I thought 3D modeling for pipe runs was just extra work, but a job in Austin changed my mind

3 comments

3 Comments

Yeah, Austin will do that. I mean, I had a friend who worked on a remodel there, some old house with plumbing all over the place. They tried to skip the 3D part to save time, and it was a mess. They ended up hitting a gas line they didn't know was there because the old 2D plans were wrong. Idk, maybe it's just me, but seeing a pipe run in 3D before you cut into a wall seems worth the extra hour now.

the_oscar1mo agoTop Commenter

Wait, they skipped the 3D scan completely? On an old Austin house with who-knows-what in the walls? That's like playing roulette with a gas line, man. @andrew854 I bet your crew stopped laughing real quick when you found that vent stack, huh? I've seen people try to save an hour and end up costing thousands in drywall and pipe work. Honestly, 3D modeling feels like insurance now, especially for old builds where nobody knows what's actually back there.

andrew8541mo ago

I learned that the hard way too. My crew laughed at me for modeling a simple bathroom re-pipe, right up until we found a vent stack running right where the old plans said it was clear. That extra hour saved us two days of patch work.