NDTScan carries out RAAC surveys in Bolton for schools, hospitals, councils, housing providers, universities and commercial owners. Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete was used in roofs, floors and walls from the late 1950s to the mid 1990s, and a great deal of it is still in service across Greater Manchester. NDTScan is the UK's specialist in identifying it, assessing it and telling an owner plainly what to do next.
The Department for Education's list of education settings with confirmed RAAC, published in February 2024, includes 6 settings in Bolton, among them Thornleigh Salesian College, St Bernard's RC Primary School, Bolton and St Stephen and All Martyrs' CofE School, Lever Bridge. The Department of Health and Social Care's list of hospital sites with confirmed RAAC includes Leigh Infirmary, North Manchester General, Wythenshawe Hospital and Oxford Road Campus and others in Greater Manchester. Manchester Metropolitan University Library building has also been publicly reported as containing RAAC. NDTScan cites the published lists as evidence that RAAC is in the Greater Manchester building stock, and for no other reason. Education and health estates were counted because government asked for them to be counted. The equivalent stock in Bolton's council, housing, leisure, retail and commercial buildings has not been, and that is where most uninspected RAAC now sits.
The method NDTScan uses in Bolton is the one it uses everywhere: identify first, then assess. Ground penetrating radar reads the plank's internal structure without cutting into it, distinguishing RAAC from the dense precast, hollowcore and timber it is often mistaken for. Every confirmed plank is then inspected for the defects that matter, cracking, deflection, short bearing, water damage, corrosion and earlier repairs, and classified in line with IStructE guidance. The Bolton owner receives a plank-level record, not a general opinion.
The most expensive mistake in Bolton, as everywhere else, is to act on RAAC before it has been understood. Whole buildings have been closed on the strength of a visual inspection that could not tell RAAC from hollowcore. NDTScan's position is that identification and condition assessment come first, remediation second, and the report has to be good enough to design from.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Bolton client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Bolton
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Bolton. Confirms what the element is made of without opening it up, and records plank widths, reinforcement and bearing details as evidence.
- RAAC Condition Assessment Plank level inspection of confirmed RAAC for cracking, deflection, bearing length, water ingress, corrosion and previous repairs, classified in line with IStructE guidance. Reported so a Greater Manchester engineer or estates team can act on it directly.
- RAAC Management and Reinspection Monitoring regimes, reinspection intervals and management plans for RAAC that is being kept in service, plus expert input where a Bolton owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Bolton
Instructions in and around Bolton follow the RAAC lifecycle. Identification surveys where the construction of a flat or shallow roof is uncertain. Condition assessment of planks already known to be RAAC. Risk classification to IStructE guidance to support closure, propping or continued use decisions. Management plans and reinspection for planks kept in service. Independent review where a Greater Manchester owner has been given a survey or a remediation quote and wants a second opinion before spending. NDTScan works for the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office of Government Property funded bodies as well as private owners, and attends Bolton from its Oxford base.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Manchester, Stockport, Rochdale, Oldham, Salford and Wythenshawe and the rest of Greater Manchester. The rest of the region is covered from the North West RAAC surveys page, and the service itself is described on the RAAC surveys page.
About NDTScan
NDTScan is a specialist non-destructive testing company based in Oxford and led by Neil Smuts, author of The RAAC Book. It is the UK's specialist in the identification and analysis of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and a Level 4 UKCSS Operator, the first in the UK to achieve that certification. RAAC surveys in Bolton sit alongside the company's concrete scanning and structural condition survey work, and every report is written to a standard suitable for engineering acceptance, insurers and dispute work.