Cascadia Metals offers a wide variety of metal products in both coil and flat sheet, specializing in pre-painted, galvalume, galvanized, galvannealed, aluminized, cold rolled, and hot rolled steel. SPECIALISTS IN COATED & UNCOATED SHEET METAL We also offer aluminum, stainless steel, copper, weathering steel, and more. With our top-of-the-line slitting and cut-to-length capabilities, Cascadia Metals can meet the most rigorous quality and service requirements quickly, accurately, and consistently with each and every order. www.cmetals.com www.rcabc.org  l  15 FEATURE surveyors, civil and structural engineers and architects, to maintenance, repair, roofing and more. “The programming allows the owner or building manager to make reliable decisions during the construction process by providing cost and timing information,” the firm states. “Once the structure is completed, the program provides timely notices and schedules for maintenance and repair, as well as budget projections for costs to maintain the facility.” BIM software, adds the company, also allows prop- erty managers to add, edit or update the building as changes are made to the facility, whereas before, building plans had to be redrawn by hand. In commercial and institutional roofing specifically, BIM can allow for the selection of optimum roofing material, proper planning of roofing replacement, and storage of information on materials, supplier and manufacturer so that it’s easy to reorder materials. However, Little notes that while it’s theoretically possible that selection, costing and ordering of roofing materials can be greatly auto- mated with a BIM model of the entire roof and building, this endeavour requires a BIM-savvy roofer who under- stands the software and can do the data mining. “Right now, I’ve heard that a lot of commercial roofers are using Google Maps to estimate roof replacement costs,” he says. “BIM would be useful to estimate materials, review the consultant’s proposal and find out if there will be any issues before you get to the site. However, if a model of a building doesn’t already exist, it may not be cost-effective for roofers to set one up.” Little notes that some roofing suppliers/installers are already doing 3D work, such as 3D sloped insulated roof modules, where CAD modelling is already used during production. Those compa- nies may be familiar with BIM without knowing it, he says, and recommends that those firms investigate BIM technologies and see where they can integrate and find efficiencies. “For a typical residential roofer right now, the value of the technology likely doesn’t represent the cost of obtaining/ “I think that a commercial roofer who hasn’t investigated and at least explored potential BIM processes and technologies in the next few years will be making a mistake...” - Chris Little, Virtual Construction Manager, Modern Niagara