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 Chicago 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 Chicago Conditions

Chicago sits in a temperate climate, with winter ground freeze reaching 36 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, Loam, Sandy loam. 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 — construction, utilities, municipal, telecommunications — drive steady demand for concrete scanning across the Cook County area.

JULIE (Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators) (811) requires 48 hours of advance notice before any excavation in Illinois. 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 Chicago 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 Chicago 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 Chicago 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, loam, sandy loam) 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 Chicago and Cook County send you their own quotes, so you are comparing them against the same scope. It is free to request.