For concrete scanning in Bicester, NDTScan offers something most scanning contractors do not: a named specialist who does the site work and the interpretation. Neil Smuts leads every Oxfordshire survey from NDTScan's Oxford base, and the report you receive is his reading of the data, not a set of marks left on a slab.
Bicester has its own character for this work: one of the fastest growing towns in England, with Bicester Village, the Graven Hill self-build estate, Kingsmere and the former RAF Bicester and Heyford Park sites. That mix of ages and construction types is why Bicester work has to start with a survey that is planned for the element in question, not a generic pass with one antenna.
Most scanning companies stop at marks on the surface. NDTScan does not. Every Bicester survey goes through careful office post-processing, where reflections are analysed, ambiguities resolved and the interpretation checked against the drawings and the element's history. The result is a record the client can design from, defend in a dispute and hand to an auditor.
NDTScan will always say this to a Bicester client considering repairs: scan first. A repair specified without a proper survey and an expert interpretation is a repair to a guess. The survey establishes what is really there, so the engineer can design for the structure that exists rather than the one on the drawings.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Bicester client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Bicester
- GPR Concrete Scanning Pre-drill and pre-coring surveys, rebar and mesh mapping, post-tensioned tendon detection, void and honeycombing detection, slab thickness and cover measurement and RAAC identification. Method and antenna selected for the Bicester element in question, with the full interpreted record supplied.
- Ultrasonic Testing of Concrete Ultrasonic pulse velocity testing for uniformity and quality assessment, pulse echo for thickness and delamination where only one face is accessible, and the combined SONREB method for compressive strength estimation. Used across Oxfordshire where GPR alone cannot answer the question.
- Concrete Compressive Strength Assessment Rebound hammer surveys, UPV combined method and managed core extraction with laboratory testing to BS EN 13791. Independent reporting suitable for engineering acceptance, building control and dispute work on Bicester structures.
Typical Bicester Projects
Around Bicester the instructions NDTScan receives are shaped by post-war housing where non-standard construction has to be identified before any works and airfield pavements and hangar slabs. Alongside those sit the constants of every Oxfordshire town: pre-drill and pre-coring scans on occupied buildings, post-tensioned slab investigation before any fixing or penetration, RAAC identification in schools and public buildings, and structural investigation before repair.
NDTScan also covers Ambrosden, Launton and Caversfield and the rest of Cherwell. Every one of these areas is reached from the Oxford base without a subcontractor in the chain.
About NDTScan
NDTScan is a specialist non-destructive testing company based in Oxford and led by Neil Smuts. Its core disciplines are GPR concrete scanning, ultrasonic testing and in-situ compressive strength assessment, brought together in its concrete scanning and structural condition survey service. NDTScan is a Level 4 UKCSS Operator, the first in the UK to achieve that certification. Bicester and the whole of Oxfordshire are within the company's everyday working area, and all work is reported to a standard suitable for engineering acceptance.