Concrete Core Drilling and Scanning

By Ed Winslow | October 12, 2016

Table of Contents

Call For Core Drilling, Concrete X-Rays and Ground Penetrating Radar

Concrete Core Drilling is the process of drilling into concrete for a variety of uses. One of the most common requirements for core drilling is to create holes in the concrete in varying diameters for electrical wiring, cable and fiber optics. Another use is for HVAC lines, hoses and plumbing lines.

Holes can be drilled from ½ inch to over 50 inches in diameter. Drilling depth of 4 – 12 inches is common though holes can be drilled deeper. Each hole must be cut clean avoiding sharp edges that will cause damage to hoses, or wire.

In perfect situations, cores can be drilled on flat horizontal floors. However, there are many situations where holes need to be cut on an angle. Angle cuts are frequently on edges near doorways, columns and walls. There are also extremely large diameter requirements. There are drills that will cut 5 foot dimeter holes.

Before cutting holes in the concrete, the floor needs to be scanned. This is also referred to as a concrete x ray. The purpose is to scan the concrete to determine if and where there may be anything in the slab that could cause a risk to the core drilling process. This includes scanning for rebar, wire mesh, utility lines, water lines or even storage tanks.

Concrete scanning is also referred to as GPR, Ground Penetrating Radar. There is a difference between a concrete x-ray and GPR. An X-Ray typically requires scanning on both sides of the slab versus GPR which requires scanning only on 1 side of the slab. The X Ray advantage is the high resolution of the image. However, there is a cost advantage of GPR, Ground Penetrating Radar.