There is a need to evaluate a structure before performing some basic drilling to prevent damage. Concrete drilling is an inevitable exercise, especially where there needs to be a retrofit. Concrete scanning will help you decide where the drilling works will have minimum hits on the overall structure. The basic structure of a building is held up by embedded steel, and tampering with the embedded objects might alter the structural integrity of the building. It is therefore important to concrete scan to determine where concrete drilling shall have minimum impact on the overall structure. There are uncountable scenarios where concrete drilling must be done. For example, when repairing drainage systems, making retrofits into a structure and more.
Performing work on existing concrete walls requires performing invasive core drilling through slabs and concrete. Concrete contains rebar, tension cables or conduit and most importantly, power cables. To be sure of not causing damage, it is important to concrete scan to know where to drill and cause less damage than core drilling blindly.
Eliminate risks through concrete scanning
The construction industry in most parts of the world recommends concrete scanning before performing any invasive core drilling. It is the smartest way to minimize risks and to find out what is underlying beneath the concrete. Unlike concrete x-ray that takes time and requires scanning from both sides of the wall, the latest GPR does the trick, reliably revealing what’s underneath.
Dangers of skipping concrete scanning
Skipping the process of concrete scanning and core drilling blindly poses great dangers to the operators and worse the main structure. Without scanning, you will never know if something will be hit in the process. For example, concrete development includes some steel, and hitting these still causes structural risks to the overall building. Damage caused to the rebar is risky since it compromises the strength and sturdiness of the structure.
Concrete walls in most structures harbour power lines and water lines, if you are not careful, GPR scan before commencing drilling work, damage to these lines might be costly to repair and might even cause a fire in the case of the electric power line.
How GPR works
Concrete scanning technology has evolved from traditional x-ray to GPR scanning. GPR sends radar waves using a certain frequency through the concrete, where the waves are bounced back when they meet abnormal objects such as rebar, cables, conduits, voids and more. This when analysed, provides a clear overview of what’s beneath the concrete. While it will be difficult to distinguish between different objects such as rebar, cables and so on, highly skilled operators will recognise the patterns produced through each anomaly and the information derived will be useful for contractors carrying out retrofits or another invasive concrete drilling to determine places where they can perform core drilling safely. GPR can be used by structural auditors to visualise structural defects in taller structures and recommend repairs as required by the construction regulations or recommend bringing the structure due to the dangers it poses to the humans.
Importance of using GPR to scan concrete
GPR gives effective results to effectively eliminate damage to rebar, tension cables, and more. Trained people are able to read and analyse the results to give proper guidance to the drilling process to avoid damage. A few hours of concrete scanning is very important in maintaining the integrity of the entire structure.
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