Permacon or Techo-Bloc in Ottawa: who makes them, where to see them, and what differs

What does Permacon do, and who owns it?

Permacon makes concrete products for landscaping and masonry. On the landscaping side that means pavers, slabs, walls, steps, capping, curbs and polymeric sand. On the masonry side it is block, stone and brick. Its About page calls it Canada's largest manufacturer of concrete products, and lists four markets it sells into, one of them retail distribution through large retailers.

The ownership is spelled out on the same page. The company was founded in Quebec in 1952 as Bloc Vibré Inc. It merged with Les Industries Fortier Ltée in 1986, which created Groupe Permacon. In 2001 Oldcastle Architectural bought it. Permacon's page describes Oldcastle as part of CRH, a multinational building products company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

Permacon's contact page puts the head office at 8145 rue Bombardier in Anjou, on the island of Montreal. The company says it has more than 900 distribution points across Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, and its Where to buy page sends homeowners to those distributors.

Source: Permacon, About · Permacon, Contact

Where is Permacon made?

In Quebec and Ontario, at eight or nine plants depending on which Permacon page you read. The About page says 8 plants and over 400 employees in its Quebec and Ontario facilities. The careers page on the same site says over 400 employees across 9 plants. The About page also says Permacon is committed to producing its products locally.

For a given product, Permacon prints the answer. Each product data guide carries a line headed “Production location”, and the guides come in regional editions, so the same paver can come from a different plant depending on where it is sold. The Melville 80 paver is a clean example. We use it here only because both of its regional data guides are public. It is an example, not a recommendation.

The Ottawa, Quebec and Atlantic edition of the Melville 80 guide, posted June 2026, lists the production location for the Prestige and Standard finishes as “Montreal, Quebec and Metcalfe”, and for the DuraFusion finish as Milton. The Ontario edition of the same guide lists Milton for all three finishes, except the Rockland Black colour, which it lists as Metcalfe.

Metcalfe is Permacon's Ottawa-region site. The careers page sends Ottawa-region applicants to a job list named for Metcalfe, and Google's business listing for Permacon Metcalfe gives its address as 6860 Bank Street. So a Permacon paver bought in Ottawa may be made within the city, in Montreal, or in Milton, and the data guide for the exact product is the document that says which.

Source: Permacon, Careers · Melville 80 Product Data Guide, Ottawa-Quebec-Atlantic (PDF) · Melville 80 Product Data Guide, Ontario (PDF)

Is Techo-Bloc a Canadian company?

By its address, yes. Techo-Bloc's contact page gives its mailing address as 5255 Albert-Millichamp in St-Hubert, Quebec, on Montreal's South Shore. Its About page describes it as a family-owned North American company, and the FAQ on that page names Charles Ciccarello as owner and founder, still leading it as president.

The company story on that page is short on dates. Ciccarello spent his teenage summers working with his father in the trade, saw contractors choosing from a handful of paver styles, and set out with his wife, Nancy, to change that. The page says “three decades later” rather than giving a founding year, so we do not give one either.

The same page gives the scale: more than 36 patents, more than 800 authorized dealers across North America, and more than 850 employees.

Source: Techo-Bloc, About Us · Techo-Bloc, Contact Us

Where is Techo-Bloc manufactured?

In the United States and Canada. The FAQ on Techo-Bloc's About page lists production facilities in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Quebec and Ontario. It does not say which plant supplies Ottawa, and the public product pages we read do not print a production location the way Permacon's data guides do.

Techo-Bloc does have an Ottawa site: the depot at 581 Somme Street, which describes itself as a holding yard for quick fulfillment of the local authorized dealers and their contractors. It makes nothing and sells nothing retail, and the next section covers what that means for a homeowner.

Source: Techo-Bloc, About Us (FAQ)

Where to buy patio stones in Ottawa

From a dealer. Neither manufacturer sells pavers to homeowners directly in Ottawa, and each publishes a locator saying who does.

Start with Techo-Bloc's Ottawa depot, because its own page is plain about what it is for. The depot at 581 Somme Street is open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed on weekends. It has indoor and outdoor product displays and catalogues that the public may look at during those hours. It does not conduct retail sales. Pickups there are for dealers and contractors with a Transport Request Number, and deliveries are not available. Go there to see a colour in daylight, then buy it from a dealer.

