Sonning is inside NDTScan's home territory. Working from Oxford, Neil Smuts covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire as a single patch, and Sonning projects are scanned and interpreted by the same named specialist. There is no subcontracted operator and no anonymous report.
Sonning sits within Wokingham Borough, and the work here follows the pattern of the wider county: Thames Valley commercial estates, dense Victorian and interwar housing and the heavy concrete of the 1960s and 1970s office and hospital building boom. That mix of ages and construction types is why Sonning work has to start with a survey that is planned for the element in question, not a generic pass with one antenna.
The on-site capture is only the first step. NDTScan's value is in the post-processing: analysing reflections, cross-checking traces against each other, resolving ambiguous returns and producing a fully interpreted result. In Sonning, as everywhere else, the data is worked up in the office before a single conclusion is drawn, and the report says plainly what was found, what was not found and how confident the reading is.
Where Sonning clients are heading towards concrete repair, NDTScan's position is firm: the element must be scanned and the data interpreted by a reputable specialist before any repair is designed. Anything else risks treating the symptom and leaving the cause in place. The findings feed straight into the repair specification.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Sonning client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Sonning
- 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 Sonning 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 Berkshire 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 Sonning structures.
Typical Sonning Projects
Typical Sonning instructions include pre-drill scanning before mechanical and electrical installations, rebar and cover mapping for structural alterations and extensions, RAAC and non-standard construction identification in public and housing stock, slab thickness and void checks on ground floors and hardstandings, and full structural investigation where a repair is being considered.
NDTScan also covers Woodley, Reading and Charvil and the rest of Wokingham Borough. 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. Sonning and the whole of Berkshire are within the company's everyday working area, and all work is reported to a standard suitable for engineering acceptance.