Permeable concrete in Western Australia

Perth sits on sand, and sand takes water. That's the first thing we tell anyone who calls about permeable concrete in Western Australia: across most of the metro area, the ground drains faster than the rain that falls on it. Perth homeowners have known this for decades, which is why roof and hardstand runoff on most blocks goes into a soakwell rather than out to the street.

A Permcon surface works with that arrangement instead of against it. Rain passes through the slab into a bed of clean screenings, then on into the sand beneath, on the same footprint as the paving itself.

Once the pavement itself is permeable, the area it covers stops counting as catchment. Less runoff reaching the soakwell means the soakwell serving that area can often be smaller. How far that goes depends on the ground and the fall on your block. That's what the site visit is for. Our soakwells and permeable concrete page goes through how the base does the storing.

Where the ground is slower

Not every WA site is coastal plain sand. There are clay pockets in the hills, cemented layers sitting under the topsoil, and a high winter watertable in parts of the metro area. Each of those changes the base design. Where the ground won't take water quickly, screenings under the slab store it and an under-drain releases it at a controlled rate. The base is where the local engineering actually happens, and we don't guess it.

What we do in WA

This is what pouring permeable concrete in Western Australia looks like day to day: driveways, car parks, footpaths, pool surrounds and paths through tree protection zones, ranging from a single suburban driveway to a commercial hardstand. The mix uses 10 mm aggregate, the same as every state outside Victoria, and the standard slab is 125 mm. Surface infiltration sits at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr, so a Perth downpour goes straight through instead of pooling at the garage door or sheeting across a path.

It comes in plain grey, charcoal, soapstone and sandstone. It's the same product we pour right across the country, including at Wa-Karroong, the Indigenous housing partnership we're part of. For more on Perth sites specifically, see our permeable concrete Perth page; for base profiles, void content and the loading chart engineers and drainage consultants ask for, there's the technical data page.

How a Perth job runs

Send us the address, the area and what the surface needs to do, and an estimator from the WA team calls you back. They'll ask the questions that matter: fall, truck access, what's under the existing surface, and where the soakwells sit now. Then they come out and look at the site.

From there you get a real figure for the slab and the base together, worked out from the ground rather than off a plan. Our crews pour it as one continuous surface with no joints. It carries a 10-year structural warranty.

Maybe you're weighing up soakwells against a surface that drains itself. Maybe you've already got a plan calling for a permeable driveway in Perth. Either way, send us the details and the WA team will call you back.