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Posted

This is a newly constructed home. Hopefully the pic does it justice but those are individual concrete blocks/pavers. The grass has taken over. Is "pavers" the right term for these? Entire driveway was covered with these.

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Posted

Permeable pavers here.

They're all over China. We're going to be seeing more and more of them; they're a smart alternative to hardscaping everything and having to engineer drainage.

Posted

Believe it or not, they've been around for quite some time. I installed them for the first time at a Magnavox plant outside of Wahington DC., in the mid-eighties.

Their original intent was to be a nice way to have over-flow parking, without suffering devastation of a lawn during the intermittent times that it became a parking lot.

They are perfectly flat and as smooth as any concrete masonry unit, so they actually can be shoveled or plowed, without too much consequence. The voids, that turf grow up through are only a few inches, so it's pretty hard to catch an edge, as long as the shovel or plow blade is pretty flat and wide.

Posted

I first saw them in Germany nearly 30 years ago; they're nothing new. In Europe yards are so small with some tract homes that this is a way to park the car on the "lawn" without damaging the lawn.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

I first saw them in Germany nearly 30 years ago; they're nothing new. In Europe yards are so small with some tract homes that this is a way to park the car on the "lawn" without damaging the lawn.

I first saw them here about 20 years ago when my friend, Brad, put them in the overflow parking area near his orchard. (He makes hard cider.) I remember thinking that the idea was absolutely brilliant, but I promptly forgot all about it (too much cider) until I saw this thread.

On the subject of "perviosity," a project that I recently worked on used "pervious asphalt" for its parking lot. I'd never heard of it before. They put down 18" of rock and placed one lift of pervious asphalt on top. It's the dangdest stuff. It looks just like regular asphalt, but no matter how hard it rains, the rain just soaks through the asphalt - no rivulets, puddles, or anything.

Posted

The whole process was new to me, but very well thought out. The base was gravel covered by a layer of crusher run, which was all compacted with a plate tamper. Then, the pavers were laid into place - no worries regarding getting them to the perfect height because the entire installed system received three passes with a plate tamper. A few pieces would break during that process needing to be replaced. Finally, they came behind us and filled in the voides, to within about an inch of the top with soil and seed, and presto! It was the first part of a three phased project, and the pavers never settled or bbubuckled. It was pretty cool.

Posted

I first saw them in Germany nearly 30 years ago; they're nothing new. In Europe yards are so small with some tract homes that this is a way to park the car on the "lawn" without damaging the lawn.

I first saw them here about 20 years ago when my friend, Brad, put them in the overflow parking area near his orchard. (He makes hard cider.) I remember thinking that the idea was absolutely brilliant, but I promptly forgot all about it (too much cider) until I saw this thread.

On the subject of "perviosity," a project that I recently worked on used "pervious asphalt" for its parking lot. I'd never heard of it before. They put down 18" of rock and placed one lift of pervious asphalt on top. It's the dangdest stuff. It looks just like regular asphalt, but no matter how hard it rains, the rain just soaks through the asphalt - no rivulets, puddles, or anything.

Stormwater runoff is a big source of sedimentary pollution of waterways. In our state planners are slowly catching on and requiring stormwater engineering for developments that create X amount of new impervious area. Slowing down runoff also keeps groundwater from dissipating as quickly.

Posted
On the subject of "perviosity," a project that I recently worked on used "pervious asphalt" for its parking lot. I'd never heard of it before. They put down 18" of rock and placed one lift of pervious asphalt on top. It's the dangdest stuff. It looks just like regular asphalt, but no matter how hard it rains, the rain just soaks through the asphalt - no rivulets, puddles, or anything.

They're doing the same thing with concrete too.

http://www.mandalaconcrete.com/perviousconcrete.htm

Posted
They're doing the same thing with concrete too.

http://www.mandalaconcrete.com/perviousconcrete.htm

The one project I've seen with pervious concrete looked like pea gravel held together with cement paste, but little sand. It's been in for about 10 or 12 years now, and definitely shows some surface degradation. I can't imagine that it will have as long of a service life as traditional concrete, particularly with freeze-thaw effects.

Posted

At the IBS last year there was a resin based system that worked with aggregate ranging from coarse sand to brick pavers. It was pretty cool, except that it initially made everything look like it was made of plastic.

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