Largo Concrete, Inc. is finally hanging up the leash.
The leash is the tether attached to a rolling floor profiler, a device used to determine floor flatness and levelness (FF/FL) after a slab pour. Contractors describe moving the profiler as “walking the dog” because of the corded pulling action.
Largo Concrete is pleased their dog-walking days are over. “Laser scanning kills three birds with one stone,” Kevin Peterson, Largo Concrete project manager, explains. “We measure for FF/FL and as-built conditions with a single technician. In the old days, we’d have three people doing that – one person operating the total station, another the prism, while the other walks the dog.
“Now just one technician does all that in the same amount of time. It’s much more efficient.”
Watch this brief video on how laser scanning simplifies construction projects for Largo Concrete:
Unexpected Precision
And accurate, too. Peterson and his team carefully vetted laser scanning output before the twin tower project, directly comparing the output of a FARO Focus3D X330 against traditional measurement methods on an earlier pilot project. The bake-off was an eye-opener.
“We had to be certain the laser-scanned data was similar to the traditional method, which we have used for years and are comfortable with,” Peterson says. “The laser scanning data turned out to be so accurate, it basically caught mistakes our layout guy made in writing numbers down. It was an eye-opener for everyone.”
Single Version of the Truth
With the laser-scanned data validated, Largo confidently documents as-built conditions for downstream contractors or the owner. Very simply, “we have all the data” Peterson states. “It’s solid backup for any argument that happens down the road. We have a perfect image of where everything was when we poured – the day before we poured and the day after we poured.”
Key to that capture is properly depicting the project with the aid of applications like SCENE, FARO’s 3D scanner software, and supported add-on applications like Rithm Inspector and Builder Apps. Peterson and his team use Inspector for FF/FL testing and Builder to produce as-built documentation.
Largo takes those as-built points and exports it into Excel. “We can take the X-Y-Z coordinates in the Excel files and place that into Autodesk AutoCAD® and overlay it on the actual plans. That documents as-built conditions and also allows us to produce a PDF for the client,” Peterson says.
Pleasant Dilemma
The power of laser scanning has created a mild dilemma for Largo. The 11.5-pound FARO unit, the industry’s lightest and smallest laser scanner, is easy to transport from project to project. So what about the other projects Largo has in progress on the West Coast?
“What do you when you need to scan at the same time on different projects?” asks Peterson. “We’re starting to look at getting a unit for projects in Long Beach and Orange County. I haven’t heard of anyone else using laser scanning quite the way we are. It’s fun being on the leading edge of technology.”
Learn more about laser scanning for concrete here: www.focusonconcrete.com
