Area
On a wide car park pour the truck and crew costs spread thin; on a narrow side path they don't.
Permeable concrete cost
Permeable Concrete Cost, Worked Out on Your Site
We don't publish a permeable concrete cost per square metre, and that's deliberate. What's under your slab shifts the figure more than the slab itself. Here's what sets your price.
Prefer to talk? Call 1300 010 499
Permeable concrete cost starts in the dirt
Rain goes through a Permcon slab at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr, so the slab is rarely the hold-up. The base of clean screenings underneath is what matters: it holds the water until the soil below can take it. Sand drinks fast and gets by on a shallow base. Clay is slow, which means a deeper base and sometimes a slotted pipe to let the water out.
That's why our estimator walks straight past your old driveway to the dirt beside it, then checks the fall of the block and where a truck could park. Two same-size driveways on one street can price well apart. We look first and quote second. We're always happy to look and review and go through it with a client.
Eight things that move the figure
Truck access
If the agitator can back right up to the boxing it's quick, but a tight side gate brings in a pump or barrows.
What has to come out first
Lawn or an old slab gets dug out and trucked away before the first load of screenings arrives.
Your soil and the base depth
On sand a shallow screenings base does the job, while clay holds water and pushes the dig deeper.
An under-drain, if needed
Slow-draining ground gets a slotted pipe laid through the base to carry water away.
Slab thickness
Most driveways sit at 125 mm, and a lane that takes a bin lorry or a caravan is poured thicker.
Finish and colour
It comes in plain grey, charcoal, soapstone or sandstone, with Permcon's open texture or Ultracon's smoother face.
Staging and distance
One trip costs less than three, and a site well past the last servo carries the crew's travel.
Enquire now
Tell us about your project
Tell us where the site is and what you're planning. An estimator from your state team will call you back, look at the site with you and give you a real figure, from a single driveway to a council car park.
📞Call us1300 010 499✉️Email us[email protected]
📍Head officeFactory 7, 25-39 Cook Road, Mitcham VIC 3132
What a Permcon quote includes
You get one figure, and it comes from the people who make Permcon and the crews who lay it. Behind it sits a slab and base drawn up for your site. The heaviest vehicle that will use it decides the thickness. Your soil and the council's water conditions decide the base depth, and engineers can check the design data on our technical page.
- A compacted base of clean screenings, with an under-drain where the ground calls for one.
- The pour by our own crews, laid as one continuous surface.
- A 10-year structural warranty: if the slab fails structurally, we assess it on site and replace the failed section (terms and conditions apply).
- A written maintenance schedule that says what to check and when.
Where the money comes back
Against a sealed slab, the saving sits next to the driveway. Water off plain concrete has to be caught and piped away: pits, grates, a pipe run out to the kerb and, on plenty of sites, a detention tank buried under the lawn. Let the rain drain where it lands and that list shrinks, sometimes to nothing.
Traditional permeable paving is the other comparison. By our own numbers the whole project comes in lower with Permcon and the install is quicker, because a single pour goes down faster than a surface built paver by paver.
Upkeep is where the rest comes back, since there are no units to re-level and no joints to re-sand. A walk over it each month and a sweep once a year keep it draining through a design life of more than 30 years.
Permeable concrete against pavers and a plain slab
Pavers first. With permeable pavers the money goes on labour, since each unit is bedded and jointed by hand and a few get lifted and relaid when they sink. Ours is one visit and then a broom. There's a side-by-side with pavers if you want every line.
A plain slab usually costs less to pour. It sheds every drop, though, and its drainage gets built alongside on a separate bill, so put the slab and that bill together before you compare. For what goes into a home job, see permeable concrete driveways.
From enquiry to figure
How to get a real number
01
Send us the basics
Send the address and rough size, with a photo or a plan attached.
02
An estimator rings you
Your state's team rings back with two questions: what drives on it, and what has your council asked for?
03
We walk the site
Soil, fall, truck access and where the water goes now, all checked on the day.
04
You get one figure
It's a price for your address, with the slab thickness and base depth written beside it.
Cost questions people ask us
Is permeable concrete dearer than a normal concrete driveway?+
On the slab alone, usually. Add the pits and pipe a sealed driveway needs beside it, and sometimes a tank, and the gap closes up (the savings section above has the detail). The site visit shows where yours lands.
Why don't you put a price online?+
Any number we printed would be wrong for most people reading it. The ground under the slab swings the job too far for that, as the top of this page explains, and a price that ignores the ground is only a guess.
What makes it cheaper or dearer on my block?+
Cheaper: a wide open area, a truck backing straight up to it, sandy ground, nothing to break out. Dearer: a tight side gate, an old slab to lift, clay that needs a deeper base, and heavy vehicles that want a thicker slab.
Does council paperwork add to the cost?+
More often it saves money. Where your council accepts it, a permeable driveway can count toward a permit's permeable-area or storage condition, which can shrink the tank or remove it. Permcon is MUSIC certified, a big factor in Queensland, and our figures go to the council's engineer in writing.
Put a real number on your block
Permcon is designed and poured by one team. Book the site visit and get a figure for your block instead of a guess.
Not sure it suits your block
Check if permeable concrete suits your site
A few quick questions about your site. You get a straight answer about whether permeable concrete is the right call, including when it isn't, before anyone asks for your details.
Site check · 1 of 5