NDTScan carries out RAAC surveys in Gosport 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 Hampshire. 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 5 settings in Hampshire, among them Havant Academy, St Anne's Catholic Primary School and Farnborough College of Technology. The Department of Health and Social Care's list of hospital sites with confirmed RAAC includes Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester and Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire. NDTScan cites the published lists as evidence that RAAC is in the Hampshire 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 Gosport's council, housing, leisure, retail and commercial buildings has not been, and that is where most uninspected RAAC now sits.
NDTScan surveys RAAC in Gosport 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.
One rule applies to every RAAC survey in Gosport. No remediation, propping, strengthening or replacement should be designed until each plank has been identified and its condition recorded. Some of the most expensive RAAC decisions in the UK were taken on roofs that had never been properly surveyed. The survey is the cheapest part of getting the decision right, and NDTScan will say so to every Gosport client.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Gosport client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Gosport
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Gosport. 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 Hampshire 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 Gosport owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Gosport
Instructions in and around Gosport 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 Hampshire 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 Gosport from its Oxford base.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke, Farnborough, Winchester and Andover and the rest of Hampshire. The rest of the region is covered from the South East 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 Gosport 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.