NDTScan carries out RAAC surveys across Northern Ireland for schools, hospitals, councils, housing providers, universities and commercial owners, attending from its Oxford base. 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. NDTScan is the UK's specialist in identifying it, assessing it and telling an owner plainly what to do next, and it covers every part of Northern Ireland.
Those lists cover education and health estates. The council, housing, leisure, retail and commercial stock of the same age across Northern Ireland has never been counted, and that is where NDTScan is most often asked to look.
NDTScan surveys RAAC in Northern Ireland 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 Northern Ireland, 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 Northern Ireland client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Northern Ireland
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Northern Ireland. 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 Northern Ireland 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 Northern Ireland owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC surveys across Northern Ireland, town by town
The towns NDTScan covers across Northern Ireland, grouped by county and council area.
Antrim and Newtownabbey
Antrim, Ballyclare, Crumlin, Metropolitan Newtownabbey, Randalstown
Ards and North Down
Ballygowan, Bangor, Comber, Donaghadee, Holywood, Newtownards
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon Urban Area Including Aghacommon, Dromore, Keady, Tandragee, Waringstown
Belfast
Belfast City, Metropolitan Lisburn
Causeway Coast and Glens
Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Dungiven, Limavady, Portrush, Portstewart
Derry City and Strabane
Culmore, Derry City, Eglinton, Strabane
Fermanagh and Omagh
Enniskillen, Lisnaskea, Omagh Town
Lisburn and Castlereagh
Carryduff, Hillsborough and Culcavy, Lisburn City, Metropolitan Castlereagh, Moira
Mid Ulster
Coalisland, Cookstown, Dungannon, Elsewhere In Ni, Maghera, Magherafelt
Mid and East Antrim
Ahoghill, Ballymena, Broughshane, Carrickfergus, Greenisland, Larne, Whitehead
Newry, Mourne and Down
Ballynahinch, Downpatrick, Kilkeel, Newcastle, Newry, Saintfield, Warrenpoint / Burren
The other regions are listed on the RAAC surveys page: South East, London, East of England, South West, West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, North West, North East, Wales and Scotland.
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 Northern Ireland 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.