What concrete scanning costs in BC — and what it saves.

A focused single-visit scan — a handful of core, cut, or anchor locations cleared of rebar, post-tension cable, and conduit — typically runs in the low-to-mid hundreds, with most jobs landing between $300 and $1,500. Larger scopes (many locations, full-slab mapping, structural surveys) price by the half-day or day, which lowers the per-location cost. Pricing is province-wide with no regional premium; a five-minute call with your location count produces a firm number.

Because square footage doesn't drive the cost — locations, access, congestion, and deliverable do. Two slabs of identical size can differ wildly: one needs three clear core points, the other needs full PT mapping across every bay. An honest quote prices the actual scope; a flat per-foot rate either overcharges simple jobs or hides costs that surface later. We quote the work, not the area.

It depends on volume. A few scattered locations are cheapest priced per visit. Once you have many locations in one area — a multi-anchor TI, a parkade restoration, a structural survey — a half-day or day rate covers them all at a much lower per-location cost than booking separate visits. We'll tell you which applies to your scope before you commit, not after.

Routine clearance is scan-and-mark in one visit — rebar, PT, and conduit painted at each location with depth context — and that's included in the scan price with no report-waiting delay. If you need a formal annotated report (for a structural engineer, a permit, or an owner's file), that deliverable is quoted up front as part of the scope, never bolted on as a surprise line afterward.

It's not close. A scan costs a few hundred to ~$1,500; cutting a post-tension cable costs $20,000–$75,000+ and is a genuine safety event; severing a conduit costs $5,000–$50,000 plus an outage; hitting rebar destroys core bits and schedule. One avoided strike pays for scanning the whole project many times over. That asymmetry is why engineers and GCs treat scanning as mandatory pre-work.

Not inherently — the same GPR equipment and crew identify rebar, conduit, and post-tension tendons in one pass; PT identification is part of a competent concrete scan, not a premium add-on. What raises a quote is scope: more locations, congested slabs, or a formal report. A post-tensioned slab simply makes scanning non-negotiable, because a cut tendon is the most dangerous and expensive strike of all.

Pricing is province-wide with no regional premium on the scanning itself — a scan in Kelowna or Nanaimo is priced the same as one in Vancouver. For distant single-location jobs, scheduling efficiency matters (bundling nearby work or choosing a day rate keeps it economical), and we'll advise the most cost-effective approach for your location on the call.

Batch it. Booking all your core, anchor, and cut locations into one mobilisation on a half-day or day rate is far cheaper per location than calling us out repeatedly. Contractors with ongoing work often set up account terms for exactly this — see our concrete scanning for contractors page — so locating becomes a predictable, low-friction line item instead of a per-job scramble.