RAAC Assessment in Woodley

How John Staves assesses RAAC

The assessment takes the survey record for the building in Woodley, 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 Woodley

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 Woodley, 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.

Prioritising buildings in Woodley

Not every building in Woodley needs a RAAC assessment, and we would rather tell you that than sell you one. The ones that do are flat-roofed, date from the 1950s to the mid 1990s, and have never had RAAC confirmed or excluded by scanning. Under Wokingham Borough Council that generally means a town built almost entirely in the post-war decades, so its schools, halls and shopping precinct are of the RAAC period. Ranked by occupancy and by the consequence of a failure, that list usually puts schools, health buildings and places of assembly first, then offices and industrial units.

Turnaround, sign-off and insurance

For a building in Woodley, 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.