The quality of guide specifications published by building product manufacturers has improved significantly. I made a survey of 200 guide specifications in the mid-1980s and found that more than half of them were not in compliance with formats and principles of the Construction Specifications Institute. Now, in contrast, the overwhelming majority of guide specs are in substantial compliance with CSI guidelines.
Several factors have contributed to the improvement, including:
There is still room for improvement, of course. I recently saw a guide spec that was so poorly written that the manufacturer's misspelled its own name! This bad example, however, cause me to reflect on how much the industry has improved. And that is good news for all of us.
Several factors have contributed to the improvement, including:
- More architects and engineers have been trained and even certified in CSI formats and principle, and they have demanded better specs for the products they want to use.
- Better trained specifiers also means that manufacturers have more consultants they can turn to for assistance in writing specs.
- There are now more specification publishers, including Arcat, Arcom, BSD, E-Spec and others, that encourage manufacturers to follow CSI formats and principles.
There is still room for improvement, of course. I recently saw a guide spec that was so poorly written that the manufacturer's misspelled its own name! This bad example, however, cause me to reflect on how much the industry has improved. And that is good news for all of us.