“Plug and play,” is how our director of business development, Bill Seery, often refers to pre-fabricated modular bathrooms – during both construction and design.
On the jobsite, crews crane the finished pods into place, then “plug” them into the building’s plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, ready for guests to use, once the rest of the building is complete. Plug and play also speaks to the ease with which architects can drop Revit for BIM pod models directly into their entire building model.
The BIM data for SurePods pre-fab bathrooms goes far beyond just the unit’s dimensions, to include details on all the finishes and fixtures within the bathroom, ranging from the paint and wallcovering colors and styles to the water consumption specs of the toilets and sinks, and more.
In addition to dimensional and functional data, such as gallons per minute for plumbing fixtures, the models can contain warranty information useful for the maintenance team after the property opens for when to perform maintenance, etc. Instead of having to add such details from dozens of suppliers, all that information is integrated in the pod’s BIM model.
As a result, architects don’t just receive a black box that they drop into the building, but have the full range of information needed to ensure the bathroom is well integrated into the overall building design. Throughout the design process, the architect and SurePods team can share models back and forth as the building and bathroom designs evolve. Once the bathroom design is finalized, the SurePods Revit models translate directly into machine code for our robots to produce many of our production pieces, which reduces labor and provides better overall tolerances and accuracy for the pods.
In addition to these plug and play design benefits, using BIM for modular construction provides many other advantages, as noted by professors Na Lu of the University of North Carolina and Thomas Korman of California State University. These include the ability to:
Visualize building modules in relation to the building and to each other
Create 3D renderings to present to building owners and to share among building team members
Facilitate code reviews with building and fire officials
Streamline cost estimating when changes are applied to each pre-fabricated module
Simplify identification of building system interferences
Interested in learning more? Reach out today, we want to answer your questions!