Construction Product Specification Writing
Writing specification documents for your construction product
Well-written specification documents are very important tools in the sales and marketing of construction products. The role of a specification is to provide the construction product information which cannot easily be shown on a CAD drawing. Developing standard specification clauses provides a means of saving the specifier time, enabling easy inclusion and ensuring that a construction product is correctly described as to manufacturer’s original intention. With thought, these specification documents can also be written to minimise the opportunity for specifications to be value-engineered out of the project, by the quantity surveyor, or substituted by the contractor’s buying department.
A fact that most people involved in the specification process already know is that architects re-use their specifications. BIM is also changing the form of specifications and how the construction team works together. With this in mind it is important for the manufacturer to review their specification documents and have both a descriptive or prescriptive product specification and a generic performance specification available in BIM-ready formats.