When the ownership of a Best Western Hotel in Cocoa, FL needed to add a parapet wall to their roof for an updated look they contact GPRS, Inc. They had been informed by their engineers that they needed to quantify the reinforcing steel in the concrete on the roof so they could determine what load the roof could carry. This is an ideal application for ground penetrating radar as rebar and concrete testing are GPR specialties. GPRS, Inc. from Orlando, FL took the call and mobilized to the site on short notice.

On site GPRS was able to identify all of the rebar quickly and accurately saving data to later create a report of the findings. It was determined on site that there was one mat of reinforcing steel in about 6” of concrete. The rebar was placed at roughly 12” on center. It was also estimated that the rebar diameter was around ½” (#4). Furthermore, because there is no radiation hazard associated with GPR, the occupied rooms did not have to be emptied of hotel guests.

The Best Western management and ownership was very pleased with the speed and accuracy with which GPRS was able to mobilize to the site, perform the survey, and turn the report around. This process was extremely smooth and they were able to get the rebar survey results to the engineers very quickly.

Chris Moore runs GPRS operations in the South Eastern United States. He is based in Orlando, FL and he can be reached at (727)420.3292 or by email at chris.moore@gp-radar.com. Concrete scanning for the purposes of identifying the location of rebar and post-tensioning is the most frequent service performed by the GPR technicians at GPRS.

Chris is performing a GPR concrete scan on the roof through a gravel roof topper. Chris is scanning the roof top to identify the placement of the rebar.