Specifier’s Journal: November 1 – 30, 2022

I posted these remarks on the CSI-Connect Forum

“Recruiting Young Specifiers / Labor Shortage”

The term “Young Specifier” is probably not useful. The very nature of specification writing requires a solid body of industry experience gained through one or more practice channels over a period of time. A number of successful senior specifiers began their work life in architectural firms as non-professional track drafters and administrative staff. They kept growing and gaining knowledge and eventually took over the specification writing practice in their firms. Many specifiers are architects who gravitated toward specializing in this subset of architectural practice because of their abilities to focus on technical topics. In either case, the specifiers moved into this role because they saw career opportunity and enjoyed the work.

I began focusing on specifications in the first architecture firm I worked in because 1) I recognized that while appreciating quality design, I did not have any special talent or preparation for becoming a design-focused architect, 2) I had worked in construction and knew about building stuff, and 3) I saw that no one in the firm was doing specification writing well. Along the way, I discovered the nearby CSI chapter, learned about and took the CDT, then the CCS and CCA; undertook teaching these courses, and finally focused directly on specification practice. This was a 10 year process.

Others’ experience will be different. There are no fixed rules here. Some firms recognize the importance and benefit from supporting specification practice. Others only do it because they have to. Interested potential specifiers should seek out the former type of firm and let the latter type of firm devote themselves to a lesser quality practice. The supportive firms need to step forward and include in their support a path to associate and partner status for technically talented staff, with the compensation to go with it. “Show them the money,” and the opportunity, and occasionally you will find a talented emerging specifier who will help limit your construction disputes and make your practice profitable.

Specifier’s Journal: November 1 – 30, 2020

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Owner’s “Front End” Documents: We frequently are called upon to assist our architect clients in integrating owner-furnished bidding and contracting documents and Division 01 General Requirements documents into their project manuals. These range in quality from well-thought-out to, well, not so good. The challenging ones are non-standard General Conditions documents, which sometimes contain clauses that conflict with their own General Requirements.

We have spent a lot of time devoted to these documents over the years and do our best to help. This can be an extremely time-consuming task, as these documents are often presided over by facility staff unfamiliar with the “how we do things” of the construction industry. Once in a while, the client asks us to update or produce a new set of master documents for their use. It is challenging but satisfying work as we need to integrate specific staff concerns and experience, but the end result hopefully reduces claims and disputes and general wear and tear on everyone involved in their construction projects.

Friday, November 13, 2020

Security Glazing: We, our architect clients, and their school clients are learning a lot about security glazing this year in response to deep concerns about safety in our schools. Schools are asking security consultants and their local law enforcement agencies for recommendations on hardening building perimeters and classroom entrances. The building product industry is responding with security glazing units targeted at this concern, along with multiple approaches for classroom door openings. Most of the security glazing units have been around for decades in the detention, DoD, and VA facility markets. The challenge to the facility owners is committing to what level of security is adequate, and where is the budget for this work, and will it provide the enhanced security that they are seeking?

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Just as I Thought: We have had 4 delayed architect projects come back alive this week. We are past the election. Confidence is building in a long term solution to Covid. Or maybe owners are getting tired of waiting for what they need. Delighted to be working on a multi-use development, a Boys and Girls Club, a municipal pool facility renovation, and a handful of K12 projects. Plus several interesting new building product manufacturer guide specification projects. So December and the first quarter of 2021 are going to be full tilt at SpecGuy.

Monday, November 2, 2020

Trusted Teams: We are accustomed to writing contracting requirements and specifications on publicly bid projects where requirements must be hard and fast, and all work completely documented, and third party inspected. It is a particular pleasure to work on the other type of project: an experienced negotiated team of long-standing operating largely out of trust on private projects. We do not have to specify pre-installation meeting agendas and mountains of documentation, as the constructor is highly experienced and gets the top quality people in their marketplace to complete the excellent designs well documented by our architect clients. If something is not quite right, it gets fixed. They “build them like they used to.”

Specifier’s Journal: September 1 – 30, 2020

Wednesday, September 30

Elevator Code Changes: Catching up with ASME A17.1-19 for changes not yet in MasterSpec. The Emergency Communication System now requires a couple of additional features: The ability for users and the monitoring station to communicate using non-verbal means of communication (two-way video) and the ability of the monitoring personnel to observe elevator passengers via encrypted one-way video.

