RAAC Scanning in Burghfield Common
If a building in Burghfield Common dates from the 1950s to the mid 1990s and has a flat roof, scanning is the fastest way to know whether RAAC is in it. It is non-destructive, it is done with the building in use, and at Structured Carbon it is led by Neil Smuts (MCIOB, MInstNDT, FRCSP), President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard and a Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals.
- Led by Neil Smuts, President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard and Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals
- Confirms RAAC and locates its reinforcement without opening up the structure
- Building stays in use; quiet, room-by-room work
- Results feed straight to a chartered RAAC engineer, John Staves CEng FIStructE MIoD
Based in Finchampstead, Wokingham. Burghfield Common is local to us.
What RAAC scanning in Burghfield Common tells you
Scanning reads the inside of a panel from its surface. Non-destructive methods distinguish the light, cellular structure of RAAC from dense concrete, and locate the steel reinforcement within a plank: where the bars run, how deep they are, and whether they extend to the bearings. That last point matters more than any other with RAAC, because a plank whose reinforcement stops short of its support is the classic failure case, and no amount of looking from below will show it.
The scan is recorded panel by panel against a location plan, alongside a visual and condition record, so that the results can be assessed rather than just filed.
Who scans your building
A scan of a RAAC roof in Burghfield Common is only useful if two people trust it: the surveyor who reads it and the engineer who acts on it. Ours are Neil Smuts (MCIOB, MInstNDT, FRCSP), President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard and a Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals, and John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC. Neil leads the national standard for concrete scanning and owns the Assess and Monitor stages of the RAACSafe™ Protocol; John owns Design. The scan is the first piece of evidence in a chain that can run all the way to a strengthened, monitored roof without leaving the partnership.
RAAC testing without opening up: what scanning replaces in Burghfield Common
Before scanning, confirming RAAC meant cutting an opening or taking a core. Neither is needed now. Non-destructive scanning identifies the material, locates the reinforcement and checks bearings from the surface, so a school, clinic, hall or office in Burghfield Common is surveyed with nothing removed and nobody moved out. Where an engineer later needs load or deflection data, that is added as part of the engineering inspection rather than by damaging the roof. Scanning comes with the visual survey, from £395, and with every engineering inspection.
RAAC in Burghfield Common
Burghfield Common is beside the AWE Burghfield site, one of the most tightly controlled construction environments in the country. With around 6,200 residents in the West Berkshire Council area, it has post-war housing with its schools and community buildings. Buildings of that period are exactly where RAAC turns up: flat or low-pitched roofs, sometimes floors and walls, in schools, halls, health buildings, sports centres and offices built between the 1950s and the mid 1990s.
RAAC scanning: how to get started in Burghfield Common
Three pieces of information get a RAAC scanning in Burghfield Common moving: the age of the building, the type of roof, and any drawings or previous reports you hold. With those we can say whether the building is a realistic RAAC candidate, what the visit would involve, and how long it would take. For estates spread across Burghfield Common, Mortimer and Theale, we plan the visits as one programme so that nothing is missed and nothing is surveyed twice.
Scanning as part of a RAAC survey
Two routes are common in Burghfield Common. Where nobody knows what the roof is made of, scanning is the first step and usually happens inside a full RAAC survey. Where a visual survey has already said "probably RAAC", scanning is the confirmation, and it often adds the one fact the visual survey could not: whether the reinforcement reaches the bearings. In both cases the results go to John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC, for a RAAC assessment that answers the strengthen-or-replace question. Across the RAAC tenders we cost, a bespoke CFRP scheme engineered for that exact roof frequently comes in at well below 15 per cent of the cost of full replacement. On one tender, a roof costed at around £40 million to replace was priced for strengthening at under £4 million.
What we bring to Burghfield Common
We have surveyed thousands of square metres of RAAC, using GSSI Flex NX and GSSI StructureScan Mini ground penetrating radar, Proceq GP8800 and GP8100 radar, the Proceq Pundit PD8050 ultrasonic tomograph, and other electromagnetic and ultrasonic NDT instruments. We can usually be on site in Berkshire within one to two days, evening, weekend and holiday visits are no problem, 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. Professional indemnity insurance is held to a maximum of £10 million, with public and employers' liability arranged on a per-site basis.
Two named specialists, one team
Neil Smuts, MCIOB MInstNDT FRCSP
Survey, scanning and monitoring. President, UK Concrete Scanning StandardNeil leads the survey, scanning and monitoring side of every Structured Carbon project. He is President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard, a member of the Chartered Institute of Building and the Institute of NDT, and a Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals. LinkedIn
John Staves, CEng FIStructE MIoD
Structural assessment and CFRP designJohn is a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC. He carries out the structural assessment and designs every strengthening scheme. John received both the Regional and the National Innovation Award at the HSBC Commercial Banking and Federation of Small Businesses Small Business Growth Awards for his work on RAAC repair. LinkedIn
Thank you, we have your enquiry
One of the team will come back to you within one working day. If it is urgent, call +44 118 430 8430.
RAAC scanning FAQs
Does the scan show where the reinforcement is?
Yes. Locating the reinforcement, including whether it extends to the bearings, is the main reason to scan RAAC. Bearing length is the single most important factor in how a RAAC plank behaves.
Do you scan the whole roof?
We scan every accessible panel that could be RAAC, recorded to a location plan. For a large estate in Burghfield Common we agree the scope with you first, but the principle is that unscanned panels are unknown panels.
Who interprets the results?
Neil Smuts (MCIOB, MInstNDT, FRCSP), President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard and a Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals, leads and reads every scan. The results go to John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC, for structural assessment.
Can you scan a school in Burghfield Common during term?
Yes. Scanning is quiet, room-by-room work. We plan it around the timetable or use holidays and out-of-hours periods where a school prefers.
Is scanning enough on its own?
It confirms the material and maps the reinforcement. To know what condition the panels are in and what to do, you need the condition survey and a structural assessment as well. We offer all three together as a RAAC survey in Burghfield Common.
What areas do you cover?
We are based in Finchampstead, Wokingham, so Burghfield Common is on our doorstep. Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are local to us, and we scan RAAC across the UK.
What scanning equipment do you use?
GSSI Flex NX and GSSI StructureScan Mini ground penetrating radar, Proceq GP8800 and GP8100 radar, the Proceq Pundit PD8050 ultrasonic tomograph, and other electromagnetic and ultrasonic NDT instruments. We have surveyed thousands of square metres of RAAC with them.
Also in Burghfield Common
RAAC survey in Burghfield Common
RAAC survey in Burghfield Common, Berkshire, by Neil Smuts MCIOB MInstNDT FRCSP, President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard.
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RAAC structural assessment in Burghfield Common, Berkshire, by John Staves CEng FIStructE MIoD, working from Neil Smuts' survey.
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