For a RAAC survey in Langley Park, 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. County Durham 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.
The Department for Education's list of education settings with confirmed RAAC, published in February 2024, includes 4 settings in County Durham, among them Ferryhill School, St Bede's Catholic School and Byron Sixth Form College and St Benet's Catholic Primary School, Ouston. The Department of Health and Social Care's list of hospital sites with confirmed RAAC includes University Hospital of North Tees in County Durham. Forum Theatre has also been publicly reported as containing RAAC. Those are the buildings that made the published lists, which cover schools, colleges and NHS sites. They are named here as evidence that the construction is present in County Durham, not as NDTScan projects. Around Langley Park the same roof and floor planks are in council buildings, housing, leisure centres, retail units and industrial sheds that nobody has counted.
A RAAC survey from NDTScan starts with identification. Ground penetrating radar separates aerated planks from dense concrete, hollowcore and timber decks plank by plank, and the reinforcement pattern, transverse bars and plank widths confirm the reading without opening the roof. Condition comes next: cracking, deflection, end bearing, water staining, corrosion and previous repairs are recorded for each plank, and the findings are classified in line with IStructE guidance so the Langley Park owner can see at once which elements need action, which need monitoring and which are sound.
One rule applies to every RAAC survey in Langley Park. 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 Langley Park client.
Scan before you repair. That is the standing advice for every Langley Park client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Langley Park
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Langley Park. 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 County Durham 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 Langley Park owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Langley Park
Typical Langley Park 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 County Durham owners and their insurers. NDTScan covers Langley Park from Oxford in the same way it covers the rest of England.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, Billingham and Consett and the rest of County Durham. The rest of the region is covered from the North 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 Langley Park 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.