ICPI Interlock Design Issue 3 2019

Issue 3 • 2019 ® esign interloc 2 David R. Smith interlockutor Basic Ingredients Every spring, the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute (ICPI) conducts a survey of sales by paver manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada. The survey is sent to all paver manufacturers. The response is consistently from a mix of manufacturers. These include family-owned companies, regional organizations with several manufacturing facilities, and national scale companies. Besides concrete paver sales, information is gathered by a third-party survey company on sales of paving slabs, grid units, and other paving products. ICPI has conducted the survey for the past 20 years. Here are some trends: From 1997 to 2000, the industry sales grew about 47%. Sales increased to about 70% residential with the remaining going to commercial and municipal uses. 1999 saw over 400 million sf of concrete pavers made in the U.S. and Canada. 2002 saw residential sales decrease to 65% and commercial/municipal increase to 35%, then residential sales flipped back to over 70% the next year. 2004 saw that percentage increase to 77%. 2006 saw that increase further to 80%. That year, ICPI began surveying slabs and pavers made for permeable applications. Slabs held about 7% of all sales and permeable pavers were around 2%. Sales had almost doubled to about 800 million sf. Then the great recession of 2008–2011 saw a 40% contraction of the entire construction industry including those who make and install concrete paving units. A bright light among some companies, while struggling to restructure, was the continued sales of permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) and paving slabs. Coming out of the recession, we’ve seen the industry come back to pre- recession paver sales levels between 700 and 800 million square feet. Since 2012, the percentage sold to residential uses has been consistently in the high 70s to 80%. Basic Installation Training Near Atlanta, Georgia Hosted by Goodwill Industries.