This tip looks at the selection process for your Master Specification.
At time of writing, there are only three full version master’s available on the market.
Never use a short-version Spec for construction…it is bound to let you…AND your clients, down.
Specs need to be easy and fast to create, consistently and predictably formatted, concise (short in length), and have quality reliable content.
A Spec should not take longer than a day to produce – for ANY size, type or class project.
Computer generated Specs may seem easy, but you lose the very important audit capability of doing the Specification yourself…and you lose some control.
Editing is best (and faster) if all you must do is delete out of the document what is NOT in your project, and you put project specific selections on your drawings or in your schedules. Adding things to a Specification increases Spec writing difficulty and duration and allows for more mistakes.
Cost is important. The initial price needs to be compared to update fees and also to how long it takes to write a Spec (the cost of hours of labor). And a reliable Spec cost much less later with less time dedicated to fixing on-site problems.
Does the Spec provider have a fast on-call (phone and email) help and assistance service during editing and construction?
This is a basic list. You will have your own Spec requirements. Take your time with it.
