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Peter van Niekerk

With over 30 years of experience in the paver industry, Peter has been instrumental in the design and development of many high profile paving projects in South Africa, New Zealand and through out North America.

For the past 15 years Peter has focused his energy on the development and introduction of joint stabilizing sealer to the block paving market and has been very involved within the ICPI serving as a member on its committees over the past several years.

Please feel free to contact Peter at our offices (714-258-0800) or email him at petervn@vanninc.com.

The Original and Still the Best

Peter has always been involved in the design of interlocking pavements and he acted as a consultant to the California based theme park owners, Disney who wanted to use interlocking pavers in some of their new projects. They expressed concern about the possible damage to the block pavements through the erosion of the jointing sand in the course of the daily high pressure washing that the pavements would have to be subjected to and sought his advice as how the jointing sand could be contained under these circumstances. He was, through his prior work in Europe, very familiar with solvent based prepolymer joint stabilizers but Disney were not prepared to use solvent based products on their theme parks and so they commissioned him to source and identify a water-based equivalent. Some months later he tracked down a suitable water based sealer that also had adhesive qualities that would bind up the jointing sand when the application was correctly carried out. He conducted exhaustive testing and subsequently specified the product to be used on the new and remodeled concrete block paving projects in Disneyland. He then decided to form a company to market this type of product to be used as a sealer and joint sand stabilizer for this particular type of application. He published some articles on the topic of joint stabilizing and also got the product specified and installed on a number of projects (project list) to illustrate the benefits of this new type of product. The interest in the use of joint stabilizers grew to the extent that it was eventually generally adopted as a standard by that industry and today the large majority of manufacturers endorse the use of joint stabilizing sealers to enhance the appearance of their products and insure the integrity of the pavements. It is probably fair to say that Peter was personally responsible for the introduction of the joint stabilizing industry as it has now developed throughout the United States. As part of this process he has always continued to consult on projects and compare the performance of the original product with other newly developed joint stabilizers and as a result of this direct involvement and background in the industry he has been in a unique position to evaluate these products to a greater extent than any other person in the industry. This ongoing commitment to testing and evaluation and his international relationships has allowed us to be confident that we are working with the best chemical companies to develop the best products for the block paving industry. Our specialization in the block paving industry puts us in unique position to offer the right products in a way that no other company can.

Consulting

Consulting – Over the years Peter has been involved in consulting work originally in South Africa and later in the United States, South America, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the Far East. In South Africa his projects included major downtown and waterfront redevelopments and pedestrianisation in downtown Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria. He was extensively involved with, amongst others, the design and development of the new city square in Sandton, the commercial capital of South Africa. These projects involved several concrete, clay and granite decorative paving systems for pedestrian and heavy vehicular traffic. He has also been responsible for the design and installation of heavy traffic concrete block pavements on industrial roads and container facilities. He has also acted as a consultant to Engineers and Architects in the Cities of Auckland, New Zealand on Street and Waterfront projects including the America’s Cup Pavilion lending his expertise to the design of the paving and in the maintenance of pavements. He has also assisted in the design of a container facility in Panama in Central America. In the United States Peter worked on the installation of the clay pavingstone surface at the Gateway Center, Union Station in Los Angeles, the American Consulate in Beijing and the redevelopment of concrete and clay block pavements in Disneyland, Anaheim as well as the Disneyland projects in Hong Kong and Beijing to name a few. Other projects have included the Aliso Viejo town center development. Peter has also worked in conjunction with engineers, architects and landscape consultants on design and sourcing of materials on other commercial and public projects including the UCLA medical center plaza in Los Angeles, Queensway Bay Harbor in Long Beach, the Anaheim Conference Center and Ball Park and the Alamo car rental facility in Las Vegas, commercial developments for the Irvine Company and a large granite cobble plaza on Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago

History of joint stabilization

History of joint stabilization – Peter had for some time recognized that stabilizing the jointing sand had become standard practice on all residential, commercial and industrial concrete and clay interlocking pavingstone installations in Europe. Developers and designers had come to realize the benefits of ensuring the integrity of the pavements by the use of joint stabilizers to prevent rainwater and high pressure washing eroding the jointing sand leading to excessive saturation of the bedding sands and sub-bases that invariably led to their subsequent failure. There were also real concerns about the contamination of the sub-soils that was taking place through the leaching in of contaminants on block pavements on gas stations, fuel storage facilities and airport aprons where pavers were being commonly specified.

