If you’re someone looking for concrete scanning services in your area, you might not be quite sure what exactly to look for. Are there any industry licenses or certifications you should look for? What about the type of equipment the company or individual uses for the concrete scans they conduct? Is there anything else you should ask about?

When it comes to hiring a concrete scanning service, there are three things you should consider: the company’s or individual’s experience, the equipment they use, and their deliverables.

Experience

When it comes to experience, the more experience a company has, the better! There are people out there who will tell you that concrete scanning is fairly straightforward and as long as someone has the right equipment, pretty much anyone can do it. However, this isn’t really the case.

The main piece of equipment used by concrete scanning services, ground penetrating radar (GPR), takes a good amount of training to master. Therefore, you want to work with someone who has a a high level of training and experience using this technology.

Unfortunately, the state of California has no official certification for GPR operators, so you can’t rely on government credentials to help you choose a qualified concrete scanning service. There are a few industry certifications that a person can obtain, but none that are broadly recognized as the industry standard.

You’re going to have to do some homework to find someone who can provide you with quality concrete scanning service. This might mean reading online reviews and asking for referrals from people you know in the construction industry.

Equipment

As you start to identify a couple of options for concrete scanning services in your area, you should look for companies that have a range of scanning tools at their disposal. While it’s true that most concrete scanning jobs only require the use of ground penetrating radar, there are circumstances where other tools are required. For example, if you have a very congested concrete slab and you need to drill or cut in a very specific area, you may want to get a concrete X-ray, which can provide you with greater level detail than is available with GPR. Or, if you need details about the composition of your concrete, rather than just where embedded items are located, your concrete scanning service may need to make use of technologies like ultrasonics, eddy currents, or rebound hammer instruments.

Deliverables

You also want to make sur that the concrete scanning service you hire is able to provide you with the type of deliverable(s) you need for your project. You might just need to have marks spray painted on your concrete indicating where embedded items are located—which obviously anyone can do. However, if you need something more sophisticated, such as a customized CAD overlay or a laser scanned point cloud, you need to make sure your concrete scanning service is able to provide that.

Working with the right concrete scanning service can help your project proceed without incident, so make sure you take the time to research your options, and only hire a company that can truly meet your needs.