RAAC Survey in Lambourn
If you manage a school, hall, clinic, leisure centre or office in Lambourn 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. Lambourn is local to us.
How we survey RAAC in Lambourn
RAAC looks like ordinary concrete from below, which is why buildings in Lambourn have gone decades without anyone knowing what was above the ceiling. Our survey confirms it properly: a review of the building's construction history, a panel-by-panel visual inspection of everything accessible, and non-destructive scanning to establish that a panel is RAAC and where its reinforcement lies. Bearing lengths, cracking, deflection, water ingress and previous repairs are all recorded to a location plan.
Every survey is read by John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC, and it is written so that he can assess each panel from it without a second visit.
When a building in Lambourn needs a RAAC survey
The buildings most likely to contain RAAC are the ones Lambourn 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.
School, academy, NHS and council RAAC surveys in Lambourn
Most RAAC surveys we are asked for in Lambourn come from four places: schools and academy trusts working to Department for Education guidance, NHS and primary care estates teams, council property departments, and the owners of halls, churches, sports centres and offices with flat roofs from the 1950s to the mid 1990s. Each gets the same two-part offer. A visual survey, from £395, identifies and records the RAAC. An engineering inspection and structural assessment, priced per building, classifies every panel and tells you what to do, signed by a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers.
For a school or academy trust that needs a RAAC surveyor who can also provide a management and remediation strategy after the inspection, that is what the two-part offer is for.
RAAC in Lambourn
We know Lambourn well: it is the Valley of the Racehorse, with a large stock of stable yards and equestrian buildings, with stable yards, equestrian buildings and a village school and hall, and around 3,100 residents under West Berkshire Council. Ask the RAAC survey question of any flat-roofed building here that predates the mid 1990s, because that is where RAAC planks were used.
Where to begin if you manage property in Lambourn
The question is not "does Lambourn have RAAC" but "which of my buildings might". The answer sits in the construction dates. Buildings of the RAAC era in and around Lambourn, Hungerford and Wantage typically include stable yards, equestrian buildings and a village school and hall. Pull the dates for each, note which have flat roofs, and treat every one that fits as unconfirmed until a RAAC survey says otherwise. We are happy to look at the list with you before anything is booked.
After the RAAC survey: assessment, then a plan
The survey feeds straight into a RAAC assessment by John Staves (CEng FIStructE, MIoD), a chartered structural engineer and one of the UK's leading specialists in RAAC. He classifies each panel, tells you what can stay in use, what needs propping or monitoring, and whether the roof is a candidate for strengthening in place with bespoke CFRP rather than replacement. That last question matters more than any other for the budget. 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.
Where strengthening is the answer, the same team designs, manufactures, installs and monitors it through our five-stage RAACSafe™ Protocol: Assess, Design, Manufacture, Install, Monitor.
What we bring to Lambourn
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
Do you need to open up the roof?
No. We confirm RAAC and locate its reinforcement using non-destructive scanning from the underside or the roof surface. Where a small opening is already present we will use it, but the survey does not depend on cutting into the building.
What 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.
Are you insured?
Professional indemnity insurance is held to a maximum of £10 million, with public and employers' liability arranged on a per-site basis.
Can the building stay open during the survey?
Yes. The survey is quiet, non-destructive work carried out room by room. Schools in Lambourn usually ask us to work around the timetable or in holidays; health and office buildings carry on around us. Neil is DBS checked.
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 Lambourn separately.
Also in Lambourn
RAAC assessment in Lambourn
RAAC structural assessment in Lambourn, Berkshire, by John Staves CEng FIStructE MIoD, working from Neil Smuts' survey.
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RAAC scanning in Lambourn, Berkshire: non-destructive identification of RAAC planks and their reinforcement by Neil Smuts, President of the UK Concrete Scanning Standard.
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Related: RAAC strengthening, RAAC remediation in Berkshire, RAAC confirmed buildings register, RAAC in schools.