Thursday, September 17

Concrete Slab Moisture and Flooring: Here in the Southeast, this is a topic of conversation on many projects. There is no single answer, and a blog post will not do what a consult from one of the experts will do on a topic like this. However, there are several universals to keep in mind: 1) Limit the water in the concrete mix – often accomplished by reducing the cement content if the slab strength can be lowered (and it often can). 2) Wet cure not compound cure – I know it is counter-intuitive, but this leaves the microcapillaries of the concrete open for evaporation and it ultimately has lower relative humidity when it comes time to adhere flooring. 3) Do not rush the flooring installation schedule. 4) Specify the higher moisture tolerant adhesives from or approved by the flooring manufacturer.

Sunday, September 13

Drawing General Notes: These should be limited to drawing information. Dimensioning conventions; explanation of drawing organization and cross-referencing; and a few other issues. This is not the place to add randomly selected contractual clauses based upon what went wrong on a previous project, such as “Contractor is responsible for verifying existing conditions” – that is in the General Conditions for Construction. We work with our architect clients to chase contract and specification information off of the drawings; we want the construction team to actively use the Project Manual along with the drawings – it is are meant to save them time, and time is money.

Tuesday, September 8

Design by Janitor: This is what we call aspects of facility design driven by the custodial staff. It is always a good idea to understand the challenges of maintaining a facility – especially if you want your projects to look good five years from now. At the same time, ease of cleaning and maintaining is not the only design parameter driving product choices. An example I have always regretted was seeing janitorial walk off mats covering a beautiful terrazzo logo in the receiving hall of a health care center in lieu of a planned entry vestibule with built-in mats. Another is a large facility client who paints all of their school rooms the same wall color. Convenient? Yes. Uplifting and stimulating architecture? No.

Specifier’s Journal: August 16 – 31, 2020

Monday, August 31, 2020

Hot Aisle: In case you didn’t know there is such a think, large server arrays use this special type of enclosure structure to channel and exhaust hot air coming off of server banks. I didn’t know, but I do now. Specifiers become quick studys.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Ballet Barre: We put these in high school dance classrooms, and a ballet barre just became the solution to the large glazed opening in the second floor fitness room that overlooked the gym. Instant guard. We work with some clever architects.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

4specs.com: Do you know about this site? Thousands of well organized links to building product manufacturers, and the best specifier discussion forum in the business. The forum has been going for over 20 years and can be subjec searched.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Restoration/Rehabilitation/Refurbishment: Whatever the definition, we get a particular satisfaction in helping bring old buildings back to life. This one is a 1932 school and community auditorium. The design team is experienced with historical items and doing a fine job of documentation. As it is public money, the front end will be half of our work, but we’re delighted to have the project and looking forward to the completion photos down the road.

Thursday, August 20, 2020

The Leftover Issue: There’s always a leftover issue on a project – the can that gets kicked down the road until the Contractor says: “I need an answer.” 25 emails later, someone finally makes a decision. This one was a single drawing note calling for an acoustic blanket above a decorative ceiling grid. What is it, and how is it installed, what with all those grid suspension wires to contend with? We ended up suggesting a conventional fabric covered sound absorbing panel with some stiffeners on the back. Good luck with the wires.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Geotech Reports, Soil Boring Logs, Hazardous Material Reports: I prefer locating these as far from the architect’s seal as possible, which means as Appendices at the end of Volume 2. No they are not contract documents! I have this conversation with every team. On this one I usually get my way.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Alternates! Alternates are usually the last work in a Project Manual before it goes out the door. The CM wants to protect the budget; the Owner wants to see if they can afford the more expensive boiler, and the interior designer hopes to get the cool wall finish into the project. The bidding estimators look on in horror as the list grows to 15 or 20 items. I always advise the team to hold the alternates to 3, or maybe 5, significant cost items. They don’t listen to me.

Monday, August 17, 2020

Hooray! SpecGuy is delighted to welcome Julia Hall CSI CCS CCCA as a Consulting Senior Specifier. Julia has over 30 years’ industry experience as a firm and independent specifier. She has specialties in building envelopes, hurricane high velocity wind zone and flood zone requirements, and drawing/specification coordination. We worked together “way back” at LS3P Associates. She has served as Chair of the national AIA MasterSpec Architectural Review Committee and has been a mainstay of the Charleston SC CSI Chapter. We welcome Julia with her great array of insights and practice knowledge.

Specifier’s Journal: August 1 – 15, 2020

Friday, August 14, 2020

Feedback: The most valuable emails SpecGuy receives are the ones from the architect that illustrate what can go wrong on a job site installation. We are frequently tweaking masters to help head off these problems next time. W. Edwards Deming, the Father of Total Quality Management, called this “the Quality Loop.”