Relocation to the USA

Relocation to the USA – Peter moved to the United States in 1993 to joint what was to become one of the largest residential paving contractors in the country. He later worked as a consultant for a major pavingstone manufacturer from Israel who had previously met him at an international paving conference in Rome in 1988 and who wanted to use his expertise to promote the use of the interlocking paving system to local developers and specifiers in California. He subsequently formed his own company providing a consultancy services to the pavingstone industry offering technical design details, the review of construction drawings and the drafting of detailed specifications. He also carried out site visits to determine that that the construction was being carried out in accordance with the design intent.

“Photos Queensway”

Industry contributions

Peter has attended and co-authored papers at the 1988 Pavitalia conference in Rome, the 1996 Interpave conference in Israel, the 1998 Pave Columbia in Columbia, the 2002 Brazilian Concrete Masonry Association conference and regularly writes articles in Technical Periodicals. He also served on the technical committee of the Interlocking Concrete Paving Industry of North America and was a major contributor in drafting their standard sealing and cleaning specifications.

Natural stone cobbles

During this time in South Africa he was involved with the Cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town during their rebuilding of their city centers using traditional European paving. At their behest Peter did a sabbatical in Italy and Germany to do a study on traditional stone cobble paving. He was later commissioned to describe the details and write the specifications and the City Code of Practice for the installation of these units using methods and sections based on designs going back some 2,000 years.

Background

Peter van Niekerk was born in South Africa, educated in Pretoria and attended the University of Pretoria where he obtained a Batchelor of Science degree majoring in Quantity Surveying and Building Management. He has been involved in the construction industry for over 40 years, working for various Civil Engineering Contractors before becoming the President of one of the largest Home Building Developers and Contractors in the country. During that period he traveled extensively, particularly in Europe, attending conferences and undertaking market research into trends taking place internationally in the development of new construction techniques, building materials and practices. In the early 1970’s he transferred his interests to the concrete block pavingstone industry. His involvement included the manufacture of concrete pavers as well as the design and installation of clay and concrete pavements in large commercial and industrial developments. He continued in the pavingstone industry until his relocation to the US in 1993. Photos South Africa

Residential

We cannot ignore our thousands of little success stories that are out there in the form of residential projects. Many companies have included our sealers as a standard feature in all their projects with great success and for many companies it is the only product that they use because of it’s unequalled success. It provides their customers with a truly maintenance free pavement that looks attractive and performs exceptionally for years to come. The project manager of one of the largest paving companies in Newport Beach California likes to seal all his projects,” Although these pavements seldom require any warranty repair work, the amazing thing is that we have never had to do any repairs to any projects that have been sealed. They also look great years after the project has been completed”.

Fashion Island, Newport Beach California

Fashion Island, Newport Beach California –

There is a new trend in paver use that is an indicator of the future potential of our industry. Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach, one of the US’s most prestigious upscale malls, has started to replace all the hardscape in the mall with interlocking pavers. This includes the concrete and tile areas around the shops and even the formerly asphalt paved access roads. Part of their design was the incorporation of our Joint Stabilizing Sealer. The reason was that lifecycle costing indicated that sealed and joint stabilized pavers will give them a surface that is easier to maintain, that looks better and is more durable than anything available on the market. The potential for the US market as a whole, both commercial and residential far exceeds anyone’s real concept. A study by a graduate school showed that there were potentially 3 Billion square feet in the San Francisco Bay area alone, which is significantly more than the current use of about 500 million square feet in the US as a whole.

