Concrete Scan to Locate Electrical Floor Boxes
GPRS was called to a job-site after a general contractor discovered that several electrical floor boxes had been covered over during a concrete pour. The pour was a 12” thick, elevated concrete slab. It was the objective of GPRS to scan the elevated concrete slab and identify the location of the floor boxes that had been mistakenly covered during the final pour. GPRS delivered in a huge way on this one!
Using a SIR3000 head unit with a 1600MHz GPR antenna, our technicians quickly got set up, by calibrating the equipment to the specific slab that they were working on, and by diagnosing the conditions. Then, they started the project by scanning the large areas of the concrete to determine the structural layout of steel and other embedments in the slab. After determining a typical rebar and post tension layout, they then proceeded to hone in on the anticipated floor box locations as pointed out by the general contractor. With each area cleared and ready to be GPR scanned, the GPRS team was able to quickly identify electrical box number one. The GPR crew quickly moved around the slab to scan and identify electrical boxes within the slab. In total, GPRS located all 15 floor boxes that had been covered.
During the GPR scanning process, GPR technicians were able to locate several high priority targets. Targets such as live electrical conduit, #4 rebar, post tensioned cable and beams. Many of these features came as a surprise to the contractor on site, and thus, it turned out to be extremely valuable information. Knowing where these obstructions were in the slab potentially saved the project from undue delays and injury if the drill crew would have drilled into one of them.
While on site, our GPRS Project Manager had a new team member with him whom he was training. When asked, we were proud to discuss how thorough and valuable our training program is, and why it is critical for new hires to join senior technicians on job sites. The pair of GPRS technicians moved around the slab and discussed the structural makeup of the building. The senior technician pointed to features such as slab thickness, the columns and beams, fixtures hanging from above and how these elements might help with identifying the location of the floor boxes.
As we finished up with the initial work, the contractor approached our crew and asked if we would be able to spare a few minutes to walk a slab and discuss its findings. During this process, we took the time to walk to each location that we had scanned, and we thoroughly discussed the results, and how to interpret each of the markings. After reviewing our work with the contactor, were then able to sense their confidence with the results of our work, and that the would able to proceed chipping out the floor boxes with peace of mind.
All in all, the client was able to complete this project with great success, and they were able to recover all 15 floor boxes. Thanks to GPRS, the contactor is now on the next phase of the project, and they were able to save money and time thanks to our expertise!