Bim Based Approach towards Minimization of Floor Tile’s Wastage

Abstract

Floor tile's waste constitutes a considerable portion of construction waste, most of the times which are not accounted for. The increased load of construction waste on the dumping sites demands optimal use of construction material to reduce this load. Following the "Reduce" aspect of 5R, one of the ideas is to reduce the production of waste by minimizing the usage of tiles. So, this research provides a solution to minimize/reduce the wastage of floor tiles through a BIM-based approach. In this project, Autodesk Revit is used to simulate real-time digital models of the floors. A Visual Studio plugin is developed based on the design algorithm, which gives the tiles an optimum orientation that produces minimum wastage. This plugin was then integrated with Revit to achieve the optimization of waste tiles which would have otherwise added to the surplus of waste. The plugin validity was checked by reviewing case studies of geometrically different floor plans. The findings showed that floor systems with digital modelled designs produced less waste when compared to unmodeled designs. Waste minimization leads towards a decreased production of load on the environment and relates to the environmental aspect of sustainability. Also, it reduces the use of tiles and refers to the economic aspect of sustainability.