RAAC Assessment in Reading

How John Staves assesses RAAC

The assessment takes the survey record for the building in Reading, panel by panel, and turns it into engineering conclusions. Each panel is classified on its condition, bearing, cracking, deflection and exposure to water, with reference to the current Institution of Structural Engineers guidance on RAAC. The assessment states which panels can remain in use as they are, which need propping or restricted use now, which should be monitored, and which need intervention.

It then answers the question the budget depends on: can this roof be strengthened in place, or does it need to come out? Where strengthening is viable, the assessment says so and sets out what the scheme would need to achieve.

From inspection to a management and remediation strategy in Reading

Which school RAAC surveyors can also provide a management and remediation strategy following inspection? The answer is a team where the surveyor, the inspecting engineer and the designer of the strengthening are the same people. For schools, academy trusts, NHS estates, councils and building owners in Reading, the engineering inspection and structural assessment end in a written strategy: what is managed, what is monitored, what is strengthened, and in what order. Priced per building; a visual survey alone starts from £395.

A practical starting point in Reading

If you are responsible for buildings in Reading, start with a list. Which of them have flat or low-pitched roofs, and which were built or extended between the 1950s and the mid 1990s? In the Reading Borough Council area that will usually take in a large stock of 1960s and 1970s civic, education and commercial buildings, including the flat-roofed school, college and public buildings of that era. Anything on that list that has never had RAAC ruled in or out is a candidate for a RAAC assessment. Send us the list and we will tell you which buildings justify a visit, and which can be cleared from the desk with drawings alone.

Turnaround, sign-off and insurance

For a building in Reading, we can usually be on site in Berkshire within one to two days, and the report follows within five working days of the site visit, depending on the size of the survey and the level of detail required. Every assessment is signed by a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, which is what trusts, NHS estates, insurers and funders look for. Professional indemnity insurance is held to a maximum of £10 million, with public and employers' liability arranged on a per-site basis. Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are local to us, and we work across the UK.