Hello, my name is Tony and this is my concrete installation and maintenance blog. I am not a professional concrete contractor but I am very passionate about DIY. My dad was a contractor and when I was growing up he taught me all kinds of neat tips and tricks. Once time, he took me out into the yard and made me inspect the concrete wall. The concrete was crumbling away, exposing the metal bars beneath. My father explained that this was concrete cancer and then demonstrated how to repair the damage. I hope you find my blog useful and entertaining.
Concrete scanning is scanning the internal features of a concrete structure, whether a wall or floor. It is usually done to investigate the strength of a building. This will be used to determine the structural issues, load it can carry, and level of degradation. This might be used to determine if a building requires renovations and reinforcing.
Also, whenever a building has to undergo renovations or adjustments, it is important to find out what lies beneath the concrete floors and in concrete walls. Concrete scanning is usually done to show the things hidden beneath concrete floors.
Why is concrete scanning important?
There are many things that may be buried beneath the floor that will greatly affect the costs of the project as well as inconvenience other people. Some of the things usually buried beneath concrete floors include; reinforcement bars, electrical wires, fiber optic cables, pipes and air spaces. Metal objects may destroy drilling equipment, electrical wires pose a serious safety hazard, and destroying fiber optic cables is also costly. Detecting voids will help show the structural concerns and degradation of the floor.
The initial building plans may help shed some light, but they will not have details of any changes and additions that might have been made to the structure.
There are different concrete scanning equipment effective for identifying particular objects. These scanners can make images to specific depths depending on the manufacturers.
How is concrete scanning performed?
Concrete scanning is normally done in either 2d or 3d and usually involves ground penetrating radar and concrete scanning x-rays.
X-rays are able to show small objects in walls with great clarity. However they are also are known to be harmful and require workers to take a lot of precautions. Normally, the whole area where the scanning is being done has to be evacuated and closed off.
Ground penetrating radar is gaining more traction in the industry because it does not pose any known health hazards to people. Its ability to show small wall structures is not as accurate as the x-ray, but it has been improved to an extent that it is preferred to the x-ray. Its only weakness is that highly moist conditions will affect its accuracy.
The costs of carrying out scans varies and is dependent on the size of the project, the projected duration it will take the technology employed and the amount of material like mesh and reinforcement bars that were used in the construction.
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