Swapp’s algorithms and highly automated systems quickly calculate optimal floor plan layouts to create stacked and back-to-back bathrooms while at the same time designing apartments with plans that tenants want.

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Stacking back-to-back bathrooms vertically saves plumbing installation cost and adds leasable floor space that would otherwise be allocated to shafts.

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For contractors, field labor costs are the biggest component of the bid cost and carry the greatest productivity risk. Smart architectural layouts, integrated with MEP design, provide opportunities for a high degree of prefabrication and reduced field labor cost. MEP contractors are eager to prefabricate as much as possible because it makes their bids more competitive.

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When the bathrooms are stacked with a back-to-back arrangement the plumbing systems can be prefabricated as modular assemblies, loaded into the building, and connected with simple fittings between floors. 

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Working with the Harris estimators, we determined that plumbing costs can be reduced by 35% because less productive field labor is replaced with efficient shop labor. For a multifamily building of  315,000 square feet in a region, like San Jose, with high labor costs of $111 per hour, the cost savings are $2,235,000. 

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The  total cost of bathroom piping rough-ins are $4,149,000 compared to the original estimate of $6,384,000. This represents a savings in field labor of 17,000 hours, or 26 weeks of crew time on site! Bathroom walls, fixtures and trim are no longer on the project schedule’s critical path and an earlier project completion date may be realized.

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When the detailed shop drawings are developed we often find that back-to-back bathroom arrangements eliminate the need to lower ceiling heights so that sloped, horizontal waste piping can fit above the ceiling to run from a bathroom to a main waste riser. Keeping ceilings higher without increasing the floor to floor height provides benefits in both cost and aesthetics.

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