RAAC surveys in Waltham Forest are carried out by NDTScan, the UK's specialist in the identification and analysis of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The planks were installed in Greater London buildings for nearly forty years, mainly in flat and shallow-pitched roofs, and they are now well beyond the design life their manufacturers assumed. Identifying them is the first step; understanding their condition is the one that matters.
The Department of Health and Social Care's list of hospital sites with confirmed RAAC includes Royal Free Hospital, Oval Depot, University Hospital Lewisham and Chase Farm Hospital and others in Greater London. Harrow Crown Court, Palace of Westminster and Heathrow Airport have also been publicly reported as containing RAAC. NDTScan names these buildings to show that RAAC is a live issue in Greater London, 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 Waltham Forest that no national list has ever counted.
NDTScan surveys RAAC in Waltham Forest 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 Waltham Forest, 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 Waltham Forest client, and the reason NDTScan reports what the concrete contains before anyone specifies what to do about it.
Services Available in Waltham Forest
- RAAC Identification Survey GPR based, plank by plank identification of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in roofs, floors and walls across Waltham Forest. 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 Greater London 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 Waltham Forest owner needs an independent second opinion on a survey or a remediation proposal.
RAAC in and around Waltham Forest
Instructions in and around Waltham Forest 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 Greater London 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 Waltham Forest from its Oxford base.
NDTScan also provides RAAC surveys in Croydon, Barnet, Ealing, Newham, Brent and Enfield and the rest of Greater London. The rest of the region is covered from the London 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 Waltham Forest 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.