Project Specifications

We have extensive experience in developing technical building specifications that comes with hundreds of projects, billions of dollars in construction costs, multiple offices, technical and support staff, along with some of the best resources in the country all-in-one firm.

Construction Specifications

The DTR Advantage

DTR is one of the largest independent specification writing firms in the country, bringing knowledge of 100’s of products to your design and production team.

We have extensive experience in developing technical building specifications that comes with hundreds of projects, billions of dollars in construction costs, multiple offices, technical architects, and support staff, along with some of the best resources in the country all in one firm.

Nearly twenty years ago we developed the studio approach to providing our clients with the best technical services in the country. We have employed staff from various backgrounds and experiences and created an environment that allows us to learn from our joint experiences, both old and new. In one year, our technical staff is exposed to the technical experience that a traditional architect may be exposed to in a seven to eight-year period. With a good deal of us working on as many as 40 or more projects a year, including high rises, courthouses, city halls, libraries, mixed-use projects, public safety stations, research labs, military facilities, universities, private & public education, hospitality projects, and large scale retail and more… we have a lot of knowledge to share.

OUR APPROACH

At DTR, we feel that specifications should never be written naming a product only to be followed by “or equal…” This will create more work for the Architect/Engineer in the Construction Phase, needlessly exhausting your limited resources. Why we say this, is that as much as 50 percent of other manufacturers may submit their product in place of what was specified as a substitution request stating they are equal.

On public projects, where no written descriptive or performance data was included in the bid specifications, the Architect or Designer must individually obtain current product cut sheets on both the product specified and the substituted product. They will then begin the sometimes laborious task of determining whether the substituted product meets or exceeds the specified product. With some products or systems, this may take anywhere from an hour to several hours or even a day to review more complex systems. Multiply that times hundreds of potentially substituted products and you can expect thousands of lost revenue for your team. A well-written “Substitution” specification section, along with a performance-based technical specification will ensure your client gets a product that meets the original design intent.

DTR will work with the architectural design teams to pinpoint appropriate products in both a descriptive and performance-based open proprietary specification where performance and esthetics are important.

PROJECT MANUAL

Specifications are to be written to be specific to your project, the intended use, and the client’s design requirements.

Specifications communicate with potentially hundreds of people involved with the project to assure they implement both the intent of the designers and the requirements needed to carry out proper installation and project durability. Specifications can be as complex to develop as the construction drawings and can range from a single printed volume to several volumes. In some respects, this work is similar to that of an attorney producing a legal contract.

DTR Consulting Services utilizes the 50-division 2004/2020 MasterFormat system of information organization developed and improved over the years by members of The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). These industry-standard divisions cover the various materials, products, and equipment that go into a building. They are important because they govern the way information is found in the manufacturer’s library, and they assure consistency among construction documents nationwide.

Each project’s technical specification section describes a unit of work and end product. Specification sections are broken down into three basics parts under the CSI SectionFormat as follows:

Part 1 – General

Summarizes work covered in Section, covers applicable industry standards, references to other sections or documents, defines LEED/Sustainability requirements, governs specific product submittal requirements, establishes quality assurance including minimum installer experience, lists specific code or testing references, describes mock-ups, notes specific site conditions for storage and/or installation, may list performance criteria, special warranties and required maintenance services.

Part 2 – Products

Describes products and assemblies to be used on the project, names of acceptable manufacturers and products, various product accessories, material descriptions & performance data, fabrication requirements including manufacture testing, factory finishes, and other product performance criteria.

Part 3 – Execution

Addresses substrate preparation, examination, installation requirements for products and accessories, installation processes, and job site conditions that must be maintained during product usage including field quality assurance testing, cleaning, and protection of finished products. When scheduling is not feasible on the drawings, quantity schedules for products can be shown for more complex systems, such as door hardware, bathroom accessories, and thermal insulation. etc.

Types of Specifications

Specifications may be written in multiple acceptable ways, but are usually written as a combination of the following:

Performance Specifications:

Specification style that describes the product without mentioning the manufacturer by name. Requirements might include meeting a specific wind load, color range, or structural loading condition. These types of specifications required an end result, with the specified criteria verifying compliance without unnecessarily limiting the method of achieving those results. Examples might be a specification for fabricated exit stairway or fire-resistant joint sealant. Simply stated, the specifications specify an “End Result”.

Descriptive Specifications:

The specification is formed as a detailed written description of the required properties of a product, materials, or equipment and the workmanship needed for its proper installation. They define the exact properties of materials and methods of installation without using proprietary product names.

Prescriptive Specifications:

A prescriptive specification is one that includes clauses for means and methods of construction and composition of the concrete mix or a traditional plaster mix rather than defining performance requirements.

Reference Specifications:

These specifications refer to an authority, trade association, government, or other industry reference standards. They also provide a generic description in terms of an assembly meeting those standards, such as ASTM, TCNA, ANSI, etc.

Proprietary Specifications:

There are both Closed and Open versions of the Proprietary specifications defined as follows:

Closed Specifications: Only one product is named and no substitutions would be accepted.

Open Specifications: One product may be named as a basis of design, with multiple other products named as acceptable products, or list the proprietary brand names of one or more manufacturers. Substitutions would be allowed and would be processed through the General Requirements (Division 01) substitution procedure section.