Have you ever avoided doing something you knew was a good idea because it was too expensive? Maybe it was having preventative maintenance completed on your car, or buying travel insurance on a trip you knew could possibly be cancelled. Sometimes you luck out, and you get to save the money and nothing bad ever happens, but other times, you look back and wish you had just figured out how to come up with the money you needed to pay for the thing.
In the world of construction, paying for concrete scanning services can fall into this category. It’s not technically necessary that a property owner have his or her concrete scanned prior to the start of a renovation project, but it would certainly be wise to do so. A concrete scanning service can come in, and in a matter of hours, tell the property owner where any embedded hazards are located so they can avoid disturbing them during the construction process.
What types of hazards are we talking about here? Some concrete slabs are reinforced by rebar, while others are supported by post-tensioned cables. Damaging either of these in the course of cutting, coring, or drilling into the concrete can compromise the stability of the concrete slab. In addition, if a post-tensioned cable snaps and hits someone, it could cause serious injury—or even death!
Another type of hazard typically embedded in concrete is utility lines. This could include anything from water lines, to sewer lines, to telecommunications cables, to gas lines. Damaging any of these would inevitably cause a construction project to come to a standstill while repairs are being made. Not only will the repairs likely be costly, the project will be delayed, which could incur additional costs.
According to Enhanced Scanning, a company that offers concrete scanning services in Southern California, concrete scanning isn’t prohibitively expensive. Company representatives say, “With ground penetrating radar (GPR) scanning technology, concrete can be scanned quickly and accurately, with results delivered almost immediately. Gone are the days when we could only get an accurate scan of concrete using X-ray and have to then process the results off site. GPR has revolutionized concrete scanning in the best possible ways. We can provide our clients with the results they need to keep their projects moving forward, and it doesn’t drastically increase the project cost.”
GPR can be used in just about any space. It doesn’t emit any harmful radiation that would require that the space be vacated (unlike X-ray), and it is easily accessible in most parts of the country. The key is finding a skilled GPR technician, since interpreting the results of a GPR scanner takes some training and experience to get them right.
