What a Specification Writer Actually Decides
The writer of a section decides how a product is described, which standards it must meet, and who counts as equal. Most substitution arguments are settled there, months before the bid.
A common misunderstanding is that a specification writer records what the design team chose. The writer decides how a product is described, which standards it has to meet, and whether a competing product can be submitted as an equal.
That last decision is where most substitution arguments are decided, and it gets settled in language written months before anyone bids the job. A manufacturer who has never spoken to a specification writer has a product being defined in a room they have not been in.
How is a section organized?
A technical section in the standard three-part format answers three questions in order. Part one says what the section covers, what it references and what has to be submitted. In part two, the products are named and the requirements they have to meet are stated. The third part covers installation and adjustment. When a specifier reads a section somebody else wrote, part two answers what and part three answers how, and the criteria that decide a substitution live in part two.
Bid validity periods, escalation terms and alternate approval windows live elsewhere, in the front end of the project manual, and a technical section points to them. They are unglamorous provisions and they decide whether a repricing becomes a change order or an argument.
What happens when a substitution request arrives?
Substitution requests arrive late, usually after the bid and usually with a schedule attached to them. By the time one lands, the language has already decided how the conversation goes. A section stating its criteria gives the reviewer something to measure against, and the CSI substitution request form exists to collect exactly those comparisons. A section naming products and stopping there leaves the reviewer holding a preference and a deadline.
Who approves the request is settled too. The design professional of record evaluates it, and the authority having jurisdiction has the final word wherever a code requirement is in play. The month to prepare for a substitution request is the month the section is written.
How does a product get named in a section?
When a section names three products, the names are a judgment call by the writer, made from what the writer knows of those product ranges and what the criteria demand. Product-range knowledge is the professional's value, and it is honest to say so plainly: the names are a judgment, and a person makes it.
A manufacturer becomes one of those names by making its product knowable. A listing with the agency and the year, a performance figure the section can ask for, a template the detailer can use, and a person who will pick up the phone put a product within reach of the writer's judgment. Products that can only be verified through a sales visit sit outside it.
What goes wrong when a section is carried forward?
When fee budgets compress, specification work is one of the first line items to get shortened, and the quickest way to shorten it is to carry a section forward from the last job. A section carried forward holds its old standards, its old edition years and its named products, and some of those products left the market a while ago.
The manufacturer finds out at the submittal that its product is gone from the market. The specifier finds out at the same moment, from the same page. Both sides of the opening are working from the same document, and the trouble usually starts when one of them is holding an older copy.
Where does SPC Alliance stand in this?
The alliance does not write specifications. Its spec writer members do, and the open specification sections that design firms receive are developed through them. When a member's product gets challenged, SPC supports the member by assembling the documentation and the performance argument behind the original language. The decision stays with the design professional of record.
Questions we get
- Does naming a product in a section guarantee it gets used?
- A named product is a basis of design. Whether a competing product can be submitted as an equal depends on the criteria the section states and on the design professional's evaluation of the request.
- Who approves a substitution?
- The design professional of record evaluates the request. Where a code requirement is in play, the authority having jurisdiction has the final word.
- Where do bid validity and escalation terms belong?
- In the front end of the project manual, in the procurement and general requirements. A technical section points to them, and the pointer is enough.