Wacker Street, Chicago, Illinois

Wacker Street, Chicago, Illinois –

Cold weather climates provide some of the most difficult testing conditions that a pavement can be subjected too. This is certainly true for Chicago where in the winter of 1999 they had a record-breaking year in terms of freeze/thaw cycles. Unwittingly we were participating in a rigorous and exhaustive test to determine the performance of our products in freezing and salt de-icing conditions. After one season where other pavements were falling apart suffering from spalling and other surface damage, and other joint sand mixes were coming to pieces, the joint stabilizing sealer showed it’s resistance to these damaging conditions and came through with flying colors.

McKinney Ave, Dallas Texas

McKinney Ave, Dallas Texas – This high profile project was installed with large ¾’ joints and through correct application in less than ideal weather conditions, we were able to work with the contractors to get the correct results.

Pier, Huntington Beach California

Pier, Huntington Beach California –

Another place where looks are everything is Huntington Beach California. One of the birthplaces of surfing hosts many events on the Pier from world-class surfing to weekly artist exhibits and flea markets. This are is subjected to some unique conditions. Food, vehicular, and all other imaginable stains are left behind and are cleaned up by Mario Costa of Costa Cleaning Services. His crews that are dedicated to cleaning this stretch of beachfront promenade.” We come in routinely and our aim is to keep the blues blue and the greens green” said Mario. Another reason that our products were used was to avoid salt damage. We are happy to report that there is no sign of any breakdown of the surface some 7 years later.

University of Cincinnati Music Conservatory

University of Cincinnati Music Conservatory, Cincinnati Ohio –

We have always selected products that have good breathability. This feature proved it’s importance on one of our most well known cases at the Music Conservatory at the University of Cincinnati. The project utilized clay pavers for the majority of the project and the installation of the Joint Stabilizing Sealer went ahead without any hitches. A couple days after completion we received a call from the owner of the paver installation company, Mike Carnival. He believed that there was a problem with the project and that the sealer may have had something to do with it. He described the condition at the project as though it had “snowed” on the pavement having the whole area turn white. We were concerned and booked a ticket to Cincinnati for the following day to investigate their concerns. The efflorescence had indeed bloomed on the surface turning the whole area white. We did however illustrate that it had come straight through the sealer and that it was easily removed from the surface using only cold water and brooms.

Container Terminal, Colon Panama

Container Terminal, Colon Panama –

Talking about large heavy-duty pavements, one of our most impressive projects as regards the stabilizing of joint sand is definitely the container shipping facility in Colon, Panama. This pavement is subjected to extreme loadings having 40,000 pound containers stacked as many as two high by fork lifts and rubber tired gantries. The climate in Panama is tropical with excessive amounts of rain year-round and there was a high risk of water infiltrating into the joints which was exacerbated by the fact that the pavement had a grade that was almost flat. Peter van Niekerk acted as a sub-consultant to the engineers regarding the pavement design and specifications and elected to use our joint stabilizer to inhibit water penetration into the bedding sand and sub-base. This project was installed in these wet conditions and the project was considered such a success that further paver installations are planned for their future terminal expansions.

Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim California

Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim California –

One of our award winning sealer projects is Disneyland Hotel. The Disney Company took this opportunity to create something that was impressive in it’s beauty and functionality. IMA Architects have used yellows, blues and greens to enhance the area in and around this magical getaway to the Hotel. They were clearly able to achieve a look that was something special. It was also important to keep it looking that way so they clean the project every night with pressure washers and have achieved phenomenal results.

Queensway Bay, Long Beach, California

Queensway Bay, Long Beach, California –

The City of Long Beach took a decision to upgrade the Boardwalk around the Aquarium, Marinas and Restaurant facilities. They elected to use a variety of brown and gray colored clay bricks manufactured in the Mid West and installed them in a runner bond along the new sea wall in such a way as to simulate the effect of the lines of teak decking formerly used on the old clipper ships. They also used a unique system of concrete pavers installed in a traditional ashlar pattern for the larger general paved areas. The design team specified our joint stabilizing sealer to deal with the issue of potential joint sand loss that they anticipated would be experienced during the aggressive daily cleaning that the City would have to undertake. The end result was a showpiece installation that continues to perform with minimal maintenance.

