Concrete Scanning

Many buildings and structures collapse often with catastrophic consequences like the Surfside Condo in Florida last year where 96 people tragically lost their lives. This was a result of reinforcement corrosion within the building structure, and it had lost its inherent strength. This is also known as concrete cancer and very self-explanatory as to why. Another well documented incident was the Morandi Bridge in Italy which collapsed killing 43 and left 600 people homeless.

Recently when Structural Repairs undertook a scan of a multi-story carpark, certain areas had visible signs of concrete delamination, there were namely, blown concrete, and less noticeable were small tell-tale signs of rust staining areas of the structure.

When we undertook a scan of the structure what we were able to identify was areas that had no visual signs of any issues but did have corrosion of the rebar within the structure. Being able identify issues is there early stages, enables a cost effective planned repair programme where the structural integrity of the structure is not compromised and the life of the structure is extended in the most environmentally friendly manner.

Nick Crossland MEng. (Hons) C.Eng. MIStructE From RWA Consultants stated, the benefits from concrete scanning to identify structural defects within the structure is huge. We have used Structural repairs to historically identify and map where reinforcement is in piers, ground beams and floor slabs when undertaking alterations to existing buildings. Now being able to test the structural integrity of the existing concrete and the condition reinforcement within the concrete is a huge benefit.