You heard it here first: the construction sites of the future are waste-free (zero waste is no longer just an utopia). Get a head start on your competitors and get started right now with reducing waste at your next construction project.

And best of all: if you commit to decreasing waste in your building processes, not only will you see spikes in profitability, you will also see tangible sustainability increases in your construction projects. A pure win-win situation.

Sustainability is not an afterthought

In 2023, it is no longer an option not to consider sustainability at the construction site. The clients demand it, and the public expects contractors to take the environment seriously. It can be really bad PR for your project if you don’t take sustainability seriously.

In addition, it costs a lot of money to get rid of the waste once it is there. If you are not proactive about waste management, the profitability of your projects will go down, all the while waste management prices will continue to go up.

Be wary of on-site changes

On-site work is not always a smart way to go about things. When a carpenter does all their work on the construction site, there is a lot of wastage, no matter how conscientious and accurate they are.

After all, carpenters are people, not machines. In addition, it can be difficult to obtain qualified people to undertake work in-situ.

Full control via BIM results in less wastage

A possible solution to this? Let a machine do the work.

In more detail: rely on controlled elements based on a 3D model of the finished building. Using prefabrication, everything is checked by a software in advance, and the saw or CNC machine does the job correctly every time. You eliminate mistakes and any orders for extra materials.

Streamlined processes and subcontractor management

Prefabrication also makes you much less dependent on other parties in the construction process. We all know how stressful it is to put together a delivery plan with different suppliers and subcontractors to ensure they will deliver on time, only to find out an unexpected delay will throw everything off.

You do not want to end up with a construction site full of plasterboard and cladding as soon as you have started the construction work. You need an agile BIM tool that makes it possible to order exactly what you need at just the right time.

The process goes faster with BIM

In addition to making fewer mistakes, the construction process itself will go much faster. One of our customers estimated that the delivery time for their prefabricated house was cut down by three to four weeks by producing modules and pre-cutting them to size in a factory.

With correct drawings that illustrate details well in advance and that are checked with BIM, fewer decisions must be made on the construction site.

With BIM, you do not have to guess based on previous experience. The result is calculated for you in advance, which leads to improved design and logistics, less transport needs, and less waste.

Prefab is not the only option

You can get many of these BIM benefits, even if you do not yet use prefabrication. If you use BIM as part of your modeling process, you will get more precise drawings, resulting in fewer mistakes being made when things are being put together on-site.

And, remember, the old craft lives on even though it is now taking place in digital form.

Reasons to choose BIM for your construction project

• It is punishable to be poor in sustainability – it is a bad look and will not win you any fans or favors.
• BIM increases the level of precision, you can work more efficiently, more collaboratively, and faster.
• It will be safer to build with BIM, and you will have fewer unpleasant surprises.
• Manual cutting on the construction site means wastage, and that waste is expensive and difficult to deal with. It is much safer to order precise drawings and / or prefab your parts, where everything is tested in a computer in advance.
• It is an investment to use BIM. The costs are somewhat higher in the beginning, but go down as time goes on. Without BIM, the graph looks the opposite.

You need a BIM tool, but which one should you choose?

The most important criterion in addition to delivering on all the above benefits is ease of use. Here, Archicad clearly stands out among the competitors. The tool was developed by architects for architects with usability as the most important criterion. To get off to a good start on the road to waste-free construction sites, you depend on having both Archicad and ArchiFrame as a powerful BIM duo.

You can document sustainability through Archicad, while with the addition of ArchiFrame you can calculate shrinkage down to a level of running meters with posts. The knowledge you need to use ArchiFrame centered on building technology and construction.

Want to learn more about Archicad and ArchiFrame as the road to waste-free construction sites? Email info@archiframe.fi today.