For buying, the two locators overlap on two Ottawa yards. Permacon's distributor pages list Ottawa Brick & Stone on Windmill Lane, and Central Precast at two sites, on Bongard Avenue and on Hazeldean Road. Techo-Bloc's depot page lists the dealers nearest to it, and Ottawa Brick & Stone and Central Precast are both there. Those are the yards where one trip can cover both brands. Call first and ask what is on display.

Check the street number before you drive, because the two locators print it one apart. Permacon has 1411 Windmill Lane and 26 Bongard Avenue. Techo-Bloc has 1410 Windmill Lane and 25 Bongard Avenue. Techo-Bloc also lists Central Precast East on Trim Road, which the Permacon pages we read do not.

Techo-Bloc's list goes further. The other dealers its depot page shows near Somme Street are Artistic Landscape Designs on Artistic Place, Ritchie Feed & Seed East on Windmill Lane, and Maconnerie Depot on rue St-Louis in Gatineau. Permacon has a retail channel of its own: its About page says it also supplies large retailers.

Permacon's warranty statement gives a good reason to go and look rather than choose from a photo. It says brochure photos and the displays at distributors are not an exact representation of the product delivered to the job site, recommends viewing several products at an authorized distributor, and advises mixing pavers from different pallets on site. It also says that once a product covers more than 100 square feet, you have accepted its colour, size and texture. Look at the pallets when they arrive, before the first row goes down.

Source: Techo-Bloc, Ottawa depot · Permacon, Ottawa Brick & Stone · Permacon, Central Precast (Bongard Ave) · Permacon, Central Precast (Hazeldean Rd) · Permacon 50-year residential warranty statement (PDF)

The paver specs: two companies, two ways of stating them

Both companies publish performance numbers for their pavers, but in different units and against different tests, so the two sets cannot be compared line for line.

Techo-Bloc's FAQ says its pavers have a minimum compressive strength of 8,000 psi and a maximum of 5% water absorption, and that they are nearly three times stronger than poured concrete. 8,000 psi is about 55 MPa. Both companies' warranty documents say their products meet CSA and ASTM standards, so the difference is in which numbers each chooses to print.

Permacon's data guide for Melville 80 states its figures against CSA A231.2, the Canadian standard for precast concrete pavers: a mean compressive strength of 50 MPa with no individual result under 45 MPa, and a de-icing salt freeze-thaw limit of 225 g/m² of material lost after 28 cycles, or 500 g/m² after 49. Absorption is listed as not applicable.

The line that matters most in Ottawa is the freeze-thaw one, because it is the only figure on either page measured with salt. It limits how much surface a paver can shed while it is frozen and thawed with de-icing salt on it, which is the winter a driveway apron here has. The Techo-Bloc FAQ figures include no salt freeze-thaw result. Techo-Bloc deals with salt in its warranty instead, which is the next section.

At the dealer, ask for the data sheet for the exact product and check which standard it cites. For a driveway there is a second question, because Techo-Bloc's FAQ draws a hard line: a product in its paver section can go on a driveway, and a product in its slab section cannot. Our page on the base under a paver driveway covers the depth that goes with it.

Walls are held to different numbers again. Permacon's data guide for its RB Wall unit lists a compressive strength of 20.7 MPa, absorption of 10.4% and no salt freeze-thaw figure, and marks the unit as available in Ottawa and Gatineau only. That is a wall unit doing a wall's job, and our retaining walls and steps page reads its data guide in full. Before any stone goes under a car, check that the manufacturer sells it as a paver.

Source: Techo-Bloc, FAQ · Permacon, Melville 80 Product Data Guide, Ottawa-Quebec-Atlantic (PDF) · Permacon, RB Wall Product Data Guide, Ottawa-Quebec-Atlantic (PDF)

How the two warranties differ

This is where the brands part ways, and both documents are public. Techo-Bloc's residential warranty guarantees the conformity of its products for life, from manufacture and from delivery to the site, and its June 2025 warranty document calls that warranty transferable. It covers structural integrity and any abnormal surface deterioration that could be caused by de-icing salt, meaning sodium chloride, on pavers, slabs and steps. Some collections are excluded, so check the one you choose.

