Pervious Concrete VI

Last weeks blog covered a recent pervious concrete seminar and demonstration hosted by contractor-client, The Bazella Group of Allentown, PA.  This weeks blog will discuss some of the different surface finish methods used for the pervious concrete samples.

Compressor Finisher

Compressor finish is a relatively  new surface-finish method for pervious using a non-weighted pan machine, developed by Dave Mitchell of Bunyan Industries.  Immediately after the roller-screed pass for leveling, the non-weighted pan is floated several times across the surface, and provides a relatively dense yet still pervious surface.  Though John Bazella is currently doing trials with a conventional motor-mounted pan mixer, the Bunyan version used an off-machine compressor for power, and the long handled-pan allows the operator to finish without walking on the new surface.  The compressor also powers the roller-screed used for initial strike-off.

Pan-Finish

Pan-finish uses a non-weighted pan method leaves a fairly closed and level surface, almost resembling a base-course asphalt mix, and eliminates hand-troweling except for slab edging.  Low spots are easily filled in with additional fresh mix panned in, and high spots are quickly leveled by the low-rpm pan.

Bean Oil

Bean Oil is immediately used after panning, a light coat is applied by sprayer as a moisture stabilizer for the surface.  This is an eco-friendly soybean-based light oil that has universal uses.

Plastic Cover

Plastic sheeting is immediately placed over the concrete and generally left in place for 7 days.  The entire process from truck chute to roller-screed to finish, spray, and cover, is typically only about 15 minutes – a far cry from waiting for conventional slabs to gel, bleed, finish, etc.

For more information, please visit: www.forta-ferro.com

Pervious Concrete V

FERRO-GREEN® Pervious Mix

FORTA® was recently invited to speak at, and participate in, a pervious concrete seminar and demonstration by contractor-client The Bazella Group of Allentown, PA.  The 2-day event was attended by approximately 30 owners, specifiers, and water-management government officials to learn more about the basics of pervious concrete.  The Bazella current focus is to re-educate project candidates from the old, cumbersome, and poorly-performing pervious mixes of yester-year, and provide more advanced design and practice ideas that result in a much more durable and tougher in-place pervious pavement. 

The seminar began with a Pennsylvania Aggregates and Concrete Association (PACA)-sanctioned pervious certification class and test for several contractor personnel, led by Bruce Cody who has become a statewide association resource and expert in pervious concrete.  Presentations also included topics such as available government grant funding for sustainable projects, basic pervious design and concepts, evolution of pervious mixes and placement practices, colored and resin overlays for decorative pervious, and enhancements to toughness and freeze/thaw durability courtesy of macro synthetic fibers. After the presentations, attendees were able to witness 2-days of pervious concrete placements and demonstrations, all of which contained 5 lbs/cu yd of FERRO-GREEN® 2 ¼” fiber. 

The Bazella Group consists of 2 brothers – Justin who runs the Allentown division of approximately 150 employees, and John who operates a smaller group from Greensburg, PA.  Both groups focus on decorative concrete applications, and have become experts in the practice and placement of pervious concrete as well.  They are convinced that the use of a medium dosage of FERRO-GREEN® will solve all durability problems of the past with pervious concrete, and allow its use to grow exponentially as a result.

Over the course of 2 days, the ‘experts’ (program speakers) placed 14 cubic yards of FRP in formed pads, some of which were to be retained and stored for future client use.  Attendees could take away samples of the FRP for their reference.

Berks Products supplied the mix as prescribed by Bazella, and their sales and Quality Control staff observed to compare to their standard pervious mixes.  They were impressed with the ease-of-discharge for this mix, as well as the uniform mixing and distribution of the high-dosage fibers.  

For these trial FORTA® mixes, the fiber was added on the aggregate belt into the central batch for the first load, and added at the tail-end of the truck for the second load.  In both cases, the fiber mixed well and distributed throughout with no evidence of balling. The fiber used was FERRO-GREEN® mix. Even with the sharp long aggregate, the 2 ¼” fiber mixed quickly and uniformly throughout, and sufficient paste was available to coat all of the fibers.

Please stay tuned in during the month of May for weekly updates on the project trials that resulted from this educational seminar.

For more information, please visit:www.forta-ferro.com