RAAC Survey in Crowthorne
If you manage a school, hall, clinic, leisure centre or office in Crowthorne with a flat roof built between the 1950s and the mid 1990s, a RAAC survey is how you find out whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete is in it and how it is performing. Our surveys are led by Neil Smuts (MCIOB, MInstNDT, FRCSP), President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard and a Fellow of the Register of Concrete Scanning Professionals, working from Finchampstead on the other side of Wokingham.
- Led by Neil Smuts, MCIOB MInstNDT FRCSP, President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard
- Findings assessed by John Staves, CEng FIStructE MIoD, a chartered engineer who specialises in RAAC
- School RAAC surveyor and academy RAAC surveyor: most of our work, arranged around the timetable
- Non-destructive: RAAC and its reinforcement confirmed without opening up the roof. Visual surveys from £395
- Usually on site in Berkshire within one to two days; report within five working days of the visit
Based in Finchampstead, Wokingham. Crowthorne is local to us.
Inside a Structured Carbon RAAC survey
We start with the building's history: when it was built, when it was extended, and any drawings or previous reports you hold. On site we inspect every accessible roof, floor and wall panel that could be RAAC, record its condition, and use non-destructive scanning to confirm whether a panel is RAAC and where its reinforcement sits. Bearings are checked, because RAAC planks fail at the ends before they fail in the middle. We record cracking, deflection, water staining and any evidence of previous repair, panel by panel, with a location plan so nothing is lost between survey and assessment.
What you get back is a report written for a structural engineer to act on, not a photo album. Because that engineer is John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC, the survey is designed around what he needs to classify each panel and decide what should happen next.
Who asks us for RAAC surveys in Crowthorne
The buildings most likely to contain RAAC are the ones Crowthorne has plenty of: post-war schools and colleges, health centres and clinics, sports halls and swimming pools, community centres, libraries, courts, offices and light industrial units, all built between the 1950s and the mid 1990s with flat or shallow roofs. If a building like that has never been surveyed for RAAC, it should be. If it was surveyed on a visual basis only, the findings are worth confirming with scanning, because RAAC and dense concrete are hard to tell apart from below.
RAAC surveyor for schools, academies and public buildings in Crowthorne
School and academy RAAC surveys are most of our work. Headteachers, school business managers and multi-academy trusts in Crowthorne need a RAAC survey that is quick to arrange, quiet to carry out and written so that the trust, the Department for Education and the insurer can act on it. The same applies to NHS estates, GP surgeries, council property teams, churches and village halls, leisure centres and commercial landlords: anyone with a flat-roofed building of the RAAC era.
Which school RAAC surveyors can also provide a management and remediation strategy following inspection? We can, because the surveyor and the chartered engineer who assesses the findings are one team, and the strengthening that follows is designed by the same engineer. A visual survey starts from £395; a full engineering inspection is priced per building.
Why Crowthorne has buildings of the RAAC era
Crowthorne sits in the Bracknell Forest Council area, close to Sandhurst, Bracknell and Wokingham. It is home to Wellington College, Broadmoor Hospital and the Transport Research Laboratory site now being redeveloped for housing, and it holds institutional and school buildings of every period from Victorian to 1980s. Frimley Park Hospital, which serves this part of Berkshire, is a publicly identified RAAC hospital and is being replaced under the New Hospital Programme, which has put RAAC on the agenda for every estates team in the area. That is the building stock the RAAC survey question applies to: anything with a flat or shallow roof from the 1950s to the mid 1990s, whether school, clinic, hall, leisure centre or office.
A practical starting point in Crowthorne
If you are responsible for buildings in Crowthorne, 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 Bracknell Forest Council area that will usually take in institutional and school buildings of every period from Victorian to 1980s. Anything on that list that has never had RAAC ruled in or out is a candidate for a RAAC survey. 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.
What happens after the survey
Three outcomes are possible once the survey is assessed. The panels are sound and can be managed and monitored. Some panels need propping or restricted use while a decision is made. Or the roof needs intervention, and the choice is between strengthening it in place and replacing it. The RAAC assessment by John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC tells you which applies to your building in Crowthorne, and why. 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.
If strengthening is the answer, the design, manufacture, installation and monitoring are carried out by the same partnership that surveyed the roof.
What we bring to Crowthorne
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 survey FAQs
What does the report contain?
A panel-by-panel record of what was found: whether the panel is RAAC, its condition, bearing details, cracking, deflection, moisture, previous repairs, all referenced to a location plan with photographs. It is written for a structural engineer to assess from.
Who assesses the findings?
John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC, carries out the structural assessment. The survey is designed around what he needs, which is why the two stages work as one.
Is a RAAC survey the same as a RAAC assessment?
No. The survey establishes what is there and what condition it is in. The assessment is the engineering judgement about what that means and what to do. We offer both, and you can read about RAAC assessment in Crowthorne separately.
How do I know if my building might have RAAC?
Flat or low-pitched roofs, sometimes floors and walls, in buildings built or extended between the 1950s and the mid 1990s. Schools, hospitals, clinics, halls, leisure centres, courts, offices and industrial units of that period are all candidates. If you are unsure, send us the age and type of the building and we will tell you whether a survey is worth doing.
Where do you cover?
We are based in Finchampstead, Wokingham, so Crowthorne is on our doorstep. Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are local to us, and we work across the UK.
How much does a RAAC survey cost?
There is no blanket price, because buildings differ. As a guide, a visual RAAC survey starts from £395. A full engineering inspection of a large or complex building, a hospital for example, is priced per building once we know its size, access and the level of detail required. Tell us the building and we will give you a figure for it.
Do you survey schools and academies in Crowthorne?
Yes, and that is most of our work. School and academy RAAC surveys in Crowthorne are arranged around the timetable or in holidays, written so the trust, the Department for Education and the insurer can act on them, and followed, where you want it, by an engineering inspection and a management and remediation strategy from the same team. Neil is DBS checked.
Also in Crowthorne
RAAC assessment in Crowthorne
RAAC structural assessment in Crowthorne, Berkshire, by John Staves CEng FIStructE MIoD, working from Neil Smuts' survey.
RAAC assessment in CrowthorneRAAC scanning in Crowthorne
RAAC scanning in Crowthorne, Berkshire: non-destructive identification of RAAC planks and their reinforcement by Neil Smuts, President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard.
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