Permacon's residential statement runs 50 years from purchase and guarantees the structural integrity of the concrete. It is prorated. Permacon's own worked example: a claim in the 120th month returns 480/600 of the price paid. It excludes surface deterioration caused by the misuse of sodium chloride, and names products on which sodium chloride must not be used at all.

Then the parts that decide what a claim is worth. Neither pays for labour. Techo-Bloc replaces the affected units only, after a site inspection, and its responsibility is limited to the cost of the product. Permacon limits every case to the products' market value and says no labour, transportation or other compensation is covered. Techo-Bloc warns that replacement pieces may differ in colour, texture or finish, and that this is not a defect. Permacon wants a claim within 15 days of the defect being discovered. Both want proof of purchase: an invoice or delivery slip for Techo-Bloc, and for Permacon an invoice from an authorized distributor or from the contractor.

Each manufacturer covers its own stone, on its own terms. Keep the invoice with the house papers and a note of which collection went down. Neither covers the base: Techo-Bloc's document excludes movement or settling of the base the products sit on, and Permacon's excludes soil movement and defective design or construction. Our page on interlock patios and walkways shows why that base is the part that usually fails.

Source: Techo-Bloc, Warranties · Techo-Bloc residential limited warranty, June 2025 (PDF) · Permacon, Warranty · Permacon 50-year residential warranty statement (PDF)

How expensive is Techo-Bloc?

Techo-Bloc does not publish a retail price for its pavers. Its Ottawa depot does no retail sales, and its FAQ says Techo-Bloc makes the stone and sells it to retailers and landscape installers. The price you pay is the dealer's.

The only Techo-Bloc prices the company puts its name to are in its own report on Canadian landscaping costs, published July 2026, and they are for walls, not pavers. Its wall systems run from about $26 per square foot for Mini-Creta to over $43 for Rocka, for materials alone. The same report gives $4 to $20 per square foot, materials only, for standard interlocking concrete pavers, and cites Techo-Bloc's own paver collection for that range.

Permacon's pages we read carry no prices. The price is the distributor's, across a network the company puts at more than 900 points.

So ask for the price of the exact product and finish, delivered. Permacon's Melville 80 alone comes in DuraFusion, Prestige and Standard finishes, and its data guide shows them made at different plants.

Source: Techo-Bloc, Landscaping Costs in Canada: 2026 Overview

How much does interlock cost in Ottawa?

We did not find an Ottawa-only installed figure we could trace to a named source, so here is the nearest named one, with its limits stated. Techo-Bloc's July 2026 report on landscaping costs in Canada includes benchmarks from its 2026 Canadian Contractor Survey, for mid-range residential projects, installed.

Three limits on those numbers. They are Canada-wide, not Ottawa, and the same report says the highest wages are in British Columbia and Ontario. They come from a paver manufacturer's survey of contractors. And they are not a quote from us.

What moves an Ottawa job within a range like that is mostly underground. Techo-Bloc's FAQ recommends 6 to 8 inches of stone base under a patio and 12 inches under a driveway (another answer in the same FAQ says a minimum of 8 inches for a residential driveway), on a setting bed of coarse sand at least 1 inch thick, and strongly recommends a filter fabric, especially over clay. Every inch of base is an inch dug out, hauled away and replaced with compacted stone. Add the product and finish, the cuts a pattern needs, the edge restraint, and how close a machine can get to the work.

The base depth comes from the use and the soil, whichever brand goes on top, which is why the brand choice rarely decides the total.

Source: Techo-Bloc, Landscaping Costs in Canada: 2026 Overview · Techo-Bloc, FAQ

So which one for an Ottawa patio or driveway?

Choose a specific product, and look at it in daylight at a yard that carries both. Get the data sheet for that exact paver and read which standard it cites, and whether it gives a salt freeze-thaw result. Decide how much the warranty wording matters to you: lifetime with salt surface damage covered, or 50 years, prorated, with a 15-day claim window. Then put most of your attention on the base, which is what our guide to interlock against poured concrete and asphalt is about.

We build in both brands. Call (613) 902-6137 to talk through a patio, walkway or driveway.