Thursday, August 13, 2020

MasterSpec Product Listings: These are only as good as the information the manufacturer gives to Deltek staff. If you are a manufacturer, have a technically experienced product manager (or your friendly specifications consultant) help you get this correct, as it goes to 50,000 architects. If you are an architect or specifier, always double-check the current product data sheet on any product you are going to list in your specifications. Mistakes are made. Product names and manufacturers change.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Roofing: I just connected a young project architect with the NRCA Roofing Manual. Every architect’s office should have one. Your roofing details should be at least as good as the detail plates in this manual; shop drawings will take over from there.

Monday, August 10, 2020

ZOOM: We’ve been using cloud software for webinars for … 12 years! Several of our client firms have just gotten their feet wet with remote team meetings, and they are doing great! What used to be just long teleconferences to walk through specs now include real faces: of our architect clients and their kids and dogs. This makes our work more personal and interesting and meaningful. And the meetings have quickly become more focused and productive.

Friday, August 7, 2020

Covid: We’re now in the fray regarding classroom social distancing and how to integrate screens. Looking at acrylic and polycarbonate glazing panels; their lines are all running overtime due to demand. That demand is way out in front of the science. School clients are under tremendous stress to do the right thing – but what is the right thing?

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Back to Glazing: We perform ongoing peer reviews on glazing sections. It is not boring – there is a real satisfaction in doing something to the point that you are pretty close to mastering it! But for this one, I needed to call my glazing engineering guy. He agreed that there is a problem in the code not addressing the potential installation of interior glazing also acting as a guard where there is a change in floor level on one side. This is a large floor to ceiling glazed opening that overlooks a lower floor. If it were a glazed railing, it would be required to meet the performance requirements of a guard. So we are looking at options of 1) engineering the glazing to meet the thickness requirements of guard loading or 2) modifying the framing to provide an intermediate safety rail.

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Alternates: Anyone who has attended a bid opening knows that alternate pricing is all over the map on bid forms. This is because 1) the bidders have a complex formula for achieving profit, or 2) the documents were not clear, and they threw a bid number at each alternate. I’m going with the latter. Some years ago we developed a format for describing alternates that we’ve since injected into MasterSpec’s Section 012300 “Alternates.” Each alternate has a distinct title that also appears on the bid form. It has a line item to describe what constitutes the base bid, and another to describe the alternate. Space is allowed for referring to specific drawings and specification sections if needed. Taking that little extra time to properly describe an alternate seems to help. Don’t forget to add a specification section for a work result that only appears in an alternate!

Monday, August 3, 2020

Good News Peer Review! I reviewed a glazing section for a client today that showed that there are architect firms out there who really know how to write a specification! Glazing sections are notoriously difficult and should always involve an experienced manufacturer’s representative – especially if the project includes fire-resistance-rated or security glazing. We added some quality control language and corrected some glazing unit performance requirements.

Specifier’s Journal: July 16 – 31, 2020

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Oops: Missed an add-on accessory product in a specialty casework section. Thankfully, the owner is not concerned about spending some extra money at closeout to get one-piece worktops. These were available from the manufacturer, but the tops were buried in the middle of their catalog and did not appear on their web page or datasheet or guide specification. The architect did not draw the casework details completely because they were buyout items. The tops are in our master now. Our job as specifiers is to foresee those things the architect may not draw, not just list what they do draw.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Multiple Guide Specifications for Manufacturers: A sizable portion of our work is writing manufacturer guide specifications. Given the time crunches and limited spec education of many architects, these documents end up in projects – so we write them as if the architect’s in-house specifier wrote them. More and more often, we are writing multiple documents rather than capturing different products in a single large editable guide spec. This eliminates much of the editing for the architect and makes the specification more accurate in the end. Everyone wins.

Monday, July 27, 2020

Email Subject Lines: Please use project names in email subject lines! I just wrote an especially brilliant answer to an email assuming it was for the wrong project! A project architect usually has one or two active projects; as specification consultants, we usually have five or more under active development and 15 under construction. Give the team a little help!

Friday, July 24, 2020

Owner Furnished and Owner Performed: The design team rolls their eyes when they encounter an owner who wants to purchase and furnish products or worse, install them themselves. That’s because it 1) means extra work on the drawings to make clear who is doing what, and 2) offers unlimited potential for coordination problems. Hopefully, it is an experienced owner and they have a competent construction manager to navigate these sometimes complicated waters. With our last update to MasterSpec’s Division 01, we added more detailed language to Section 011000 “Summary” to capture these requirements, as well as added language to Section 017300 “Execution” to point out the Contractor’s responsibilities for coordination. I hope that will help.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Where Does it Say? We get at least one of these phone calls or emails each day. Frankly, none of our architect clients memorizes the 500 pages of specifications that we write for them. So it is much faster for them to just ask us. In this case, I was glad to say we had the issue about corner guards covered; I was sure I remembered adding the language before issuing the specifications. The next challenge is always: How to tweak the specifications so that the estimators and installers see what is there? Changing headings and tweaking paragraph formats sometimes helps to point out something that goes beyond the typical spec.

