How point cloud scanning cut our client's rework costs by 34%

Reality capture has moved from optional extra to baseline expectation on Irish refurbishment projects. We were brought in by a Dublin-based developer to scan a 4,200m² 1970s office block ahead of a stripped-back retrofit. The brief was straightforward: deliver a Revit-ready as-built model the design team could trust.

Two RTC360 scanners, 162 set-ups and three nights of after-hours work later, we registered a 12mm-accurate point cloud and turned around a federated as-built within 12 working days.

The numbers tell the story. The previous similar project — surveyed by traditional measured-survey methods — racked up €184,000 in design-stage rework due to discrepancies discovered on site. Our point cloud-driven model brought that number down to €121,000 on a comparable scope, a 34% reduction. Most of the saving came from accurate riser and slab edge geometry feeding straight into the structural model.

If you're considering reality capture for an upcoming refurbishment, the rough rule of thumb is this: budget 0.6% to 1.2% of construction cost for a point cloud survey, and expect a 5 to 8 times return on rework alone — before you count the programme savings.