March 5, 2012
From an email response from David, owner of Bay Area Pervious Concrete, www.bayareaperviousconcrete.com:
“To answer your question about paving under the drip line, see the photo below. I bit closer than I would normally care to go but the tree was surrounded that closely by impervious paving before, so it will only do better with pervious. In standard slabs water that gets under the slab tends to stay there for a long time and attracts roots. As you know roots go where the water is; since the water that falls on the pervious is allowed to infiltrate deep into the soil, that’s where the roots will go.
As for swimming pools it’s somewhat of a mixed bag. The standard pervious surface has quite a bit more grip than a troweled concrete surface without having an uncomfortable cheese grater type surface. On the other had we’ve avoided using pervious for backyard applications (patios/pools/paths) due to the fact that it cannot be pumped (to thick) and has a short working time. Not saying it can’t be done, but it gets tricky and drives the cost up.”
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Pervious Paving – What’s that all about?
February 29, 2012
Because of environmental concerns over pollution and excess drainage water impacting the storm drain systems there has been a push by planners to keep rain water and drainage on people’s property rather than flushing it out. This is especially true here in Santa Cruz, Carmel, Monterey, Bonny Doon, and Big Sur. Our local area politicians have brought up maximum impervious surface rules that can seriously reduce the area you can use for patios, pools and hard surfaces. Because of these rules one solution has been to install pervious surfaces that retain ground water, reduce storm drain impacts and look good at the same time.
Pervious Paver Walkway provides Permeable Drainage Surface
Driveways tend to be one of the largest impervious surfaces on a property and can be the main cause of a reduction in patio space. Many municipalities require less than 50% of lot coverage to be impervious and that includes the house itself. On small lots it doesn’t leave much room to do much in terms of patios, pools or out buildings. A growing trend has been to install crushed gravel driveways that create an old world feel while minimizing impervious surfaces. There are interlocking pavers as well as pervious concrete that can also satisfy requirements for non pervious surfaces.
I have also seen some innovative solutions in the use of stone on sand with gravel, industrial fiberglass gratings and walks used as architectural accents and the use of natural stone with planting around it to make a beautiful thing from a tricky problem.
The adage I have always returned to is “Accentuate the Problem” rather than hide it. If you have an erosion control problem, make that the primary visual feature of your landscape. If you happen to have a boggy area in your yard that you are trying to figure out how and where to drain it to, plant bog plants and make it into a real bog. You can bring in frogs and salamanders and even re-circulate water to create a water feature.
We make an ordinary drainage ditch in front of our office look GOOD !!!
We use native grasses and water loving plants to help retain the pervious nature of the surrounding landscape.
We all must learn to make lemonade from the lemons we have over loading our systems. If you have serious erosion control issues that require storm drains, walls with drainage behind them, these require more typical solutions of storm drains, culverts and drain pipes. For water retention there are countless solutions that can be both practical and beautiful to look at. Let us examine your property and accentuate the solution.
Erosion Control that WORKS !!!
February 28, 2012
So often, erosion control solutions for hillsides simply fail, despite considerable time, effort, and monetary investment to the contrary. Common failures include: poorly channeled water run-off; improperly supported retention devices such as walls, boulders, or other soil barriers; inattention to address the true source of hillside saturation; lack of diversionary water channels and targeted drainage; etc etc. Also, more often than not, those so called “easy erosion methods” may actually cause more harm than good simply by creating wind barriers and rain catchment basins that formerly did not exist beforehand. A classic common example of good intentions gone bad are the well-meaning but horribly executed wooden terrace retaining wall placed on steep hillsides. These walls often do little more than provide a vertical surface to catch the rain, and a wonderful flat area to absorb the rain. The result: complete hillside failure. Oops.
There is, however, one method (among many others I’m sure) that has proven, for us here in Monterey Bay, to be remarkably effective and extremely economical: native grasses, erosion control that works! Ask any local biologist or ecologist and you will undoubtedly hear about native dune plants to stabilize blowing sands across our freeways, contractors and developers praising the low cost and favorable results from native grasslands protecting expensive properties, State Parks personnel protecting planted areas, and not to mention making more than a few critters quite happy with their new homes.
Native grasses are, well, perfectly suited to our local environment because they’re, well, native. There’s really no other way to say it. They are very deep rooted, which serves to anchor erosion control hillsides far more effectively than a shallow retaining wall or a few drift fences. Native grasses are quite acclimatized to our drought cycles here in Santa Cruz, Carmel, Monterey, or Big Sur, so once established they need little if any continual watering to thrive year round. And hey, they look great!
Erosion Control that WORKS !!!
The Service Industry is Ready to Serve YOU !!!
March 8, 2011
The Service Industry is ready to serve you. The Service Industry wants to serve you. Please, let us serve you!
Where are the people we are ready to serve? As a society and community we are interconnected and rely on each other for pretty much everything, that is, until we decide we can get by on less. We really don’t need to buy that latte, or have our car washed or go out to dinner or have a gardener take care of our yard. All of those things we can easily do ourselves or do without and we can convince our friends and neighbors that being frugal is cool. But when everyone you know decides they can wait 5 years to replace the old couch, that is when you notice the furniture store you always liked is no longer in business.
It is important to live within your means and to not over extend yourself when the economy looks a bit fuzzy. But, if you still have that good job and that great house you’re so happy you bought when you did, how long should you wait to fix the fence or put in the patio in the back yard for those summer parties you’ve dreamed about? My contention is “ If you can afford it – do that project now”.
People in the service industry and contractors in particular are working on as little profit margin as they can possibly get away with. If you have made it this far through the recession you know how low you can go before you have to rely on savings to finish the job because you have likely run out of savings working for less than you can afford already. Contractors who do good work will continue to do good work – right now, however, they simply have to do good work for less profit. This is a boon to anyone who realizes that they either don’t have the time to build that patio, BarBQ and firepit or knows that they will not be able to do the work themselves to their own high standards.
So, we are all in this community together and we need each other. Doing less and being frugal is noble but remember every time you hire someone to work for you there is a ripple effect of benefits that spreads a long way around you. Your generosity not only benefits yourself in an improved lifestyle it improves the lifestyle of everyone your decision to better your surroundings affects. Come on out of your shell and hire someone! We all want to serve and are ready to go.