Building Design and Construction Handbook - Merritt - Ventech!

THE BUILDING TEAM—MANAGING THE BUILDING PROCESS 2.21
Reputable companies state in their literature that their products conform to specific
recognized standards and furnish independent laboratory reports supporting
their claims. The buyer is assured that the products conform to minimum requirements
and that the buyer will be able to use them consistently and expect the same
end result. Reference specifications generally are used in conjunction with one or
more of the other types of specifications.
Proprietary Specifications. These specify materials, equipment, and other products
by trade name, model number, and manufacturer. This type of specification
simplifies the specification writer’s task, because commercially available products
set the standard of quality acceptable to the architect or engineer.
Sometimes proprietary specifications can cause complications because manufacturers
reserve the right to change their products without notice, and the product
incorporated in the project may not be what the specifier believed would be installed.
Another disadvantage of proprietary specifications is that they may permit
use of alternative products that are not equal in every respect. Therefore, the specifier
should be familiar with the products and their past performance under similar
use and should know whether they have had a history of satisfactory service. The
specifier should also take into consideration the reputation of the manufacturers or
subcontractors for giving service and their attitude toward repair or replacement of
defective or inferior work.
Under a proprietary specification, the architect or engineer is responsible to the
client for the performance of the material or product specified and for checking the
installation to see that it conforms with the specification. The manufacturer of the
product specified by the model number has the responsibility of providing the performance
promised in its literature.
In general, the specification writer has the responsibility of maintaining competition
between manufacturers and subcontractors to help keep costs in line. Naming
only one supplier may result in a high price. Two or more names are normally
supplied for each product to enhance competition.
Use of ‘‘or equal’’ should be avoided. It is not fully satisfactory in controlling
quality of materials and equipment, though it saves time in preparing the specification.
Only one or two products need to be investigated and research time needed
to review other products is postponed.
Base-Bid Specifications. These establish acceptable materials and equipment by
naming one or more (often three) manufacturers and fabricators. The bidder is
required to prepare a proposal with prices submitted from these suppliers. Usually,
base-bid specifications permit the bidder to submit substitutions or alternatives for
the specified products. When this is done, the bidder should state in the proposal
the price to be added to, or deducted from, the base bid and include the name,
type, manufacturer, and descriptive data for the substitutions. Final selection rests
with the client. Base-bid specifications often provide the greatest control of quality
of materials and equipment, but there are many pros and cons for the various types
of specifications, and there are many variations of them.
2.17.3 Automated Specifications
For building projects, specification writers normally maintain a library of master
documents that are used as a basis for creating project specifications with a computer.
Typically, they employ the industry-standard Construction Specifications In-