NDTScan carries out RAAC surveys in Freckleton 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 Lancashire. 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 3 settings in Lancashire, among them Haslingden St James Church of England Primary School, Knuzden St Oswald's Church of England Primary Academy and Our Lady's Catholic High School. The Department of Health and Social Care's list of hospital sites with confirmed RAAC includes Royal Blackburn Hospital and Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Lancashire. Preston Guild Hall has also been publicly reported as containing RAAC. NDTScan cites the published lists as evidence that RAAC is in the Lancashire 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 Freckleton's council, housing, leisure, retail and commercial buildings has not been, and that is where most uninspected RAAC now sits.
NDTScan surveys RAAC in Freckleton in two stages that are usually completed on the same visit. First, identification: GPR and the plank's own signature, its width, its transverse reinforcement and its bearing detail, establish plank by plank whether the element is RAAC at all. Second, condition: each confirmed plank is inspected for cracking, deflection, bearing length, water ingress, corrosion and past repair, and the results are classified in line with IStructE guidance. The report says what was found, what was not found and how confident each reading is.
The most expensive mistake in Freckleton, 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 Freckleton client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Freckleton
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Freckleton. 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 Lancashire 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 Freckleton owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Freckleton
Around Freckleton the work divides into four kinds. Owners who do not know what their roof is made of and need it identified. Owners who know it is RAAC and need every plank assessed and classified in line with IStructE guidance. Estates teams who need a management plan and a reinspection regime for planks staying in service. And Lancashire clients who have a survey or a remediation proposal in front of them and want NDTScan's independent view before committing money. Public bodies, housing providers, insurers and private owners all instruct on the same basis.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Blackpool, Blackburn, Preston, Burnley, Lancaster and Lytham St Anne's and the rest of Lancashire. 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 Freckleton 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.