RAAC survey: find out what is above the ceiling

The Assess stage of the RAACSafe™ Protocol

Survey, assessment and scanning are the Assess stage of our five-stage RAACSafe™ Protocol: Assess, Design, Manufacture, Install, Monitor. Neil Smuts owns Assess and Monitor; John Staves owns Design, and together they ensure safe, quality-controlled delivery throughout. Because the survey is planned around the assessing engineer's questions, and the assessment feeds a design the same partnership will manufacture, install and monitor, nothing is lost between stages and nobody is selling you a replacement roof you may not need. Where strengthening is the answer, it is done with the UK's first CFRP system designed specifically for RAAC, insurer approved and extensively tested. Our instrumented monitoring devices are in active service on RAAC roofs today.

Neil is the author of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC): A Comprehensive Analysis, a book-length study of the material, its history and its assessment.

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. Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are local to us, and we work across the UK.

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.

• Non-destructive. RAAC and its reinforcement confirmed without cutting into the building.
• In use throughout. Quiet, room-by-room work planned around the timetable.
• Engineer-ready. Every finding recorded panel by panel to a location plan for assessment.
• One team. The people who survey are the people who design, install and monitor.

Read about RAAC strengthening, the stage that follows when the assessment supports it.