Contech Alternatives: How to Save Up to Six Figures on Stormwater Capture and Reuse

On many stormwater capture and reuse projects, the most expensive decision is made before anyone looks closely at the site: pick a packaged, pre-engineered system and make the property fit around it. Packaged systems are designed once to work almost anywhere. That is exactly why they leave money on the table. They don't take advantage of what makes your property different.

In our experience, fitting the system to the site instead, and building storage in place, can save five figures on smaller systems and six figures on larger ones. It also cuts weeks of lead time and opens up options the packaged route never considers.

Why packaged systems cost more than they need to

• The design is already done. The system was engineered as a standalone platform, so there is little room to change it around your site. Vendors typically come in late, after the plans are set, with a product rather than a site solution.
• One big tank in one place. A single large unit needs one large hole, one large crane pick and one large access path.
• Freight and lead time. Large fiberglass and fabricated tanks often ship from across the country or overseas. Long lead times, heavy freight, oversize transport and crane rigging all land on the owner.
• Access problems. A tank that can't get down a hillside street or through a tight lot can stall a project or force a redesign.

When the plans call for Contech

Contech Engineered Solutions is one of the biggest names in packaged stormwater, and its products show up on plan sets across Southern California: CDS hydrodynamic separators, StormFilter cartridge vaults, ChamberMaxx chambers and DuroMaxx rainwater harvesting cisterns. They are well-engineered and widely accepted, and nothing here says otherwise.

In the bids we have priced, though, a packaged system like these has often been one of the highest-cost line items in the site work, before freight, crane time and lead time are counted. That is where most of the five and six figures we find come from: keeping what the system has to do, and building it from the site and from standard materials instead. When your plans call for Contech or a similar packaged system, ask for the alternate to be priced side by side.

Every property has advantages. Use them.

Slope

Grade is energy you already have. On a sloped site, storage can be placed so water flows by gravity from the roof and hardscape to storage, and from storage toward where it will be reused. Less pumping means smaller pumps, less power and fewer parts to maintain.

Excavation you are already paying for

Basements, subterranean parking, over-excavation for foundations and utility trenches all move dirt that has to move anyway. Placing storage in or next to that work avoids paying twice to dig.

Segmented storage

Storage doesn't have to be one tank. Splitting the required volume into smaller basins or pipe galleries lets them fit under drive aisles, landscape areas and side yards. Smaller pieces need smaller equipment, often no crane, and they can follow the building's phasing instead of waiting on it.

Soil

Where the geotechnical engineer confirms the soil can take it, part of the requirement may be met by infiltration rather than storage alone, which can shrink the tank volume.

Open areas

Landscape and hardscape areas can carry chamber beds and shallow storage that would be expensive to build under a structure.

Tanks built in place

Many tanks shipped in at great cost can be built on site with materials that are available locally.

• Cast-in-place concrete. Formed and poured to the shape and depth the site allows, with crystalline or membrane waterproofing. Concrete can also double as a structural element, such as a wall or slab, where the Engineer of Record designs it that way.
• Standard storm drain materials. Large-diameter pipe galleries, manholes, vaults and catch basins that supply houses stock and that inspectors see every day.
• Lined beds. Heavy rubber or rubberized liners with chambers and rock, shaped to the space available.

These go in with equipment we already run, delivered on regular trucks. They don't wait on a factory slot or a freight lane.

Where the five and six figures come from

• Freight, oversize transport and crane rigging that are no longer needed.
• Excavation shared with work already in the contract.
• Smaller pumps and fewer controls where gravity does the work.
• Less storage volume where infiltration counts toward the requirement.
• Shorter schedules, because storage isn't waiting on a shipped tank.
• Lower long-term maintenance with standard parts.

Every site is different, so the savings are too. The way to find them is to look at the plans early.

Fewer delays, more options

When storage is built in place from local materials, the site gains flexibility. Pieces can be phased around the building, fit into tight access and adjusted when field conditions change. Schedules get shorter because the critical path no longer runs through a factory and a freight truck. Sites that looked infeasible for a packaged tank often become buildable.

How the design-build team works

The civil engineer or Engineer of Record designs the system and submits it to the agency. JFPEC brings the build side to the table:

• Review the plans early, before the system is locked to a product.
• Walk the site for slope, access, soil and excavation already planned.
• Propose segmented, built-in-place alternates for the engineer to accept or decline.
• Price the packaged system and the alternate side by side.
• Build whatever the engineer approves, with our own crews and equipment.

Approvals are project by project, through the engineer and the agency. For the pumping and city water backup side of these systems, read our case for simpler rain harvesting systems, and for why timing matters, bringing the underground contractor in early.

How we help

JFPEC builds stormwater capture, storage, reuse and drainage systems across Greater Los Angeles, including cast-in-place tanks and waterproofing. Send us your plans at any stage, and we will show you where your site can do more of the work. Call (800) 606-3880 or request a bid.