Hospitals RAAC Survey
Published on by Natalie Taylor-Clarke
Survey Solutions supports NHS hospitals with RAAC roof surveys—delivering precise data on plank deflection and end bearing to inform urgent remediation plans.
Survey Solutions has provided Hospitals RAAC help through our expertise and experience identifying and assessing this material. We have worked with a number of UK hospitals and NHS properties, identifying flat roof structures that have been constructed from RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) planks.
Flat roofs that have been built with RAAC planks may require remedial work and could be at risk of collapse if left unnoticed. Following an initial inspection by our clients and once the presence of RAAC materials have been identified we have been commissioned to work on several NHS properties, ranging from larger scale hospitals to smaller local clinics, to provide measurable data on all individual planks within the roof.
Providing Essential RAAC Survey Data for UK Hospitals
Our teams of surveyors can deliver precise and accurate data which clearly shows the end bearing and deflection of each RAAC plank. Across our projects, we have been able to inform our clients of the areas of risk to allow for a full remediation plan to be put in place.
Our surveyors are able to return to sites should further survey data be required to check that deflection is still not taking place. This ongoing monitoring programme ensures any new deformation can be flagged up quickly which may have occurred since the original survey.
Each hospital or clinic has presented its own challenges with our surveyors using their expertise to solve solutions as they found them. In some cases, we have needed to access planks concealed by suspended ceiling tiles, in others we have had to work around the issue of solid fixed ceilings. This included using an inverted mini prism to gain access to the points. Also, as most of our RAAC survey work so far this year has taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic we have also been able to demonstrate our approach to site safety and ensure we consider the health and wellbeing of patients, hospital staff as well as our own surveyors. As the hospitals remained operational during this time period, time was also paramount with as little disruption to the hospital, theatres and equipment during the survey.
State-of-the-Art Tech Ensures Data Can Be Trusted
On some projects, we have also used new state of the art laser scanning technology to complete full external roof scans. This is to map all roof plant and their corresponding feet and baseplates. This information is then combined with the layout of the planks and provides loading information on the RAAC planks below. This can provide a valuable insight into any higher levels of deformation.
With a network of offices across the UK, Survey Solutions is ideally placed to not only deliver high quality data but also be quickly available for sites nationwide. Typically, we can be on site in five working days from instruction.
Our technical article explains what is RAAC, or to discuss a project you are working on now or in the future please email our RAAC team.
“The work we are doing across several NHS sites is vital to understanding the construction of the flat roofs and by providing precise, high tolerance data we are able to inform whether further remediation work is required.”
