The Project Manual
Through the past year and a half, I’ve dedicated four “Currents” columns to the subject of drawing practices and the National CAD Standards. But construction documents consist not only of drawings, but also written specifications – so now I’ll shift my attention to Project Manuals – key communication tools used by architects and engineers to uphold quality and establish performance requirements for all of a given project’s contractors.
Basically, a Project Manual is a bound book of construction documents prepared to define contractual obligations and govern the requirements involved in building a project. As such, it includes general information, procurement and contract requirements and, potentially, numerous and often lengthy specifications of products to be used, installation practices to be followed and details on a host of other activities.
If you’re not familiar with these manuals, that’s not a great surprise: To date, these compilations have seldom been used in the watershaping industry because, until fairly recently, most of our projects were (and still are) done as part of design/build contracts in which the builder designs the project as a component part of a construction contract.
Increasingly, however, these manuals are coming into play. This happens, for example, in projects in which my company performs design and engineering services for owners and the documents are used in turn by project managers to establish elevated acceptance criteria for – and ensure better quality results from – their general contractor and all subcontractors.
DIGGING DEEPER
Most of our residential and smaller commercial projects do not involve formal Project Manuals. For these, we prepare simplified written requirements that add one or more sheets to the drawing set. Our larger commercial projects are in a different league: Here, we typically add a handful of sheets, but we’ve also added dozens of multi-page sections depending on the client and/or the project’s specific needs.
In other words, you may breathe easy for a while longer, because there’s still room for some informality and I’ve seen construction contracts from builders that include no more than preprinted forms with contractual requirements and a series of fields and checkboxes that specify equipment, finishes and even project dimensions. These constitute only rudimentary Project Manuals and are limited in scope, and my sense is that this sort of informality will soon become a thing of the past: Indeed, a time is coming when we’ll all need to step up to new levels of specificity in our communications.
So let’s grab a real Project Manual and describe it in some detail. With respect to basic appearance, these are volumes of 8-1/2-by-11-inch sheets of paper, often printed on both sides and either spiral or comb-bound so they’ll lay flat on a desk or tabletop for easy reading and reference. Depending on the size and complexity of the job, a manual may be a quarter-inch thick or even just a dozen sheets or so stapled together – or it may consist of multiple volumes of two-inch thickness.
The front cover lists project information and is followed by pages of owner certifications, signatures and wet-seals from the architect(s) and engineer(s) – hence these manuals have all the weight and legal standing of contracts. The first few pages also usually carry a table of contents and lists of drawings and schedules.
After these sheets comes a long list of documents that may be included in the manual – so many specific possibilities that, helpfully, the Construction Specifications Institute (www.csinet.org) has developed a structure and numbering scheme to keep everything organized and consistent (see the sidebar below).
One benefit of the CSI numbering scheme is that multiple consultants on a project will generally not overlap one another when the Project Manual is assembled by the architect. For example, we recently provided specifications for certain elements of a waterfeature that is to be part of a much larger hospital project. As you might imagine, the manual in this case consisted of several volumes covering everything from excavation to the paint colors of the surgery suites, but it was all set up in such a way that the electrical engineer’s input didn’t conflict with the furnishings sections – and neither conflicted with our fountain information.
|
Deconstructing Construction Starting in the 1960s, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) began organizing all sorts of construction-related information into a collection of Divisions. Originally, there were 16 of these Divisions covering big concepts such as Concrete, Masonry, Metals and the like. In 2004, however, CSI released its latest “MasterFormat” edition and now includes 34 active Divisions (and 15 additional, unnamed reserved sections), listed below: Division 00 – Procurement and Contracting Requirements What’s in these Divisions? They’re actually umbrellas that each encompass multiple numerically identified Sections. For example, Division 00 includes Section 000101 – Project Title Page; Section 000105 – Certifications Page; Section 000110 – Table of Contents and more. There are potentially thousands of individual Sections, but most projects only use a small fraction of them. Of particular note are several areas in Division 00 that pertain to “available information,” including preliminary schedules, existing conditions, surveys, environmental issues, hazardous materials, and geophysical and geotechnical details. In other words, if a soils report was prepared for the project, it will be found in this part of the Project Manual. Division 00 also includes contracting requirements, forms, certificates, general conditions and information on policies and procedures affecting revisions, clarifications, modifications and change orders. CSI has also identified certain Sections within Division 13 (Special Construction) that relate specifically to watershapes: 13 01 11 – Operation and Maintenance of Swimming Pools There’s more, but you get the idea. Our master file uses only Section number 13 11 00 with a series of suffixes (more on that in a future article), but we can easily shift things to other section numbers if the project involves something other than a pool. Some clients require us to use the five-digit numbering system used in the pre-2004 CSI standard. That’s a bit of a pain, but translating things is generally simple because of the ease and speed of handling everything on a computer screen before a manual is output. D.P. |
At first glance, you might be tempted to separate your specifications by Division – that is, putting submerged lighting in Division 26 and plumbing in Division 22 – but that’s not necessary if your specifications focus only on watershapes. Indeed, I caution against doing so: If your sheets are to be integrated with those generated by others in a large project, dividing things that way increases chances for conflict and makes it much harder to find information.
