What is structural integrity?

Structural integrity is the ability of a building or infrastructure to support its designed loads (weight, wind, traffic) without collapsing or deforming excessively. Concrete defects like spalling, carbonation, or severed rebar compromise this integrity. MPS's role is to assess and restore this integrity using certified structural repair methods, ensuring the building remains safe for continued use. In more detail: engineers check two things. The ultimate limit state asks whether the structure could fail or collapse, meaning strength and stability; the serviceability limit state asks whether it deflects, vibrates or cracks enough to impair its use or durability. In the UK, concrete structures are designed to Eurocode 2 (BS EN 1992), which defines both. A related requirement is robustness: after the partial collapse of Ronan Point in 1968, UK regulations (today requirement A3 of Approved Document A) require buildings to resist disproportionate collapse, so that local damage cannot trigger a collapse out of proportion to its cause. In existing concrete, integrity is usually lost gradually rather than suddenly. The main mechanisms are reinforcement corrosion caused by carbonation or chlorides, which reduces the steel's cross-section and destroys its bond with the concrete as the cover spalls; cracking from overload, settlement or restrained shrinkage; alkali-silica reaction; freeze-thaw damage; fire; and impact. Warning signs are cracks running along the line of the reinforcement, rust staining, spalling that exposes bars, visible deflection or sagging, cracks that are getting wider, and water tracking through cracks and joints. Assessment combines a visual and hammer-sounding survey with testing (cover-meter survey, carbonation depth, chloride content, half-cell potential mapping, and cores or rebound hammer readings where strength matters) and a structural engineer's appraisal. Repair follows the principles of BS EN 1504: break out damaged concrete, clean and protect or supplement the steel, reinstate with structural repair mortar or concrete (class R3 or R4 under BS EN 1504-3 for structural work), inject structural cracks with epoxy, and add strengthening such as bonded carbon fibre where capacity has been lost. MPS carries out this work on car parks, schools, residential blocks and commercial buildings, working to an engineer's specification wherever structural capacity is involved.