CONSTRUCTO Accelerates Residential Real Estate Remodeling and Simplifies Building Permits

Homeowners who wish to remodel their house or build an addition or an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) must first navigate an extensive permitting and preconstruction process that can last months and cost thousands of dollars. Managing designers, engineers, and contractors while navigating the often-complex requirements from local planning and building departments convinces many that they’re better off paying someone else to take care of this for them.

Enter CONSTRUCTO, a startup in San Jose, California that helps homeowners, residential general contractors, and real estate agents create plans and acquire permits for remodeling and construction projects without all the cost, hassle, and stress. CEO Yuri Galeev was in the construction industry for many years before founding the company, and he insists that preconstruction is more arduous than other parts of building projects. 

“The permitting process is severely broken,” he says. “It’s so time-consuming and expensive that it plays a significant role in the problems facing builders and homeowners. And contractors who handle the permits for their clients often charge exorbitant rates. We offer an alternative where we solve both problems in a streamlined, turnkey, online process that makes preconstruction as innovative, inexpensive, stress-free, and effective as possible.”

CONSTRUCTO starts by assigning each client a dedicated project manager as a single point of contact for managing all aspects of the preconstruction process. It then uses Matterport to document and measure a home’s existing as-built conditions, combining photorealistic, visual information, and spatial data into a 3D digital twin that it shares with homeowners, designers, engineers, contractors, and government agencies, saving time and money and reducing errors that can lead to expensive rework. 

Next, CONSTRUCTO adds the conceptual design to the digital twin that clients and stakeholders can virtually walk through with the ability to scrutinize even the smallest details prior to construction. After design approval, engineers assemble the plans for the contractors and for local government agencies, and the project manager ensures that the necessary permits are granted as quickly as possible. 

Visual and Spatial Data in a Single Package

Many of the efficiencies that CONSTRUCTO achieves for its clients wouldn’t be possible without Matterport technology. It’s the engine that powers many steps of CONSTRUCTO’s service. A single Matterport camera can capture an entire property, inside and out, and transform it into a digital twin that includes 3D imagery at 4k resolution and all the spatial data and measurements with dimensional accuracy.

Measuring and documenting existing as-built conditions has always been one of the thorniest parts of the preconstruction process, so CONSTRUCTO uses the best tools available. “We looked at everything on the market,” Galeev says, “from conventional tape measures and lasers to 3D scanners and Matterport Pro2 cameras. Matterport is by far the best fit because it’s the only solution that combines visual and spatial data into a single package that we can use over the lifetime of a project.” 

Faster, Easier, and More Effective Preconstruction and Permitting

Using Matterport, CONSTRUCTO can now shave days off the measuring process alone. During a home remodel, someone will almost inevitably forget to measure something, which means they’ll have to make an appointment to return, halting progress, wasting time, and imposing on the homeowner. 

Even more important, Matterport entirely eliminates measurement mistakes due to human error. “If there’s a mistake in the plans before a project is approved, redoing everything can cost thousands of dollars,” Galeev says. “It’s critical that we can use the Matterport measurement tool to measure everything correctly the first time.”

CONSTRUCTO shares the digital twin with all the various stakeholders—architectural designers, structural engineers, contractors, and officials at the local building and permitting departments—speeding up the process considerably since nobody needs to visit the home in person after the property has been scanned. 

With a Matterport digital twin, everyone in the construction and permitting process can virtually visit the house without disturbing the client,” Galeev says. “Designers can work with photorealistic 3D models, building departments have everything they need to issue a permit, and contractors can see exactly what the house looked like before demolition. It’s like a time machine.”

Clients also receive a copy of the digital twin. “Our clients absolutely love the digital twins,” Galeev says. “Photographs and sketches can’t compete with the wow effect of virtually walking through your own house in 3D.” There are also sentimental and practical reasons for sharing digital twins with clients. Thanks to the time-machine effect, they’ll never forget what the house looked like before it was remodeled, and they’ll be able to show contractors exactly what everything looked like before demolition if something goes wrong during construction.

Expanding with Matterport Capture Services On-Demand

CONSTRUCTO has rapidly expanded from its home market in the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Orange County, California. Next, it hopes to move into Texas, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona before rolling out a nationwide service. 

Crucial to its expansion is Matterport Capture Services On-Demand. In the past, CONSTRUCTO had to send a team of people to spend hours in a client’s home taking photographs and measuring everything by hand. The company’s purchase of a Matterport Pro2 3D camera sped up the process considerably, but still limited it to clients with properties in locations that its staff could easily visit with its own Matterport camera. With Matterport Capture Services On-Demand, Matterport customers like CONSTRUCTO can place an order for an experienced technician to capture a property in major metro areas across the U.S., then receive a ready-to-use digital twin within 72 hours. A single Matterport technician can typically capture everything in a 60-minute session for a home up to 2,000 square feet. 

“Using Matterport Capture Services On-Demand couldn’t be easier,” Galeev says. “Matterport obviously put a lot of effort into the service. It’s hardly more complicated than ordering dinner. We just need to enter the address and a couple of property notes, and that’s it.”

The service makes it possible for CONSTRUCTO to rapidly expand its own service. “We can scale up our operations much more quickly than we could on our own,” Galeev says. “We can’t have our own technicians in every real estate market, particularly in the rural areas, but we should be able to expand rapidly thanks to Matterport and bring relief to homeowners all over the U.S.”

Best of all, Matterport Capture Services On-Demand provides CONSTRUCTO assurance that the technician will be at the appointment at the date and time specified and capture the details specified in the scan request. 

The reliability of Matterport Capture Services On-Demand helps us focus on the business and ensure projects are on track,” Galeev says. “That’s why we have shifted from scanning spaces ourselves to relying on the services for nearly all of our projects.” 

ABOUT CONSTRUCTO

CONSTRUCTO is a startup construction services company that streamlines the preconstruction and permitting process for major home remodeling projects, additions, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs). It has expanded from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles and Sacramento and plans to roll out a nationwide service.

HEADQUARTERSSan Jose, California

INDUSTRY Residential construction

EMPLOYEES9 Employees

CHALLENGEMake preconstruction and permitting as innovative, inexpensive, stress-free, and effective as possible

PRODUCTS Matterport Capture Services On-Demand, Matterport Pro2 3D camera

SOLUTIONCONSTRUCTO uses Matterport digital twins to capture all visual and spatial data and measurements to save time and money during design, engineering, permitting, and construction.

RESULTS

• Accelerates and simplifies preconstruction, design, and engineering

• Eliminates measurement errors and expensive rework

• Acquires building permits for clients with minimal hassle