Every slab hides something. Reinforcing steel, electrical conduits, water lines and, in many Sydney apartment and commercial buildings, post-tensioned cables under enormous load. Hit the wrong one and you're looking at a power outage, a flood, a damaged structure or a serious injury.
Concrete scanning removes the guesswork. Using non-destructive scanning equipment such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), we locate what's inside the concrete and mark it directly on the surface, so the cutting or coring can be positioned clear of it. There's no drilling and no damage. We simply see through the slab first.
Cutaway has offered scanning alongside cutting and coring for years because the two belong together. When we scan and cut on the same visit, the person reading the scan is the person making the cut.
Post-tensioned slabs
Post-tension (PT) slabs are common in Sydney apartments, car parks and commercial buildings. The steel tendons inside are stressed to very high loads, and cutting one can cause sudden, violent failure and costly structural repairs.
Before any penetration in a PT slab, we scan to find the tendon runs and mark a safe zone. If a planned hole sits on a tendon, we'll tell you before anything is cut so the location can be moved.
Conduits, pipes and reinforcement
Older buildings often have services run through slabs with no reliable drawings. Scanning finds embedded conduits and pipes so electricians and plumbers can avoid live services.
We also map reinforcement for engineers and builders who need to know bar positions, spacing or cover before they drill anchors, fix starter bars or assess a structure.