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Home / Capabilities / Permeable Concrete Driveways
Permeable Concrete Driveways.
Rain goes down through the slab where it falls, instead of racing to the kerb. Many councils count a Permcon driveway toward the permeable area on your permit.
Prefer to talk? Call 1300 010 499
Check your site first
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 4
What is the ground like?
A rough answer is fine. We confirm it on site.
Permcon™ is Australian made. Designed at our Mitcham factory, mixed with Boral Concrete and poured by our own crewsAbout our manufacturingWhat a permeable concrete driveway gives you
Start with how it looks. Standard Permcon shows its stone, 7 mm in Victoria and 10 mm in other states, in plain grey, charcoal, soapstone or sandstone. For a smoother surface, Ultracon uses a much finer stone with a permeable resin.
Colours and finish, then the part you drive on
Under the colour is 125 mm of 25+ MPa concrete, poured as one continuous surface. Pavers lift and grow weeds in the gaps; a slab without joints has nothing to lift. It holds a P4 slip rating and a design life in excess of 30 years. A 10-year structural warranty covers it.
We leave the fines out, which turns 20 to 25 per cent of the slab into connected voids. Rain passes through at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr. Below sits a base of clean screenings that holds the water, and it either soaks away or leaves through an under-drain.
That's why it can count toward permeable area and why it cuts the pits, pipes and detention a sealed driveway drags in. Victoria's Clause 55 guidance names pervious driveways; many councils elsewhere treat them the same way.
Shared driveways for builders
Victorian Government housing runs a Permcon shared-driveway detail across its programme, and it's the job we pour most. That's hundreds of homes a year through most of its panel builders, all on one slab and base detail and one set of drawings. When a permit comes with a permeable-area condition, email the plan and we'll return a profile and a figure. Your engineer can check the data on our technical page.
Why choose Permcon™?
Built like a drivewayOne continuous 125 mm surface at 25+ MPa, without a single joint. A 10-year structural warranty covers it if it fails.
Rain drains straight throughRain disappears through the surface at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr into the stone base, so nothing collects where you park.
Council permeable-area creditOur infiltration and storage figures, in writing, for your planner or drainage engineer.
Coloured stone or a smooth finishCharcoal, sandstone, soapstone or plain grey, or smoother Ultracon.
Permeable Concrete Driveways gallery
Driveway questions we get asked
Does a permeable driveway count toward council's permeable area?
Clause 55 guidance names pervious driveways in Victoria, and councils elsewhere often accept one under their own stormwater controls. The decision belongs to your planner or drainage engineer, so we give them our infiltration and storage numbers on paper. Never a promised approval.
How is it different from a normal concrete driveway?
Normal concrete is sealed. Every drop gets pushed across it to a grate or the kerb, and in a heavy storm that's often your garage. With the fines left out, ours drains straight down through the voids described above. Strength-wise it's the same structural concrete, one surface, no joints.
What does a permeable concrete driveway cost?
Your soil is the biggest variable, because the base underneath does most of the work and its depth follows the ground. After that come area, access, what has to be removed and the finish. We price per site; see what moves the cost for the detail. The real number comes once we've stood on it.
Will leaves and dirt clog it over time?
It will if nobody looks after it. Once a month, glance at it after rain and check it's clear of leaves and draining. A yearly sweep covers most driveways. If the voids start filling, wash the surface and they open again.
What about a caravan or boat parked long term?
That comes down to slab thickness. Just tell us at the site visit: a van sitting still for months isn't the same load as a car that comes and goes. Every job gets the same mix. For heavier vehicles we go thicker, and a 175 mm slab carries an estimated 11.3 t axle load.
How is a permeable driveway priced?
The ground under your driveway moves the price more than the slab on top of it, which is why we quote after a site visit. Base depth changes from block to block, and depth costs money. Size counts too. So does truck access, and whether an old slab has to be jackhammered out and carted off before we start. Next to traditional permeable pavers, Permcon goes in up to 70 per cent faster, and the overall project usually costs less. Send an address and rough size for a real number.
Is a permeable concrete driveway strong enough for a ute?
Yes, with a loaded trailer on the back as well. Permcon is 25+ MPa concrete, poured over a base of clean screenings. The standard thickness is 125 mm thick and at that thickness it gets used for almost every application. The car parks we pour use that same mix, and where loads go up we go thicker rather than change it. A 10-year structural warranty covers the slab; terms and conditions apply.
Does a permeable driveway have to be grey, or can it match the house?
No, grey is only one of them. Permcon also comes in charcoal, soapstone and sandstone. Its stone is 7 mm in Victoria and 10 mm in every other state; Ultracon uses a much finer stone for a smoother finish. Tell us the look you're after when you enquire and we'll match a finish to it.
Under the slab during a downpour
Water heads down, into the screenings, and the base stores it. A driveway profile typically holds between 37 litres and 42 litres per square metre. Sandy ground drinks it. Clay holds it in the base while an under-drain lets it out slowly, which is usually what the council's stormwater engineer is after. We're always happy to look and review and go through it with a client.
How it runs
Site visit to first sweep
01
Walk the site
Standing on your driveway, we look at what you park there, the fall, whether a truck fits past the letterbox, the soil, where water runs today and what council has asked for. Slab, base and figure follow from that.
02
Base
The old concrete or pavers come out. In goes a clean screenings base, compacted as deep as your soil and storage target demand, with an under-drain wherever the ground won't take water.
03
Pour day
Truck in. The mix goes down in one continuous run. Crews place 500 m² and more in a day, so your driveway is almost always done in one visit.
04
Cure, then keys
It stays covered while it cures and we finish the edges and thresholds. Then you get the drive-on date, along with the maintenance schedule and the warranty in writing.
Driveways we've poured
Early Learning Centre, Warwick
A council job in Warwick: light-coloured Ultracon poured around an Early Learning Centre's existing cubby houses, sandstone blocks and garden beds to make a permeable play area.
Permcon Garage Driveway
A grey Permcon driveway runs up to a brown garage door, with a mulched garden bed and timber posts along the side.
Driveway for Residential Units
Ferns and red-leaved planting mark the bend where this dark grey Ultracon driveway curves past shared garages, its edges softened by garden beds.
Housing Unit Car Park
Wheel stops in yellow and black, bays marked in white, a wide aisle: a dark grey Ultracon permeable car park for housing units in front of black-and-white-clad townhouses.
Residential Driveway Project
Split down the middle by a black timber fence, two plain grey permeable parking pads front a contemporary home and finish at garden beds on each side.
Get someone standing on your driveway
Permcon is Australian made, and we design it and put it down with our own crews under ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. If you're parking a van or boat there, mention it when you call.