This tip looks at Specifications and what they should not contain.
The contract documents, in essence, just present detailed information to enable the builder to build the project, theoretically without question.
Each document has a different role in presenting detail. Basically, the drawings show arrangements, elements, materials, extents, dimensions, and other things of a general nature.
The schedules are lists of materials and products with options (such as colour and trim).
The Specification should have the back-up detail of all that is drawn and scheduled, being the detail that what you don’t want to think twice about, but it needs to be there to complete the picture of the work the builder is to do, without surprises and describing good quality.
A material, element or product may be presented in all 3 documents, but otherwise, no document should repeat what is in another document.
For example, there may be 3 different types of floor tiling. Extent is shown on the drawings, selections shown in the schedules (without giving extent), and installation described in the Spec (without giving extent or selections).
If documentation codes are used on the drawings, these will be presented in the schedules, but there is no need to have these codes in the Specification because the Spec detail deals with all the tiling, regardless of any code labelling used.
Simplicity is the key, while presenting all the information needed to successfully build the project.
