Teamwork on a Melbourne Permeable Driveway Pour

Why Melbourne keeps asking for permeable driveways

Council officers assessing a Melbourne permit now run stormwater through BlueFactor, the tool that replaced STORM. A permeable driveway can count toward the pervious area of the block, where the designer and council accept it. On an older street with tired drains, that single detail can be the difference between a straightforward approval and a detention tank dug into the front garden. Rain's been falling harder across Melbourne lately.

What we poured

Permcon. Standard 125 mm, over a base of clean screenings. One continuous surface. No joints to rock loose or spread. Water passes through the slab at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr, straight into the base, which stores it and lets it soak away rather than sheeting it off to the kerb. Even from the footpath. No dip waiting to hold a puddle after the next storm.

What a Melbourne permeable driveway pour needs on the day

A standard slab forgives a truck that's running behind schedule. A permeable pour won't. The finish has to protect a surface built to let water through, not shed it. That single fact changes how the whole day is run: the base goes down and gets compacted before the first truck is even booked, because that's where the water ends up once it's through the slab. Deliveries are timed so each load is placed and finished before the next lands. The finishing crew works right behind the pour, truing the surface without sealing the voids that make it work. Access, deliveries and trades get planned as one sequence, not staggered.

On site last month

Everyone had a job and did it at the same time as everyone else.

When the base, the concrete and the crew all land on time, the slab drains from the day it cures and reads as one surface from the street. Thanks to everyone who turned up for this one.

For a driveway or path in Melbourne, start with our permeable concrete Melbourne page, then get in touch so we can look at the block. We'll quote once we've seen it.