A specification, in construction, is the written technical requirement governing a material, product, or installation method, describing quality, performance, and execution standards in a way that drawings alone can’t fully convey. Individually, a specification is a single requirement or section; collectively, specifications form the written portion of a project’s construction documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specifications generally fall into two philosophical camps. Prescriptive specifications name specific manufacturers or products, allowing for little substitution without approval. Performance specifications list the required characteristics, and contractors are free to provide a product that meets those standards, provided it’s assessed and reviewed for confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Permalinks for each of these three sections of a specification (general, products, execution) should be made clear. The general section includes administrative items and coordination requirements. The products section allows for the naming of acceptable materials and manufacturers. The execution section includes installation, testing, and quality control. Skipping straight to the products section and ignoring execution is a common shortcut that occasionally causes real problems, since installation requirements that affect whether the work ultimately performs and passes inspection often live specifically in that execution portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A single specification requirement rarely stands alone in practice; it typically connects to a specific drawing detail showing where and how it applies, and confirming that connection, rather than reading either document in isolation, is what actually determines whether a given piece of work has been correctly specified and correctly built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A habit worth building for anyone regularly reading specs: noting cross-references to other divisions explicitly as you read, rather than assuming a section is fully self-contained. Specifications frequently reference related requirements elsewhere in the book; a finishes section referencing a general requirements provision, for instance, and missing that cross-reference means missing part of what actually governs the work, even though the section you’re reading looks complete on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reference standards incorporated by citation of an ASTM or ANSI standard referenced within a spec section rather than fully restated carry the same governing weight as if the full standard’s text were copied directly into the specification. Contractors sometimes overlook this, treating a brief citation as less binding than it actually is, when in fact the referenced standard’s full detailed requirements apply in full regardless of how briefly the spec itself mentions it. If a cited reference standard is spotted in passing, reviewers with no previous knowledge of that standard must look up the standard instead of assuming a passing reference equates to a passing requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A specification, in construction, is the written technical requirement governing a material, product, or installation method, describing quality, performance, and execution standards in a way that drawings alone can’t fully convey. Individually, a specification is a single requirement or section; collectively, specifications form the written portion of a project’s construction documents. Specifications generally fall into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s"],"yoast_head":"\n