Dangerous concrete closed schools across the UK

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[madMARTYNmarsh]

The issue is much bigger than just schools and hospitals. In the early 90s I was working on building sites all across the South of England and I remember seeing this stuff (it was light blue/near purple blocks, not grey) used on numerous housing estates. I remember seeing it being used instead of breeze blocks. Even then I noticed how crumbly it was and if it got wet it became very unstable, some even went through a process not dissimilar to melting. Pallets of these things couldn't be stacked because it was too fragile. There is a far bigger scandal waiting to be discovered as these were estates which numbered in the hundreds of homes on each estate... hopefully no one loses their life for in the process of this being recognised!

[ChimpManZ]

Another thing going on is Six newly constructed schools across the UK have been condemned. One of the early signs was just as they opened for the first time the windows fell out. Investigations have found that the entire structures of each school violates building codes. The contractors responsible are guilty of cutting corners.

[David-jvdw]

I seem to remember this coming up as an issue at least 30 years ago, possibly longer.

[WhistlerUK]

A similar issue exists in mortar used to construct new build houses, the problem is caused due to dry silo mortar mixer being unable to control the amount of air within the mix, only within the last couple of years have they introduced silo mixer that are able to control the air content and the use of these is not yet required or widespread, mortar shouldn’t contain more than around 18% air voids, however test show that some have between 35 to 50% air voids, I have no doubt that this is an issue which will come to light in the next 20 years when mortar begins to fail.

[oneeleven]

The less time kids spend in school the more intelligent they will be..it’s a win..

[degu]

Have all these closed schools been investigated? It seems odd that so many schools that were open a couple of months ago are all closed this week. It seems to me that there is more to this by the timing. What else is happening now that is being pushed out of the news?

[nighttrain]

This RAAC issue, which hasn't just fallen from the sky as a problem, highlights several issues in the construction business.

One is that over the lifetime of a building, it can go through manifold changes in management; records get lost, and those managers may not be partially competent. The result is that a building constructed with a material, known to have a finite life, e.g., RAAC, is still standing 50 years later and its particulars may be a mystery to the current custodians. This reflects problems in the continuity of property management and the integrity of records/data over time. For example, what was stuffed in a filing cabinet 50 years ago may be long gone, or similarly what was put on a floppy disk 40 years ago. I've seen many instances of a new property manager coming along and (almost) having to start from scratch all over again.

The second is that we should always be suspicious of novel construction materials and technology. There are many known unknowns and unknown knowns, which means risk. Unlike the aviation industry, for example, there just isn't enough money spent on proving these materials and technologies and problems only come to light years later. Although some of the problems with RAAC were identified quite quickly, not all of them were. Damp and pollution accelerated the ageing of the RAAC elements, for example.

The third is that we rarely seem to construct buildings with ease of inspection in mind. Everything is hidden away behind panels or drywall, almost to make it as vexing, and as expensive as possible, to properly survey from a structural POV. The result is that damp, corrosion, concrete carbonation, and other defects, may go unnoticed. As a side note, traditional construction was much more 'what you see is what you get', especially for industrial buildings, and there have been some architectural movements that tried to make features of key structural elements. To be fair, concrete, especially reinforced concrete, is always going to be a problem to inspect because it's a composite material with the steel reinforcement hidden away inside. It's an incredibly ugly material from that point of view, although I should remind myself that it's RAAC on trial here not concrete per se.

Commentators seem puzzled why the government doesn't just 'know' the precise distribution and condition of all of RAAC in schools. The answer is a combination of my first and third points.

[kimsmith]

Ty for information I am in the states and it's very hard for us to get real news from other countries. Best wishes!

[stewartwallwork]

Storm in a teacup.Have any actually collapsed endangering life and limb?

[nigelt]

This is not a new issue, when I was at school in the mid 1970s, we had this and it took a year to replace/add new steel beams in the top floor of two 3 story blocks. As I recall the Science Block and the Maths Block. Temporary classrooms used and also reuse of other free rooms in other buildings.

[leanneclare]

The reason so much of it is now defective is because it hasn’t been maintained properly. Due to it being so porous the maintenance instructions were to avoid it getting wet. There are examples of schools not clearing the guttering which has lead to a blockage and water leaking through roof/ ceilings, into the concrete. Much of this could’ve been avoided if it had been maintained properly.

[dy]

Ludicrous. A child should have been capable of looking at this and informing these fools that the integrity of the concrete would diminish with the addition of air

[doOfr]

They should start teaching how to make concrete in Schools.

[CharlesStawell]

my school had a roof cave in - howard school kent

[ericmilligan]

Why now I wonder, what is going on here?

[stephendgreen]

Why now, all of a sudden? Any possibility it is some kind of insurance job, to make a humungous claim? Asbestos nearly brought down the insurance sector decades ago. Is this something the insurance sector ought to be worrying about?

[LightDiodeNeal]

Nice summation, there's one just down the road from me and one along the ring-road.
There will be massive problems checking these panels because of the (various kinds of) asbestos lurking in the ceiling spaces of some of the buildings from similar decades that will expensive-ise repairs . I'd be interested to see if it is just restricted to public-service buildings, if it's cheap it must have made it into private buildings.?

[rickjensen]

Its a government constructed media tale - we've known about this for 50+ years.

[madmax]

Worth getting hold of a copy of Geoff Scott's 1976 book "Building Disasters and Failures" which is a near 200 page illustrated catalogue of failures of what were then "modern" building construction design, materials and methods. Although High Aluminar Cement and plywood box beams (really!) were the main cause of concern at the time, his words are no less prescient with RAAC.

We've largely forgotten items he covered such as Ronan Point, Milford Haven Bridge, Camden Girls' School, Flixborough, Kent University, Ilford County High School, Canon Palmer RC School, Clarkson Toll Shopping Centre, Ferrybridge C, Summerland, Chiswick Comprehensive and Newcastle Tower blocks

[carlettoburacco]

The Romans used their natural version of RAAC, soft limestone. (you can cut it with a spoon)
Fortunately they had the ability to look over 40 years of building life and they had an IQ above 80.
They only used it non-structurally and where there was no danger of humidity or water infiltration.
For this reason it can still be admired in 2000 year old buildings while our schools (and I imagine many other buildings), built 50 years ago have "some difficulty" in remaining standing.