What is a Specification?

Whether an Architectural Specification or an Engineering Specification, ‘specs’ generally follow a tried and tested specification format.

Specifications are among the most crucial documents in Architecture, Engineering, and construction. They dictate the qualitative and procedural requirements for products, materials, and workmanship, ensuring that the design intent is actualised through construction. 

Also, they are often prescribed by doctors as a cure for insomnia. 

It won’t surprise you that Specification Consultants are among the greatest sleepers in the industry.

Below is a comprehensive breakdown into the common anatomy of a specification, so you can navigate the rhyme and reason next time you’re tasked with reviewing one.

General Requirements

Often the preamble to the detailed specification, this section sets the stage, outlining the overarching themes and expectations for the entire project. Here’s what it typically encompasses:

• Project Introduction: This offers a snapshot of the project, including its description, scale, purpose, and any other crucial overarching details.
  • Let your creative juices flow with wonderfully artistic design statements like “This contemporary façade embodies the project’s aspirations where graceful arcs and deliberate lines blend seamlessly to highlight the purposeful fenestrations ….”
  • Or keep it simple and factual, “12-storey mixed-use development comprising residential tower and retail podium with basement carpark”.
• Procurement Alignment: This section specifically outlines the Contractor’s responsibilities in relationship to the procurement strategy and form of contract.
  • There is a big difference in the tone between a Traditional Lump Sum Tender contract (prescriptive) and a Design and Construct contract.
  • Check here for an article specifically covering this topic, but know that you need to allocate responsibilities accordingly to align with the contract. (link to #10)
• Submittals: Details the documentation process required by the Contractor to ensure alignment with the specification.
  • Trade sections call for specific samples, mock-ups, prototypes, quality benchmarks, shop drawings and the like, but this section outlines the process of submitting, reviewing, accepting, tracking, and storing them.
  • It’s easy to request 3 samples of each tile type, but you also need to outline that they are not to be passed under the table in a brown paper bag in a dimly lit bar.
• Quality Control: A vital segment that sets the standard for the project. It outlines the expected levels of quality for materials, products, and workmanship and the procedures for ensuring these standards are met and compliance is achieved.
  • If you like researching industry standards, testing, and Quality Control Plans, you will love this section. 
• Sustainability Targets: With sustainability becoming the norm, this section pinpoints the environmental and sustainability goals and metrics, such as energy efficiency, recycled material content, and circular economy principles.
  • Let’s face it, we should all be doing more than we probably are to leave this planet with equal or greater amenity for our descendants that we enjoyed.
  • This means in our privileged position; we have a shared responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of the building industry.
• Material Requirements: Details the characteristics, standards, and qualities of materials to be used.
  • This includes the materials permitted in the project, but also not permitted such as hazardous materials. 
  • We know silicosis is a type of pulmonary fibrosis, which is a lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust commonly found in many products and generated in many construction processes. This section is where you want to protect the people and environment from harmful effects during manufacture, construction, and habitation.
• Performance Requirements: Here, the expected performance metrics of materials and products, like durability, strength, design life and resilience, are detailed.
  • You want to build a hotel on the beach? Sure, but you better outline the specific performance requirements addressing the marine environment and wind-driven airborne salts causing atmospheric corrosion. A beachside hotel has a very different risk profile than a hotel servicing a rural airport. 
• Workmanship: A prelude to the more detailed workmanship sections later, this outlines the broader expectations regarding the quality of labour and craftsmanship.
  • Some trade sections have repetitive requirements, why not list them in this section to reduce repetition?

Trade Sections

These are the meat and 3 veg, or tofu and quinoa sections where the rubber hits the road, and the devil is in the detail (any other cliches?).

The heart of the specification, trade sections, dive deep into each trade or material type involved in the project. These sections are often further divided into usually three subsections:

• Part 1: General:  This covers administrative requirements for that trade section, such as design and construction submittal requirements.
  • Remember those 3 tiles, this is where you ask for them.
  • You also want to ask for trade-specific shop drawings, outline witness and hold points, specify warranty periods and operation and maintenance.
• Part 2: Products:  This covers material and product-specific details, and where you specify product selections or refer to the Schedule.
  • This is also the best place to dive deep into the product-specific performance requirements.
    1. Wait a minute, didn’t we already do that in the General Requirements? No, in the General Requirements we specified the high-level performance requirements applicable to the project in its entirety, here you specify it on a product level, therefore by the sum of its parts (the trade section elements), the project achieves the overall performance requirements in its entirety.
  • Include testing requirements, for the constituent materials and the installed product insitu. 
  • Here you also describe the components that make up the system, it’s not just cladding, it’s also the associated works like the framing, insulation, pliable building membrane, thermal breaks and the like.
• Part 3: Execution and Workmanship:  This covers the level of quality in how the materials and products are to be installed.
  • Break it down further into subheadings that cover examination, preparation, installation, and completion.
  • Think about it logically, the substrate and surrounding surfaces must first be examined for suitability, then prepared to facilitate installation, then installed in accordance with the detailed design or manufacturer’s instructions to a specific tolerance, and then cleaned and protected.

The Missing Link

Did you notice the Site Preliminaries haven’t been included in this article? If so, you get a virtual pat on the back and have obviously had some experience in specifications. 

If you didn’t, don’t stress, we will cover preliminaries in a separate article. In short, Site Preliminaries are items and costs which are necessary for the works to be undertaken but are not actually part of the works – think scaffolding, plant hire, water, and power connections and the like.

Other Formats

There are of course other formats in the market using different nomenclature and naming conventions, but in the spirit of readers consuming an entire document on specifications, we intentionally left them out.

Conclusion:

In summary, specifications are cumbersome and somewhat intimidating, yet contractually of utmost importance and often left to the last minute or produced as an afterthought. 

Specifications are the lifeline of a project, ensuring that the Architect or Engineers vision is manifested with precision, quality, and integrity. By understanding the structure of specifications, professionals can better appreciate the meticulous detailing that goes into every project and the pivotal role these documents play in bridging design and reality.

Does all this seem too hard? If you want our dedicated team of Specification Consultants to make your life easier and produce the specification for you, utilising a digital cloud-based ecosystem that links with your model….

Then reach out to us, and let’s improve the natural and built environment with every project together.

www.earlymark.com

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Does your specification structure differ to this? Share your experience in the comments below.