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Greg began Architectural studies at Queensland University of Technology 1978, graduated 1987, gained Architectural Registration 1989, obtained commercial Builders License 2000. Greg has over 35 years Building Industry experience. Greg is one of Australia's leading Architectural Specification Writers. His developed the ArchiAssist Master Specification, Australia's most user-friendly and concise...Specs done in a day...any size project. Greg can write your Specification also. Email to be sent the standard Agreement and Fee Table. Greg is working to make ArchiAssist the go-to resource for helping Australian Architects, Landscape Architects, and Designers.

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Greg Blain

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This article relates to all size and type Australian architectural, building, interiors, landscape projects including houses, multi-residential, industrial, and commercial projects.

The 3 building or construction contract document types are the drawings, the schedules (lists of materials and products), and the specification.

The specification has the technical, specific, often minute, everyday building and construction detail that ties all the documents together, and they all give the detail required to build the project theoretically without question.

The reality though, is that there will be imperfections, and a good specification will help resolve the negative effects of these imperfections. Specifications are like an insurance policy.

In the built environment, the different designers rely on building and construction specifications, including architectural specifications, landscape specifications and interiors specifications.

Designers have 3 choices when it comes to doing specifications 1) use an outsource writer, 2) use a self-created master specification, 3) use a purchased industry master.

1_Outsourcing to a specification writer: This is a valid way to go. This will free up some time, but the fee and the writer’s scope need consideration. Also, the designer’s administration and checking time has a cost, and the master specification the writer uses should be of good quality and user-friendly.

2_Create your own specification: This is not recommended as it involves a lot of work. Most self-created masters are not high-quality documents. As well as the excessive time involved being a problem, different staff over time can pollute the master with different writing styles and ideas.

3_Purchase a master specification: Designers usually edit specifications from a master (or a construction template) which is a good way to go. Several choices on the market are available. Specifications should not be hard to produce. With the right master it should be easy.

Quality, ease of use and cost are also primary considerations. Cost not only involves purchase price, but the cost of the time to write the spec and dealing with construction problems the specification causes, which can be very costly.

Specifications need to be easy to produce. The master is best as a single writable document, copied and pasted from a computer storage file to a project file.

They need to be easy to edit. Very little should be added to the specification and a good master will have you easily only deleting the unwanted content. Project specific detail is not specified but is drawn and scheduled.

The preliminaries (section 1) has a lot of common content. Sections 2 (fixing & sealing) and section 3 (metalwork) are the same. Other common detail is in the ‘general’ sub-section of each section. Common detail should be grouped together and referred to often, making it easy to find.

Specific trade detail should also be easy to find. People search for detail first in a likely section. Sections of only a few pages helps visual scanning for an item. Then failing this, a ‘related detail’ clause at the start of that section should locate the item.

Specifications should not only have quality content but should be easy to read and navigate. To do this, they need to have a predictable, logical structure, with sections (chapters) identical in format, and common detail is separated from specific trade detail.

A quality specification needs to have good readability. All building industry participants should be able to read construction or building specifications. Readability can depend on how well the original master specification was drafted.

Specification content affects readability. It should be just typical, common industry detail. If project specific detail is not drawn or scheduled, and it is specified, it can be confusing and hard to find.

Specifications have a lot of words, so they need to have defined words italicized. This is done in all general conditions of contract and in the BCA and NCC. Defined words need to stand out.

A good master specification will work for all size or type projects. A specification is needed even for small projects because all building work is big business and being ill prepared can lead to big problems.

Large projects use a lot more of each material, however, having a lot or a little of one material does not change the work description for that material, so specification detail remains the same. Large projects will have more drawings and schedules but not a bigger specification.

Many building types exist in the Australian context, including houses, multi-residential, industrial, and commercial projects. For these types, architectural specifications, interiors specifications and landscape specifications are used to provide building and construction specification detail.

All the building types are designed for different uses, and they all have use different types of materials. However, all projects use many of the same materials, so a good master specification addresses this and should be designed for all projects.

Builders use the contract documents (ie the drawings, schedules and specification) to price projects then build them. The documents describe all the work to be built accurately to the design.

Drawings are graphical, showing layouts, arrangements, primary components, structures, dimensions, etc. Schedules are lists for quick reference, usually of materials, colours, finishes. Specifications are written booklets of extensive technical detail that is too much to go on drawings or in schedules.

Even though contractors should know the specification detail anyway, a few do not. Most do quality work but may not do some of it as the designer wants. The specification should resolve these differences.

Some designers don’t produce a full construction specification, relying on a drawing sheet of notes. This can’t work as these notes can’t cover all things and all contingencies.

By the time all the contract documents (including those from their consultants) are assembled, there can be many documents. So, designers and builders need to work very professionally. Nevertheless, mistakes happen, and the specification is often relied on to resolve problems.

Specifications are so important in the design, documentation and building process. They are considered the most important document. It is critical you make the right choice.