For a RAAC survey in Houghton Regis, NDTScan brings something no general scanning contractor can: hands-on experience of identifying and analysing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete across the UK, in schools, hospitals, housing, public buildings and commercial estates. Bedfordshire has its share of the roofs and floors built with these planks between the late 1950s and the mid 1990s, and most have never been properly surveyed.
No Houghton Regis building appears on the national lists NDTScan tracks, which cover education settings in England and NHS hospital sites. That says nothing about the stock. RAAC went into flat and shallow-pitched roofs across Bedfordshire through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, in schools, halls, clinics, leisure centres, offices, housing and industrial units, and most of it has never been surveyed.
The method NDTScan uses in Houghton Regis 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 Houghton Regis owner receives a plank-level record, not a general opinion.
One rule applies to every RAAC survey in Houghton Regis. 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 Houghton Regis client.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Houghton Regis client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Houghton Regis
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Houghton Regis. 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 Bedfordshire 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 Houghton Regis owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Houghton Regis
Typical Houghton Regis instructions: RAAC identification in schools, halls, clinics and council buildings built between 1955 and 1995; plank by plank condition assessment of confirmed RAAC roofs and floors; risk classification in line with IStructE guidance to support decisions on closure, propping or continued use; reinspection and monitoring of managed RAAC; and independent review of surveys and remediation proposals for Bedfordshire owners and their insurers. NDTScan covers Houghton Regis from Oxford in the same way it covers the rest of England.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Luton, Bedford, Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable, Kempston and Biggleswade and the rest of Bedfordshire. The rest of the region is covered from the East of England 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 Houghton Regis 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.