Angel Stadium, Anaheim California

Angel Stadium, Anaheim California –

Another satisfied customer is John Drum of the Edison Field in Anaheim California, home of the Anaheim Angels Baseball Team. He reports that the maintenance of his pavement is going on without a hitch since interlocking pavers and our sealers were installed at his facility. The have an extensive baseball and event schedule that keeps them occupied year round. “We are extremely happy with the results that we are able to achieve on our pavement in terms of cleaning and maintenance”, stated John “we have worked on our planning to ensure that we achieve great results throughout the area”.

Legoland, Carlsbad California

Legoland, Carlsbad California –

One of the attributes that Peter has always thought was vitally important to making an application easy was demonstrated on the Legoland Theme park in Southern California. The project was about 200,000 square feet in extent and due to time constraints, needed to be sealed in under a week. To add to this challenge the area needed extensive preparation including pressure washing and re-sanding in vast areas. The end result was that the entire area was sealed in approximately 36 hours averaging about 15,000 square feet per hour during the times when sealing was taking place and amazingly was carried out by a crew consisting of only 8 people.

L Ron Hubbard Way, Los Angels, California

L Ron Hubbard Way, Los Angels, California –

Talking about success and ease of installation. One of our show projects was L. Ron Hubbard Way in downtown Los Angeles. This major street was installed using volunteer workers and because of the heavy traffic index on the street the Landscape Architect and Consulting Engineer specified a joint stabilizing sealer to prevent joint sand erosion. These same volunteers installed the Joint Stabilizing Sealer and with little training they created one of our most impressive and breathtaking projects to date. This pavement has been down for more than 8 Years and we still use it as a reference having retained the hardened joint sand throughout the whole project. This is still evident today even after extensive trafficking.

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs, California –
This was the first major project that used a joint stabilizing sealer in North America.

Alamo Car Rental, Las Vegas Nevada

Alamo Car Rental, Las Vegas Nevada –

We were given a further opportunity to test the benefits of a joint stabilizing sealer on the Alamo Car Rental bus terminal at their Las Vegas Airport location. The pavement had been correctly installed, but due to some design errors, the incorrect thickness of pavers and a poor pattern choice, the heavy-duty pavement came apart and failed just days after the initial installation. Peter was called in to give his advice. Because of the lack of funds and limited time frame they were unable to make any significant changes to the pavement design other than to uplift and re-install the pavers. His recommendation was that they should use a joint stabilizing sealer to stabilize the joint sand to reinforce the structural integrity of the pavement and virtually glue the pavement together. They sealed the pavement using squeegees to direct material into the joints between the pavers. The project performed successfully since it’s installation in 1997.

Disneyland, Anaheim California

Peter van Niekerk first promoted a joint stabilizing sealer whilst working as a sub-consultant to the Architects who designed the interlocking concrete and clay block pavements at Disneyland Park in California. The design team wanted to use unit pavers, but the custodial department was concerned about the potential loss of the joint sand and the subsequent pavement failure that could occur during their routine cleaning operations. He was familiar with these issues and had specified an imported solvent based joint stabilizing sealer on previous projects to deal with them but was informed that the owners would not agree to the using of solvent-based materials. As a result The Walt Disney Imagineering contracted with him directly to investigate and research what sealers were available on the market that have the right properties and would be compliant with the stringent California VOC regulations. Testing was subsequently carried out on approximately 20 different products that were offered by a variety of manufacturers as potential options for the interlocking block pavement sealing and joint sand stabilization. A product approved for all their new installations in the Smallworld, Tomorrowland and Mainstreet projects. They have subsequently used this products on all the areas in and around their California Adventure Theme Park with great success as well as part of their new theme park in Hong Kong