How Concrete Scanning Makes It Safer for a Construction Crew to Work on Your Building
Posted on: 13 September 2022
If you need to have work done on your building that involves drilling or cutting into concrete, your contractor might want to do radar scanning first. Concrete scanning is necessary so the contractor can avoid hitting and damaging anything that's embedded in the concrete.
Since it isn't possible to tell what's inside the concrete by looking, radar is used to detect where utilities, rebar, and other things are located so safe places to drill can be found. Here's more information on concrete scanning.
Why Concrete Scanning Is Necessary
When a contractor drills into concrete, they can't always tell if they're drilling into only concrete or if they're hitting something that's embedded in there. Concrete contains tension cables, rebar, beams, electrical conduits, and plumbing pipes. Hitting any of these could cause problems that lead to damage to the building, injury to workers, and things like utility damage that is costly to repair.
Hitting a tension cable could cause the cable to snap and damage the building. Drilling into an electrical conduit could cause electrocution. That's why it's essential to have concrete scanning done so the contractor can map out the safe areas to drill for the construction crew.
How GPR Concrete Scanning Is Done
Concrete scanning is done with radar equipment. The equipment is compact and quiet, so the scan is not disruptive. The contractor scans a small area of the concrete at a time and as the radar passes over the concrete, images show where the concrete is solid, where air pockets are located, and where objects are embedded.
Scanning can be done on all types of concrete such as floors, walls, and columns. It can even be done on a slab-on-grade foundation since access to only one side of the concrete is needed. A scan can be done on all kinds of buildings and any other structure made of concrete.
How The Construction Crew Sees The Results
The radar results show items that are in the concrete, but the radar can't always identify what it picks up. Obtaining accurate results requires interpreting the images based on knowledge of how a building is constructed. This allows the contractor to know if a mark is an electrical conduit or rebar. However, all embedded objects need to be avoided.
The contractor doing the scan draws a map on the concrete with symbols that show exactly where the objects are located and what they are. This lets the crew see safe areas between the markings where they can drill.
The scanning service can also provide the construction contractor with computerized 3D models of the radar results as well as CAD drawings so the contractor can plan the best places to drill to avoid structural damage to the building.
For more information, contact a concrete scanning servicein your area such as GeoTek Services, LLC.
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