Monday, July 20, 2020

Which Concrete Where? Often confusing to those of us who do not organize our dresser drawers by CSI MasterFormat: Building and structural site concrete (like retaining walls) goes in Division 03 and is written by the Structural Engineer with assistance from the Architect. Site concrete, such as sidewalks, roads, and curb and gutter, belongs in Division 32 and is specified and shown by the Civil Engineer.

Friday, July 17, 2020

Legalese: Prepared a draft Supplementary Conditions today for one or our architect clients. We find that our younger clients often have not been exposed to preparation of bidding and contracting requirements. They have honed their design skills and construction drawing capabilities. But how things get built matters. We strongly encourage team members to pursue CSI’s CDT certification. It fills in many of these gaps in architectural education. The owner and the owner’s attorney need to be involved in Supplementary Conditions and other contract issues, as specifiers are not attorneys. But because we have our hands on contract administration every day, we can start the dialogue.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

What Color Roofing? I had an extended email conversation with the project architect, HVAC engineer, and school facilities manager about black vs. white roof membranes on a Central Virginia school. Decisions based upon relative energy impact is not so simple. With today’s higher insulation levels, is heat conduction between the two roofing types that much different? And what about increased ambient temperature above a black roof and how it affects rooftop unit AC and air intake temperatures? Issues involved also include projected durability, initial cost, ease of spot repairs, end of service life rehabilitation or tear off, recyclability. And: Will A/C run during the summer? Will school schedules change due to Covid? Sometimes there are too many variables and too little data to feel you have a handle on what to recommend to an owner.

Specifier’s Journal: July 1 – 15, 2020

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

• Waiting to join a webinar on glazing performance presented by a long-time manufacturer client.
• Finishing a white paper on manufacturer specifications our colleague Colin Gilboy at 4specs.com requested a couple of months ago. Then turning back to Division 01 project.
• Have a 15 project backlog with all projects moving at half-speed largely due, I think, to Covid-19 related delays. They will probably all start moving at the same time in September.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

• Spent most of the day on a master Division 00 and Division 01 for a turnkey firm in a sensitive industry. No details here because we’re under an NDA: Non-Disclosure Agreement. This is common in our work. I will say that they have very talented staff and are a great pleasure to work with.

Monday, July 13, 2020

• Looked over the presentation for an upcoming Mason Contractors Association webinar written by long-time friend and colleague Paul Potts. Paul spent 30 years in the field as an architect site representative and knows some things about construction contracts. We’re fortunate in this industry to have so many experienced people willing to share their knowledge.
• Completed a peer review on an architect firm’s 088000 Glazing master on behalf of a manufacturer client. Got it tuned up with some reference updates. Found a few phrases coming from a national master specification publisher that just are not right; their writers are human, too, therefore not perfect. Too much to know!

Friday, July 10, 2020

• Working with a new client who uses Autodesk BIM 360 as a cloud based collaboration tool. So we will add that to SharePoint, Newforma, Bluebeam Studio, firm FTP sites, Sharefile, Basecamp, and ExaVault all used by our other clients, as well as our own Dropbox for Business. It’s a cloud jungle out there.
• Do you read Liz O’Sullivan’s blog Comments from a Spec Writer? https://lizosullivanaia.com/. You should. Very wise lady.

Thursday, July 9, 2020

What do your open joints look like in a rainscreen wall panel application? Reviewed trims, screens, and open joint painting options with an architect client.

Where do clients come from? You can advertise, do mailings, and make cold calls forever. But then a retired former client calls and says he’s consulting with a startup business that needs some help.

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Roofing Warranties: We often require the metal flashing components related to low slope roofs to be tied into the roofing system warranty – it makes sense to avoid finger pointing over the source of potential problems down the road. A question from an architect client on submittal review made us aware that we need to write the coping and roof edge and roof expansion joint specifications to allow the roofing manufacturer/installer to select the manufacturers of these items. It’s obvious once pointed out. Tweaked our masters.

Sent off materials for an RFQ on a Caribbean health care project. We’ve done a lot of hurricane zone projects and health care projects; now they come together!

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Specifiers work to keep abrest of who acquired whom, who went bankrupt, who’s hot, and who’s not among building product manufacturers; it’s never ending. Ourbest source for this is Colin Gilboy’s www.4specs.com.

