Not too long ago, we talked about designing a concrete parking lot built to withstand Wisconsin winters, and one of the key design elements we spoke of was proper drainage. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that your commercial concrete parking lot is going to get wet, as both rain and snow are inevitable visitors. If your parking lot was built without a well-designed drainage system, then rainwater and runoff can cause all kinds of problems by pooling, freezing and seeping into the pavement.
To avoid this accelerated deterioration and prevent an abundance of safety hazards, it’s incredibly important to have a proper drainage system implemented in construction. That’s precisely what we’re here to discuss today on the Potrykus Construction blog, so keep reading to learn more about the benefits of proper drainage and how to ensure your parking lot has it.
Why Drainage Matters
Let’s kick things off by diving into exactly why drainage matters in the construction of your commercial concrete parking lot. Although concrete is incredibly strong and one of if not the best option when it comes to building long-lasting parking lots, it’s not completely immune to the forces of nature. Rain, snowmelt and even something as silly as sprinkler runoff represent the persistent threat faced by concrete lots every day.
When water isn’t directed away efficiently, it can accumulate and linger in different places until it seeps into the sub-layers of your concrete and begins a destructive cycle that undermines all the hard work that went into building your lot. The water that seeps into the concrete will freeze and thaw with the seasons, ultimately causing cracking that can lead to things like potholes and complete surface failure.
By making sure that your lot can be well-drained, you’re also protecting your investment and building a better-functioning parking lot overall. Proper drainage enhances the safety of your clients or customers while simultaneously ensuring smooth traffic and pedestrian flow. While it might increase the price of construction up front, it is widely considered the most cost-effective upgrade you can introduce to your parking lot’s lifecycle.
Key Benefits of Proper Drainage
Now that we’ve covered why drainage is so important, let’s highlight a few of the tangible benefits your parking lot will experience with proper drainage:
- Longevity — By severely hindering the water’s ability to penetrate into your concrete, your parking lot can remain stable and intact for far longer than it could otherwise.
- Safety — Without proper drainage, not only can the water seep into your concrete but it can present pools of standing water that pose both slipping hazards for pedestrians and hydroplaning risks for vehicles, especially in colder seasons where even shallow puddles can turn into dangerous ice patches overnight.
- Lower Maintenance Costs — As we mentioned, your upfront costs may increase when adding proper drainage to the construction of your lot, but those are balanced out by dramatically decreasing the cost of maintenance over time. By preventing water intrusion, you’ll need fewer repairs, less frequent resurfacing and reduced liability from accidents – possibly even lowering your insurance costs.
- Environmental Compliance — Depending on where you live, you may actually be required to implement stormwater management strategies. In other words, an effective drainage system can help ensure that you meet local codes.
[ READ MORE: How to Extend the Life of Your Concrete Parking Lot in Wisconsin ]
How Potrykus Construction Approaches Drainage
If you’re looking to build a new commercial concrete parking lot and want to ensure that it has proper drainage, you should certainly consider working with us here at Potrykus Construction. Here are a few of the things we consider whenever designing a new parking lot:
- Accurate grading and sloping
- Strategic placement of trench drains, catch basins and curbing
- Perforated pipe systems, base rock filters and other subsurface solutions
- Permeable concrete
- Green infrastructure
We will never treat drainage as an afterthought, as it’s incredibly important when building any commercial concrete parking lot. If you’d like to discuss your project, be sure to get in touch with us right here at Potrykus Construction — we can’t wait to get started!