BIM Drives Cost-Efficiencies for Plumbing
Design
Since our
construction industry is grappled with severe productivity issues and tight
margins, the AEC industry is striving hard to come up with new ways of
improving productivity, reducing construction costs and delivering a
better-built building. Building Information Modelling, a new technological
advancement in the AEC industry after CAD seems to have the potential to
address these issues. As per the definition of BIM by The National Building
Information Model Standard (NBIMS), “BIM is a digital representation of
physical and functional characteristics of a facility and it serves as a shared
knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis
for decisions during its life cycle from inception onward.” BIM has evolved
from being just a buzzword to the centrepiece of AEC technology and it has
significant benefits for plumbing design.
BIM enables a 3D
virtual representation of the plumbing systems thus helping to better
understand the final outcome, make more informed decisions and detect
collisions. One of the major benefits BIM technology serves for plumbing is
interference-checking. Using BIM to detect early collisions helps to prevent
costly design changes during the actual construction process whilst also
reducing guesswork and errors. Since the underground plumbing lines are located
in reference to the foundations; BIM enables a plumbing designer with actual
building footings marked by the structural engineer to preserve the structural
integrity of the building. With the help of the building footings, a plumbing
designer can easily coordinate the underground routing without compromising the
structural design of the building.
Building Information
Modelling entails developing an information-rich model. In addition to building
shape, costs, design, construction time, physical performance, costs and
logistics, BIM also provides information about two additional parameters in the
case of plumbing fixtures – information about the required GPM flow of the
standard fixture and the reduced GPM flow. With an aim to conserve energy and
natural resources, there has been an increased focus on green building
projects. BIM facilitates easier identification of systems in LEED Plumbing
Design by creating different colour systems. Since there is a variation in
colour, identifying grey water routing becomes easier and hence helps to
prevent cross contamination with other waste systems.
BIM creates a unified working
environment with multiple disciplines working together on a single file. A
plumbing engineer can create a design for hot and cold water and simultaneously
check the HVAC design worksheet for conflicts.BIM serves a plethora of benefits
for plumbing design such as increased efficiency, accuracy and coordination of
the system as well as reducing the time and cost involved in it.
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