Scott Hollister visits Porous Pave at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show
Golfdom Editor Scott Hollister talks to John Harvey from Porous Pave about Harvey’s journey to Porous Pave, the products and their booth.
Transcript
Scott Hollister: Well, hi everybody. It’s Scott Hollister with Golfdom Magazine, and we are in San Diego, California for the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. We’re making our way around seeing some of our friends, and we’re here with the fine folks at Porous Pave. John Harvey is with us now, and I’m little familiar with the product you were. You’ve done some of our summits, so we’ve learned a little bit that. But for the viewers who might not be so familiar, tell it. Tell us about the about the products, its origins and and really how it’s kind of being used in the golf industry.
John Harvey: Well, thanks, Scott. Great to be here. It’s a great forum. I always like to attend the golf course industry show, GCSAA shows. It’s a great audience, from builders, architects, superintendents, owners. So it’s wonderful to be here. First of all, the company really came into being about 18 years ago, and it came into fruition from the permeable pavement standpoint, and what I mean by that is is both from surface paving, whether it’s cart paths or driveways, decorative paving around clubhouses or even streetscapes with parks and best pocket parks. I found out about the Porous Pave about eight years ago, they sent out a blitz email to golf course architects, and I followed up with it. I saw, first of all, me growing up in Michigan and being a Michigander. And then I I found out they were from Grant, Michigan, outside of Grand Rapids. I said, Well, okay, Great Lakes State. And the more I looked into the people, the product and performance. It really resonated with me. And I always through the liner world in golf course architecture, I felt that it was a unique product from the standpoint of one re-using tires, chip tires, a stone aggregate and a urethane binder, and it’s mixed on property, poured in place and finished, whether it’s a path or whether it’s a liner. So it’s unique from that standpoint of using recycled product. And the permeability is amazing, as well as the structural integrity. One thing too, I thought was very interesting, is that for cart path use, it’ll dampen the ball bounce about 73% Wow. And from the void space, which provides your permeability, that’s about 27% so very interesting statistics. And in a liner, just how well it keeps sand in place, from the ROI standpoint.
Hollister: When superintendents are studying options, maybe they’re, maybe it’s, maybe it’s a new construction, maybe it’s a reno, maybe they’re simply replacing pass or, you know, permanent services around a clubhouse. Are they intrigued as much about the the the porous-ability of the of the surface, is it something like it’s is this going to last me a long time? What’s the main thing that’s attracting superintendents to this product?
Harvey: Well, I think it’s interesting that within our industry, we’re always trying to evolve and to look at at new science, new technology, and even from the standpoint of drones today, and how important that is to studying property analyzing and even GPS-ing bunker lines or green outlines. So point there is, how can you find ways to improve upon maintenance, construction, constructability of a golf course. So it’s another arrow in the quiver of superintendents of builders and architects to solve problems. So it’s a little lighter weight. Therefore, if you look at the weight distribution of moving materials from one property or one edge of the property the other, you don’t have potentially not as much collateral damage in a renovation or new construction, not so much because everything’s under construction. So haul roads can be diminished because of the materials aren’t as heavy, and then even the time frame from installation with a for a liner with a five to seven person crew that’s trained, it can install about 6500 square feet in a day. And because the binder is moisture cured, you would add moisture, spritz it with water upon your curing process. So that’s an interesting part of the whole formulation.
Hollister: Yeah ,and you can see all the camera won’t pick this up, but there’s all you’re highlighting a lot of different uses here, whether it’s whether it’s bunkers, bridges, paths, things like that, that versatility has to appeal to superintendents as well as they can find a solution that solves maybe more than one problem on the golf course.
Harvey: Very true, and one. Thing that, in terms of soluvant solutions, one thing that really is an eye catcher is the display that we have here, which is nothing but recycling pump, but it provides water through the profile. So it’s a nice visual. You know, we’re very visual industry, the esthetics of golf, the strategy of golf, the esthetics of pavement. So this kind of is a great eye opener, a great ice breaker, and then we can have a conversation with with people that are interested in our products and in our solutions, in the liner world and in the permeable paving world. And I think the graphics and pictures go a long way to start
Hollister: Right absolutely. Well, if we have superintendents to you and that want more information, where can they where can they go to learn more about Porous Pave?
Harvey: Sure we’re on social media. We certainly have our website too, and you can reach out to us there, or if you just Google Porous Pave we’ll be the first drop down that’ll come up and happy to help out, happy to answer any questions and feel free to stop by.
Hollister: That is great, John. Thanks so much. Great seeing you. Thank you, Scott. John Harvey, appreciate it. Scott Hollister, with Golfdom magazine from the forest paid booth at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade show. Thank you.
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