What is Concrete Scanning?

Concrete scanning is ground penetrating radar run at a higher frequency against a structure instead of soil. The antenna is passed over the surface on a grid and the reflections are read live, so the rebar mat, embedded conduit, radiant tubing, and post-tension tendons get marked on the concrete before a core barrel or a saw goes near them. Cutting a post-tension tendon is the failure mode that makes this work non-optional: the tendon is stressed, the release is violent, and the structural repair costs far more than the scan.

What Alma Clients Get Out of It

• Penetrations cleared before the core barrel or saw is set up
• Post-tension tendons identified while they can still be worked around
• No radiation, no exclusion zone, no evacuating the floor — unlike concrete X-ray
• Single-sided access, so a suspended deck can be scanned from the top
• Rebar layout and cover confirmed before demolition or retrofit

Concrete Scanning in Alma Conditions

Alma sits in a subarctic climate, with winter ground freeze reaching 78 inches — frost changes what ground penetrating radar returns, and it stops paint from bonding, so cold-season work leans on recorded offsets and coordinates. Local ground: Clay, Rocky. Soil conductivity is the variable that decides how much of a locate radar can contribute, because conductive ground absorbs the radar pulse instead of reflecting it. Primary industries — mining, manufacturing, construction — drive steady demand for concrete scanning across the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean County area.

Info-Excavation (1-800-663-9228) requires 3 business days of advance notice before any excavation in Quebec. That notification is free and it is separate from concrete scanning: it brings out the member facility owners to mark the lines they own, and stops at the meter or the right-of-way. Wait for every member to respond before ground is opened.

When Alma Clients Use Concrete Scanning

• Core drilling for plumbing, electrical, and conduit penetrations
• Saw-cut openings for stairs, elevators, shafts, and floor drains
• Anchor and dowel drilling into slabs, decks, walls, and beams
• Clearing penetrations in post-tensioned slabs before any cut
• Locating conduit and radiant heat tubing in existing floors
• Confirming rebar layout and cover before demolition or retrofit
• Void and delamination detection in slabs, decks, and walls

What a Concrete Scanning Quote in Alma Depends On

Locating is quoted per job rather than off a rate card, because the work is a search and a search scales with the site rather than with the clock. On a Alma job, the things that move the number are how much ground has to be covered, how many targets are in play, whether there are meters, valves, risers, or panels a transmitter can be clipped to, what the lines are made of, what the local ground (clay, rocky) does to the instruments, and whether you need surface marks or a record you keep.

Describe the job once through Utility Hotline. Our team reviews the request, then locating companies covering Alma and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean County send you their own quotes, so you are comparing them against the same scope. It is free to request.