F.A.Q. Answering Your Ground Penetrating Radar Questions

Questions:

• What can I expect with Concrete X-ray?
• What can I expect with Ground Penetrating Radar?
• How Reliable is GPR?

Answers:

• What can I expect with Concrete X-ray?

  Here’s how a typical concrete x-ray job would look like:

  First of all, you should be prepared to work at night. The majority of radiography jobs take place at night because that is the easiest time to evacuate an area of 50 feet in every direction. Often times it means that you will have to pay for hotel rooms for each of the residents of an apartment building that will be affected so be ready for that extra expense.

  Secondly, you will need to pinpoint the location of your hole on both sides of the concrete so that when the technicians get there, they know where to put the film. Upon arrival, they will need to verify that the proper warning signs are set up and they will have a red light that indicates that harmful radiation is being used. At all times, they need to have a radiation safety meter present to measure the amount of radiation in the air.

  Lastly, after the shot has been taken, the technicians will need to take the film to their mobile dark room or their lab in order to develop it. After about an hour to develop the film, they can present your results for you. If there is a clear area for your hole, you are all set. If not, you’ll need to move the film over about a foot and start over again.

• What can I expect with Ground Penetrating Radar?

  When one of our technicians arrives on site, he will bring his equipment to the location, unload it in about 5 minutes and get right to work. Within 5 more minutes, he will have an area approximately 2 foot by 2 foot cleared. If your hole is clear, you’re all set and ready to move on to the next location. If not, you tell the technician where you want to try to move the hole to and within another 5 minutes you’ll know if that area will work for you. Depending on how close the holes are to one another, we can usually get at least 4 holes done in an hour and at least 30 holes done in a day. Please note that if the work is on walls or ceilings, a technician’s assistant will be sent out along with the technician to assist with the scanning as it is too dangerous to be performed alone on ladders.

• How Reliable is GPR?

  Ground Penetrating Radar is typically over 90% accurate. In our history, we have achieved an accuracy rate of approximately 98%. On most occasions, a 2% chance of error is well worth the amount of money saved using Ground Penetrating Radar.