A Blockchain-Based DApp for Integrated Building Maintenance Management

In building maintenance processes there is often the presence of fragmented data, the absence of traceability, and centralized processes in building maintenance mechanisms are the major drawbacks to transparency and efficient operations. In this thesis, the challenges are overcome by presenting and developing a decentralized building maintenance management system, combining Building Information Modeling (BIM) and blockchain technology. The proposed solution is a decentralized application (DApp) for facility maintenance that enables fault reporting, asset registration, and technician coordination through Ethereum-based smart contracts. A 3D BIM model viewer (implemented with the IFC.js library and React) provides an interactive interface for users to visualize building assets and report issues in context, while smart contract logic written in Solidity manages maintenance tasks and enforces role-based access via on-chain rules. Users interact with the system using MetaMask for authentication and transaction signing, and the application is deployed on an Ethereum-compatible network (Polygon) to leverage faster confirmations and significantly lower transaction fees. The system’s architecture comprises a React front end with an embedded BIM model, a set of Solidity smart contracts for core maintenance workflows (asset registry, fault logs, job assignment, status updates), and an Express.js server with a SQLite database to handle off-chain metadata and auxiliary functions such as logging gas costs for reimbursement. Performance evaluation on Ethereum Sepolia versus the Polygon testnet demonstrates that gas usage remains consistent across networks, but Polygon dramatically improves cost and speed: the same transactions that cost about $0.88 and take 13-15 seconds to fully confirm on Sepolia cost roughly $0.02 on Polygon with confirmations in a few seconds. Preliminary usability testing with sample end-users (occupant, technician, administrator roles) confirms the DApp’s effectiveness: each role could successfully use the role-specific features (e.g. occupants submitting fault reports, technicians claiming and resolving tasks, admins overseeing payments and records), and access control was correctly enforced, while user feedback highlighted minor interface improvements needed (such as clearer guidance when switching networks in MetaMask). Overall, by showing that BIM and blockchain are indeed compatible and that the former can greatly benefit the latter, this work will contribute a secure and transparent framework to the smart building technologies and offer a basis of further improvements, like the integration of predictive maintenance or alignment with the upcoming standards of digital building logbooks.