RAAC in a hotel, found properly and managed properly.
We work alongside your contractors and suppliers. We survey, we audit, and we write down what is still outstanding. In buildings of a certain age, that includes whether RAAC is there.
What RAAC is and which buildings have it
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete is a lightweight precast material, used mainly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. The HSE describes it as less durable than traditional concrete and liable to collapse. The Construction Leadership Council widens the window to 1950 to the mid-1990s. Many hotels were built or extended in those years, and RAAC turns up in roofs, floors and walls.
How it gets found, usually mid-works
Usually when a ceiling comes down for something else. Then the programme stops, nobody has a plan, and rooms sit empty while one is made. It is cheaper and calmer to know before the works start. Before any RAAC investigation begins, we read the asbestos register first.
Survey, assessment, management plan
We identify where RAAC is present and record the condition of each panel. A structural engineer assesses it. You get a written management plan: what to monitor, what to prop, what to replace, and in what order, so the decisions are made on paper before anything is done on site.
What it means for a live refurbishment
Areas may need to close while they are assessed or propped. We plan that around your trading in the same way as any other works: you decide how many rooms can be out at once, and we programme to it. Where RAAC sits above a working area, the plan says what can carry on underneath it and what cannot.
Standards we work to
Investigation follows the Institution of Structural Engineers' guidance on RAAC investigation and assessment, and assessment and remedial design are signed by a chartered structural engineer. Before any intrusive inspection we check the asbestos register, and where it is missing a refurbishment and demolition survey is carried out, as HSE guidance HSG264 requires.
What you receive
A survey report with every plank located on plan, photographed and recorded with its bearing, condition and the engineer's risk grading. A remedial scope priced to the engineer's design. Where planks stay in place, a written monitoring regime with inspection dates.
What we will not do
We do not carry out structural engineering design. A structural engineer signs the assessment, and we survey, manage and remediate to their instruction. We will not name any hotel where RAAC has been found. Older buildings often hold more than one surprise: read about older buildings.
Ask for a RAAC identification visit. Trading through it or closed for works, the choice is yours. See all our service lines, talk to us, book the gap report, or call us.