Confirming grout fill for grouted reinforcement connections

For the life span of a building and the safety of people, it is of great importance that a structure is built as per the engineers’ requirements, this applies not only to but especially for, all connection details.

Until CSI developed their capability for investigating and confirming the presence of grout fill for Drossbachs and PT tendon ducts there was no means to confirm the correct installation of these. Since introducing these services to the market, we have investigated many projects. Based on our results most of these projects had to undergo a remediation program to some degree.

We did not rest until we found a solution to investigate the most difficult of these types of connections. We are proud to announce that CSI can now confirm the grout fill for grouted rebar-connections, also known as grout tubes or grout sleeves (e.g. Reid grout sleeves).

Grouted Rebar-connections (as well as Drossbach and PT installations) turn out to be prone to quality issues. This is mostly due to the following reasons:

• Misunderstanding the principle of the installation.
• The lack of understanding by the contractor of the importance of their correct installation.
• Shortfalls in the training and reliability of the contractor.

….and last but not least…

• No possibility to investigate and verify the correct installation – would you use a parachute knowing that no QA process was available?

With the last subject now being an issue of the past, CSI can help with providing independent QA measures during the construction phase. We can also provide help with retrieving information required for the most accurate NBS rating.

Thanks for reading our latest blog post, we’d be interested in your thoughts or experiences on this topic.  Feel free to post a comment below or contact us directly here.