For a RAAC survey in Sunderland, 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. Tyne and Wear 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 one setting in Sunderland, among them St John Bosco Catholic Primary School, Town End Farm, Sunderland. NDTScan names these buildings to show that RAAC is a live issue in Tyne and Wear, not to suggest it has worked on them. The published lists cover education and NHS estates only. The same planks sit in council offices, housing, leisure centres, theatres, shops, depots and private commercial stock around Sunderland that no national list has ever 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 Sunderland owner can see at once which elements need action, which need monitoring and which are sound.
The most expensive mistake in Sunderland, 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 Sunderland client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Sunderland
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Sunderland. 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 Tyne and Wear 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 Sunderland owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Sunderland
Typical Sunderland 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 Tyne and Wear owners and their insurers. NDTScan covers Sunderland from Oxford in the same way it covers the rest of England.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Shields, Tynemouth, Washington and Wallsend and the rest of Tyne and Wear. 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 Sunderland 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.