reparative maintenance, use methods such as high volume low pressure water, or pressure washing.

In summary, there are risks of long term performance with any storm water management system. Is it unfair though to say that the performance of a conventional system is not a concern in the future if an owner refuses to perform routine maintenance, but a pervious concrete system is. Just because the storm water / pollution control issue is not visible to the general public does not mean a potential issue does not exist? This mindset needs to change if we indeed want to positively impact our streams and ecosystems.

We want a storm water system to control the water runoff quantity and rate, as well as keep pollution control in check at all times. A pervious concrete system does this better than any other system on the market today. It does require maintenance, and yes there is a cost to this, but the method and costs are not prohibitive in any way.

Stop Gambling With Your Pervious Concrete

Except for maybe the one week a year that much of the concrete industry is in Vegas for the WOC, there should be no gambling related to concrete. 


With pervious concrete, if you are not starting with a known moisture level in your rock, then you are doing just that and gambling on your resultant product's quality. With an incorrect or unknown moisture level in your aggregate, your aggregate batch weights could be off affecting your yield, and ability to meet a tighter tolerance to design density.


There are several means to check the moisture in your aggregate before batching, but the two simplest and most effective tools presently on the market today are; a speedy moisture meter, or a Micro Lance.


The speedy moisture meter is simply a pressure vessel where a known aggregate mass is added to the vessel with a quantity of reagent. The reagent and aggregate are added and sealed into the container where the moisture in and on the aggregate reacts to the reagent forming a quantity of gas which correlates to the percentage of moisture in the aggregate.

The Micro Lance is a probe that once calibrated (which is quite easy) can be used to measure the percentage of moisture in any aggregate. Each probe can be calibrated for 5 different aggregate types, which is ideal for any testing agency or QC personnel since there are often many different mix designs in the market place and each one has a different aggregate source. The advantage of the Micro Lance is that the readings are nearly instantaneous. The device can be accurately used in 5 gallon buckets of materials, or in large stockpiles. The Micro Lance can also have an extension put on it so it can penetrate deeper into a stockpile. Surprisingly, to me at least, this tool retails at $1,700, which is less expensive than the typical speedy moisture package.


With either of these tools at your disposals you can double down on your bet that your pervious concrete mix will be right on the money. 

Introducing Hidro 600, The Additive for Pervious Concrete

This post has been revised. Click here to visit Sustainable Concrete Additives and learn more about Hidro 600© and how you to can improve your product performance and bottom line.

Cost Analysis - Pervious Concrete vs Asphalt

Every project, new or renovation, have budgets that need to be met in order for them to move forward. Projects that have "green" initiatives, or are trying to achieve LEED standards are of no exception to this. We believe that with pervious concrete on your project you will exceed your requirements for stormwater management, and at the same time have the potential to positively impact your budget.

Asphalt has been around for many years now, and so it is no surprise that developers and contractors are very familiar with how inexpensive asphalt is, as a pavement. What people may or may not be as familiar with is the asphalt system costs. These system costs include all the necessary work and infrastructure below the pavement to sufficiently deal with the given site parameters, stormwater design, and pollution control requirements.

Pervious concrete is rapidly increasing in demand, yet it is relatively new to many in the industry. It is therefore not surprising that many designers, developers, and contractors are not yet familiar with pervious concrete system costs.

In order to shed some light on this subject, we have completed a comparative analysis for a real project, and provide a copy of this analysis for your review. The numbers in this analysis are for the noted local area, and for the period of time also noted. They are derived from a joint effort from SCC and a local well known and practicing civil contractor.

It is our hope that with this information that many of you will consider the system costs when determining and recommending the best stormwater management solution for a project. It is our opinion that in many cases, where stormwater management requires infiltration, detention, or retention, pervious concrete will be your most affordable solution.

Press this link (http://db.tt/FhEFQyZ1) to download a pdf version of the cost analysis.