Find unforeseen conditions before renovation begins.

Facade uses scanning technology to help renovation teams see what’s behind walls and plan their work before demolition.

Open demo project

Aerial / a concrete frame under construction

The index / 01

From the site, to the wall, to the decision.

The building, what hides behind its finished walls, the scanner, the evidence it leaves, and what a surprise costs.

1.1—1.4

Unforeseen conditions.

Renovation, cost

On a $1M renovation, surprises add about $35,600 in change orders. The largest share comes from existing conditions nobody could see.

Aerial view of a concrete building under construction beside a tower crane.

A crew in orange vests working on the top floor slab among rebar and formwork.

The tower crane rising past the building’s concrete core.

The slab edge and the floors below, with scaffolding along the facade.

2.1—2.4

Behind the wall.

Mechanical, electrical, plumbing

A finished wall hides studs, ducts, copper, drains and conduit. Facade records what is behind it, bay by bay, so the team can plan before anyone opens it up.

An illustrative interior wall, closed: painted gypsum board on a concrete slab.

The same wall with the board removed: steel studs, a supply duct, copper water lines, drain and vent pipe, and an electrical panel with conduit.

Close-up of the electrical panel and its conduit runs between the studs.

Close-up of copper supply lines and shutoff valves in the cavity.

3.1—3.6

The scanner, taken apart.

Hardware, concept

A handheld scanner, rolled along the wall: a thermal camera in the nose, a metal-sensing coil and a bay reserved for radar underneath, and a roller that measures distance as it goes.

The Facade scanner concept: a white and charcoal handheld body with a palm grip and a sensor nose.

The scanner taken apart: shell and grip, thermal camera, controller board, reserved radar bay, coil carrier, roller and screws.

The scanner from above: the grip, thumb scan button and status lights.

The underside that faces the wall: the coil window, the radar window, wall pads and the measuring roller.

The sensor nose with the thermal camera window.

The rear panel with three USB-C ports labelled A, B and C.

4.1—4.4

Field evidence.

Software, review

Every reading lands on the wall where it was taken. A detection is a lead, not a verdict: a person reviews it before it changes the plan.

A wall in the Facade demo with field records drawn on its face as red marks.

Close-up of the red evidence marks: a dashed ring for an instrument detection, a circle for an observation.

The demo wall with its layers opened, each red mark traced back to the framing and services behind it.

The renovation site drawn in black hidden-line work, where the evidence is used to plan the work.

The numbers / 02

What surprises cost.

On a $1M renovation, change orders add about $35,600. The largest share is the one nobody could see.

A line drawing of a renovation site with fans of red lines rising from where surprises come from, one line per thousand dollars. — One red line per $1,000

Unexpected conditions$14,500
Design changes$13,600
Owner-requested changes$7,500
Total per $1M of work$35,600

2018 study of 161 school renovations, scaled to $1M. Historical averages, not quotes. Source ↗ Estimate savings ↗

Find it before the wall comes down.

Facade is in development. The scanner shown is a concept model, and the demo runs on synthetic data.