Consider that the electrical contractor will be constantly referring to Division 26 Sections that may have nothing at all to do with building the watershape. Thus, putting your submerged lighting information in Division 26 might create confusion. Instead, use a Division 13 section number (see the sidebar once again) with a two-digit suffix to divide your information into a coherent framework.
WHY SPECIFY?
So we know a Project Manual has several major Divisions and that each contains Sections: What’s inside the Sections? Again, CSI has been most helpful in defining these substructures in the form of its “SectionFormat” standard. In fact, they even go so far as to outline the physical presentation of the information via their “PageFormat” standard.
As you know if you’ve gotten into this on any level, the Sections are divided into three primary parts: General, Products and Execution. For the moment, it’s enough to know that this architecture exists: At some point in the future, I’ll get around to dissecting Sections and seeing how Parts function within them.
For now, just imagine: You’ve been asked to build a simple pool and are told that the structural engineer has worked out the details with the soils engineer. All necessary permits have been pulled, so you bid the job, win and sign the contract and begin digging. Within hours, however, you hit groundwater that you were not anticipating and engage in a disagreement with the owners about costs.
For their part, the owners think you should have included dewatering within your bid; for yours, you think the owners need to pay for a change order.
This is a situation that could have easily been resolved by the existence of a good Project Manual. For starters, the soils report would have been included (as Section 003132 if CSI’s standards are followed). Also, the Manual would normally include policies and procedures to follow for change orders and the like.
(For smaller projects, of course, this might all be spelled out in the contract itself, but for larger commercial projects, the manual itself becomes the point of reference for all contract requirements.)
Beyond such basic, contractual details, the specifications may also carry information on such points as test procedures and quality control measures that are not defined in the drawings. For example, the drawings might show a 1.8 million Btu/hr heater with routings for certain water and gas plumbing connections, but the written specifications expand on that and indicate that the plumber must, for example, install thermocouples in the plumbing and a sediment trap on the gas line just before the heater connection.
The sheet might also require that the contractor retain the services of a technician authorized by the manufacturer to perform startup on the heater “to ensure that everything flows and burns as expected, without soot buildup.”
And in cases in which the heater specification might allow for putting various manufacturers in a competitive-bid scenario, the document will likely run to several pages to describe all the performance criteria and startup procedures. This lengthy documentation does not belong in the drawings: Instead, as a contractual, legally binding requirement, it belongs in the Project Manual.
FIRST IN LINE
Generally, in fact, specifications take precedence over drawings if conflicts arise.
Let’s say, for example, that the heater specifications say “all heaters shall be installed on level concrete housekeeping pads a minimum of three inches above the sloping floor.” The drawings may not even indicate the housekeeping pad, but if the specifications say “shall,” then it must be done – absent, of course, another sheet that formalizes change requests made by the contractor and subsequently approved by the owner, architect(s) and/or engineer(s).
Because these specifications are contractually binding, it is important that they be read and understood before you bid on any project that includes them. Case in point: A year ago, a friend of mine lost more than $50,000 on a project because the written specifications required that he provide one extra piece of each different type of equipment used on the job (pumps, filters, valves and more). He didn’t recognize that requirement even existed until his final invoice was rejected: The equipment was not on site and no payment would be forthcoming until it was!
(My friend was only kidding when he said his estimator was going to be buried at an undisclosed location in the desert.)
