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Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

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520<br />

CORK INSULATION<br />

the work should be specifically described in more than <strong>on</strong>e place,<br />

as repetiti<strong>on</strong> weakens specificati<strong>on</strong>s and makes for ambiguity.<br />

Before an attempt is made to prepare a specificati<strong>on</strong>, it is necessary<br />

to brief the work carefully and establish the proper majorheadings,<br />

main-headings and sub-headings. This is necessary not<br />

<strong>on</strong>ly from the standpoint of English compositi<strong>on</strong>, technical writ-<br />

ing and legality, but also from a sales standpoint. The suggesti<strong>on</strong><br />

has been made that if the first or "scope-and-purpose" secti<strong>on</strong> of<br />

the c<strong>on</strong>tract proposal be properly presented and the drawings well<br />

executed, it will materially assist the sales engineer to secure a<br />

quick acceptance of the c<strong>on</strong>tract proposal, other things being equal.<br />

While, in general, this is true, yet many buyers scrutinize the com-<br />

plete document most carefully; and if weaknesses are found in<br />

the specificati<strong>on</strong>s, even though the remainder of the c<strong>on</strong>tract pro-<br />

posal be well drafted, it tends to destroy c<strong>on</strong>fidence in the abil-<br />

ity of the sales engineer to have the proposed work carried out in<br />

a satisfactory manner, and thus operates very much against him.<br />

Furthermore, specificati<strong>on</strong>s, correct in every detail, are essential to<br />

the c<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong> corps, if difficulties are to be avoided while prose-<br />

cuting the work. The importance of this correlati<strong>on</strong> is usually<br />

either not well understood or carelessly disregarded by the sales<br />

engineer.<br />

The most comm<strong>on</strong> errors committed by sales engineers when<br />

writing specificati<strong>on</strong>s are failure to brief the work properly and<br />

neglect to make the clauses mutually exclusive. Major-headings,<br />

main-headings and sub-headings are frequently jumbled so as to<br />

make the <str<strong>on</strong>g>complete</str<strong>on</strong>g> specificati<strong>on</strong> subject to many interpretati<strong>on</strong>s, even<br />

though the choice of words and their order of arrangement, the<br />

sequence of clauses composing sentences, and the arrangement of<br />

sentences in each paragraph, are above criticism.<br />

General Clauses.—The general clauses in an engineering c<strong>on</strong>tract,<br />

which set forth the business relati<strong>on</strong> of the parties to the c<strong>on</strong>tract,<br />

may relate to any or all of the following:<br />

(1) The valuable c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>.<br />

(2) Terms of payment.<br />

(3) Time of commencement, rate of progress and time of com-<br />

pleti<strong>on</strong>.<br />

(4) Provisi<strong>on</strong> for m<strong>on</strong>thly and final estimates.<br />

(5) Kind of workmen to be employed.<br />

(6) Appliances to be used.<br />

(7) Liquidated damages.<br />

(8) Workmen's compensati<strong>on</strong> insurance.<br />

(9) Public liability insurance.<br />

(10) Owners' liability insurance.<br />

(11) C<strong>on</strong>tractors' c<strong>on</strong>tingent liability insurance.<br />

(12) Special c<strong>on</strong>tingent damage insurance.

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