Pascoe Vale Ultracon Project

Water first, then the finish

Rain moves through Ultracon at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr, straight down into the base rather than across the surface.

The render colour on this Pascoe Vale block was already chosen. What was left was the driveway, and a plain grey slab would have sat against all of that like an afterthought. Ultracon drains the same way and at the same rate as standard Permcon, and it's mostly chosen for how it looks and feels underfoot.

The Ultracon difference

Ultracon is Permcon's finer sibling, run with 2 to 5 mm stone and a permeable resin binder. Underfoot it reads smooth and even. The water still gets through at the same rate, down into the same base of clean screenings used on any Permcon driveway, storing the rain that lands on the slab and releasing it into the ground rather than the stormwater pit.

For this job the colour was matched against the render itself, held up on site rather than picked off a chart, and it's one of the four we offer: plain grey, charcoal, soapstone or sandstone. Once it was down, the driveway stopped competing with the house and started finishing it.

The numbers behind it

A typical driveway profile like this one stores 37 to 42 litres per square metre in the base, released slowly rather than dumped at the kerb in one go. The surface carries a P4 slip rating, so the smooth finish hasn't traded away grip, and the pervious area counts toward what a planning permit for a new build usually asks for. Every driveway we pour, this one included, comes with our 10-year structural warranty.

Deciding between Permcon and Ultracon

We use the same finish on paths, pool surrounds and tree protection zones, wherever the brief calls for something finer than standard Permcon. Have a look at the colours and the close-up texture on the Ultracon page. The right call between the two products gets made on site, with a sample held against the actual house, before the pour truck is booked.