So even if a general contractor gives you one or two specifications that relate to your own work, be sure to request a copy of the entire manual and review everything it contains, basically because the general contractor may not know the extent to which your scope of work is affected by other Sections – particularly the general items defined in Division 00.
I know of some in the watershaping industry who already use these systems and have developed boilerplate specifications they can quickly edit for use on each job. The basics covered easily here might include concrete mix design, the use of products from certain manufacturers or installation of specific types of valves. You might also establish strict rules for builders and subcontractors with respect to hours, smoking restrictions, radio volume, cleanup requirements, mandatory project reviews and/or job-site safety meetings.
The point is, if you don’t already use written specifications, boilerplate or otherwise, now is the time to start – and when you do, keep things simple. Begin, for example, by listing the things that have caused problems for you in the past: equipment issues, plumbing configurations, structural issues, client relations, unnecessary expenses and the like.
If you’ve ever been frustrated by the fact that a small rock has prevented you from pulling the spa-side remote’s cable through a half-inch conduit, for instance, then include a line item indicating that no conduits of less than three-quarter-inch diameter are allowed anywhere on any of your projects. If you do so and your plumber or electrician installs half-inch conduits, you now have the clear ability to order replacements at the subcontractor’s expense.
Or say you’ve been frustrated about check valves being installed backwards or in unserviceable positions: If you begin specifying use of true-union valves or models that can be flipped around using a screwdriver instead of glue and couplings, you have the leverage to make subcontractors play by the rules you’ve established.
ROLLING ASSISTANCE
One of the best things about systematizing your use of written specifications is that these documents are portable and can be recycled for use in other jobs much more easily than they can be transferred as text on drawings. They can be copied, cut and pasted with ease: I just keep a master copy on my desktop, and whenever I think of something I jump to it and pull out details to insert into a new project’s documents.
I’m always mindful that these are, at root, legal documents, so I focus on using language carefully and find myself using lots of shalls and shoulds. Instead of saying, for example, “Do not use a small, six-inch light in the spa,” I’ll write: “One or more 10-inch diameter white LED lights shall be installed in all spas in locations and quantities shown in the plans.”
The first statement is not specific enough: The goal might be to eliminate small light fixtures, but the wording leaves it open to the builder to install something even smaller than a six-inch light! Moreover, the way it is written may also require rephrasing for the next project, which might not include a spa at all.
The second direction, by contrast, is more specific in that it requires use of a 10-inch LED light – but it is also more general in that it can be left in the specs unedited for the next project even if there is no spa. The use of the word shall also reinforces the requirement, and the construction “one or more” followed by “shown in the plans” encourages the reader to look at the plans to determine an exact count.
This trend toward formalized specifications has caught on to such an extent that some manufacturers are writing their own documentation in CSI format and publishing them on their Web sites so that they may be copied, edited and inserted into Project Manuals. These are usually product-specific items with certain installation, startup and testing or calibration issues and serve two purposes: They are sales tools whose easy use encourages specification writers to include their products, but they also go a long way toward protecting the manufacturer when performance or warranty issues related to proper installation arise – as they sometimes do.
We’re far enough along in adapting to this approach that our office now owns a wire binding machine we use to assemble Project Manuals for our jobs – even if only one copy is prepared for the owners at the construction-proposal stage. We include tabs that separate the contract, the scope of work and a reduced-size copy of the drawings. We also include manufacturer’s brochures for everything we plan to use on the project along with copies of our contractor’s license, insurance certifications and other credibility-building items.
I confess that we have not yet taken the time to organize all of these sheets in CSI format, but we follow the patterns CSI has established and have found that the simplified format we use works well with residential clients who would rather review colorful product brochures than plain-text versions of the same information.
Our clients are always impressed when we hand them a thick wire-bound book with all the details. They have already paid for and received the design: Now we are bidding against other builders, and the thoroughness of our book affirms that we are both detail-oriented and thorough.
Next time: We’ll crack open an individual specification and investigate its contents in further detail.
Dave Peterson is president of Watershape Consulting of San Diego, Calif. He’s been part of the watershaping industry since 1994, starting his own firm in 2004 after stints with an aquatic-engineering firm and a manufacturer. A registered civil engineer, he now supports other watershape professionals worldwide with design, engineering and construction-management services and may be reached via his web site, www.watershapeconsulting.com.