Spent the end of the day reviewing and commenting on an architect’s specifications for a project on which we are handling project manual coordination. Some issues and a few missing sections. Lack of compliance with public agency bidding requirements needs to be fixed.

I think it is challenging for most practicing architects to master specification writing given the complexity of managing the design of modern buildings. The project architect may work on two or four projects a year; a full time specifier may work on three or four projects each month, so we have deeper knowledge along a much narrower channel.

Monday, July 6, 2020

• A manufacturer client is having a specification struggle: their products almost but not quite fit into the pre-determined slots in MasterSpec. I’m trying to help them resolve the issues, as their products appear to be very promising for fast turnaround projects with impermeable floor finishes (ie., most projects).
• Preparing a proposal to develop guide specifications for a specialty manufacturer who is clearly an industry quality leader. This is always a challenge – a generic specification will not do, and a lowest common denominator specification will not do. The specification needs to support the raising of the quality bar without being so exclusive that it just becomes a hidden proprietary specification.

Friday, July 3, 2020

• Advised our architect client on how to handle a municipal owner’s document with requirements for treatment of soil containing hazardous material: Keep the Owner’s name in the header and in the Table of Contents; architects should not mess with hazardous materials, as we’re not expert in that arena. Of course, the owner document is not written like a contract specification and will confound the bidders, but it is the Owner’s to answer questions about the requirements and manage that part of the work.

Thursday, July 2, 2020

• Helped a manufacturing association client apply to the CSI MasterFormat Committee to get a section name tweaked to bring it up to date with current industry terminology.
• Explained to an architect client that we avoid giving dimensions in the specifications to items such as tackboards that typically are dimensioned on interior elevations or schedules. As we all know: “Say it once.” Sizes and locations go on drawings; descriptions and quality go in the specs, with a few exceptions.
• Another architect client is struggling with how to get a natural cement finish on a cast-in-place utility building while also treating it for graffiti protection – this one will not be easy to solve.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

• We are preparing a project manual for adding two stories to the top of an existing hospital. Yes you can do that, and it is done all the time. All you need is a very experienced architect and an experienced contractor/CM. We wrote a custom Roofing Removal section for the soon-to-be 9th floor. Chased down consultant specs to wrap up the project manual and saw that the MEP sections did not follow our format document for filenaming – we send our format document to all the consultants, and some of them followed it, some of them did not. MEP were gracious and redid the filenames using a bulk renaming software I recommended: http://www.gmayor.com/document_batch_processes.htm.
• My go-to product representative for Stage Curtains has retired! But he was kind enough to take my call and answer a question for me about the recommended clearance between the bottom of the grand drape and the stage floor. This retirement thing is happening a lot lately.

New Orleans McMain School Envelope Restoration

SpecGuy is proud to have been part of the team working with the office of Concordia of New Orleans to restore the splendid Art Deco exterior of the Eleanor McMain Secondary School. Originally designed by architect E.A. Christy, the school was completed in 1932, and has been the school home for generations of New Orleans students. The before and after photos on our home page illustrate its previous desperate condition and the wonderful result. The exterior work was extended to significant restoration work on the interior.

We utilized the MasterSpec Historic Preservation Library as the basis for the restoration portion of the project specifications. The work was based upon requirements and procedures of the US Department of the Interior and the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development Division of Historic Preservation. The most significant historic work components included Historic Treatment of Exterior Plaster and Historic Treatment of Plain Painting. Significant material research and analysis was carried out to form the basis of these specifications. Due to the rough nature of the exterior stucco, we recommended a newly-developed dirt pickup-resistant acrylic paint as a topcoat to keep the restoration looking fresh for the near future. Historic window and door restoration specifications were developed for the wood and steel window types and wood main entry doors.

Concordia carrier out intensive on-site observation and support to see this project through to a successful completion with Tuna Construction. As is typical, we provided daily phone and email support for submittal review and onsite construction questions.

A fine article on this project can be found here: Renovation of Eleanor McMain Secondary School restores Art Deco landmark.

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SpecGuy at the M.A.R.C in April

We’re delighted to be joining the CSI Mid-Atlantic Region at their conference in lovely Harrisonburg VA this April. We’ll give a keynote address on computer applications in specifications writing, an exciting new concept in 1967 when CSI enlisted Stanford Research Institute to look ahead and make predictions about … 2020. On the schedule is an outstanding array of information on VR, robotics, app development, and offsite modular construction. Plus an ARE prep course. And the Let’s Fix Construction folks will be there! All this nestled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Join us. http://csimarc.com/