Carrera Construction

Carrera Construction in Watsonville, Calif., is leading the pervious concrete revolution, thanks to the company's owner, Steve Carrera. Once a fireman doing the occasional decorative concrete side job, Carrera is now regularly doing decorative concrete work on multi-million-dollar homes, his primary product is pervious concrete and Carrera laughingly admits that Carrera Construction is now known as the pervious concrete guys.

Ironically, Carrera was at first reluctant to embrace pervious concrete. After he was introduced to the product through a friend at the Portland Cement Council, Carrera recalls, "He started plugging this pervious concrete in my ear." I said, "You know, Im happy doing what Im doing, and I dont really need to start doing something totally different that nobody has ever done before."

After seeing a video explaining the nature of pervious limited placement time, zero slope Carrera was even more hesitant. But when a job came up in Pebble Beach in 2001 that nobody would touch or even look at, Carrera's interest was piqued.

"I came to the meeting," says Carrera. "It was a driveway, approximately 6800 square feet, and it was on a 30 percent slope. [At that time] pervious concrete had never been placed over eight percent slope. So that was even another issue."

Up to the challenge, Carrera tackled the job, undaunted by the fact that he had never done pervious before. "I had three months before the job was going to be done, so I spent about $20,000 and went out and played with placement in different locations, just to practice," he explains. "Tear it out and redo. Tear it out and redo. This job had to be done and had to be done right. So that's how we got started. And the rest is history, as they say."

That job, for a 10-million-dollar home, was fraught with challenges; the slope, as well as existing decorative walls that couldnt be touched in any way. Also at the time, the industry was using rollers to compact the concrete. "After that job, I said to hell with rollers, and we started getting our own stuff to make it better," Carrera exclaims. "So now we've gone away from the rollers. The industry's still using the rollers, but I have custom tools that allow us to do 12,000 feet a day. Thats huge."

"We did that job, and that was the maiden voyage for [pervious concrete] in Monterey County," explains Carrera. "There's a lot of education that has to go on with the municipalities in order to get them to accept it. Then the following year, we did more jobs, and were doing work up and down the state now we've done 90 percent of the jobs in California."

Carrera adds that he foresees 100 percent of his portfolio being made up of pervious work as soon as next year. "I'd like to do just commercial because the jobs that we do are getting bigger. And I would like to just do the bigger jobs," he continues.

Because pervious concrete meets storm water management requirements, several counties, including Santa Cruz county where Carrera Construction resides, just passed a law stating any new construction that is designed for an impervious surface will be charged a dollar per square foot.

"Thats huge," says Carrera. "I've already met with the Board of Supervisors and a lot of the engineers and architects in this county. At every job where we are installing pervious concrete we have a 10- to 15-person audience. Its people that are in engineering, architects and developers, these are the types of people that show up. So now Im managing my crew, and educating and answering questions all day long."

At a Carrera Construction job site, you're likely to see interesting pervious concrete such as different colors and stamped. "The standard with pervious is that it has a gravel look to it," Carrera explains. "We've gotten away from that. We have a smooth surface. Its a better-looking surface. That's what's really separating us from everyone else; the look."

Carrera also uses a Telebelt system, which is like a concrete pump with some belts. "Those guys are exclusive to me," he adds. "I have worked and trained them. They know what the mix needs to look like. So, if the mix is not correct, they know not to accept the load, and request a new load. This is a very, very important part of this placement process."

Carrera Construction requires the ready mix companies provide a quality control person on site because the mix is so critical. Carrera continues, "The mix changes with the ending temperature, and if it isnt batched correctly, you're tearing it out. We dont want that to happen."

Carrera is also taking the Internet by storm he's already reserved several domain names with pervious and California in them. "We have acquired many of them. Anything that's out there, we have," he laughs. "A lot of my work is done on the computer. For my customers, its an easy way for them to get some information at their leisure. My website and The Concrete Network help promote pervious concrete and answer a lot of frequently asked questions."

"I'm going after California," Carrera adds. "If you do an Internet search for pervious concrete in California, you're going to get us for sure."

Steve Carrera
1961 Main St. Suite 261
Watsonville, CA 95076
(831) 728-3299 Office
Send Mail Now - Click Here
http://www.carreraconstruction.com

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