Specifications: an introduction

12. References and further reading

<<Summary

There are plenty of books on the subject of specifying, and to a large extent they make the same recommendations. But not always – there are some differences of opinion. Some result from the differing backgrounds of the authors, e.g. QSs, engineers, architects. Some are cultural, e.g. US, UK, Australia all have slightly different practices. Some are date-based – older works and/or authors tend to describe older practices.

12.1 Standards

BS 4940:1994 Technical information on construction products and services.

BS EN 438-1:2005 Decorative high-pressure laminates (HPL). Sheets based on thermosetting resins (usually called laminates). Introduction and general information.

BS 7373:2001 Product specifications. Guide to identifying criteria for a product specification and to declaring product conformity.

Addresses specifying in very general terms, not specifically for construction.

BS EN ISO 9001:2000 Quality management systems – Requirements.

12.2 Other

BRE Certification (2007) 'Third party certification', NBS Journal 10.

Central Unit on Purchasing (1991) Specification writing, CUP HM Treasury.

Addresses specifying in very general terms, not specifically for construction.

Chapman, I. (2006) ‘Next generation NBS Plus’, NBS Journal 09.

Construction Specifications Institute (2004) The project resource manual: CSI Manual of practice, CSI.

The ‘bible’ for North American specifications practice.

Co-ordinating Committee for Project Information (1987) CPI Project specification: A code of procedure for building works, BPIC.

Cox, P.J. (1993) Writing specifications for construction, McGraw-Hill.

This book compares US and UK practice.

Crawford, M. et al (1997) Uniclass: Unified classification for the construction industry, RIBA Publications.

Daniels, S. (2007) Specification writing: Course manual, Thomas Telford Training.

Delany, S. & M. King (2003) 'The benefits of master specifications', www.theNBS.com

Delany, S. (2008) 'CPIC and Uniclass - who, what and why?', NBS Journal 12.

Doran, S. (2007) 'Preliminaries and contemporary procurement', NBS Journal 10.

Edexcel Foundation (2000) NVQ Architectural Technology Level 4, Edexcel.

Emmitt, S. & D. Yeomans (2001) Specifying buildings: A design management perspective, Butterworth Heinemann.

Largely about product selection, the precursor to specification.

Gelder, J. (2001) Specifying architecture, CISA.

Has an Australian focus but looks briefly at US and UK practice, uses sources from all three countries, and has a chapter on the history of specifications.

Gelder, J. (2002) ‘Specifying construction processes’, NBS Journal 01.

Gelder, J. (2003a) ‘Process clarification’, NBS Journal 02.

Gelder, J. (2003b) ‘Quality in contracts’, NBS Journal 03.

Gelder, J. (2004) ‘Or equivalent’, NBS Journal 05.

Gelder, J. (2005a) ‘Project specification: Concise’, NBS Journal 07.

Gelder, J. (2005b) ‘Ban the ban!’, NBS Journal 07.

Gelder, J. (2006a) ‘Hearts and minds’, NBS Journal 07.

Gelder, J. (2006a) ‘Reclassification’, NBS Journal 08.

Gelder, J. (2006b) ‘The enforcer’, NBS Journal 08.

Gelder, J. (2006c) ‘Standard section structure’, NBS Journal 09.

Gelder, J. (2006d) ‘The propriety of public procurement’, NBS Journal 09.

Gelder, J. (2007) ‘Yes! We have no specifications’, NBS Journal 11.

Gelder, J. (2008a) ‘Analogies’, NBS Journal 12.

Gelder, J. (2008b) ‘An inspector calls’, NBS Journal 12.

Gelder, J. (2008c) ‘Time for a Eurospec?’, NBS Journal 13.

Gelder, J. (2008) ‘How to specify: A century of works on building specification practice’, www.theNBS.com.

Hamil, S. (2005) ‘Manufacturer’s information within NBS specification products’, NBS Journal 07.

Hamil, S. (2006) ‘Automatically discovering construction-related literature on the web’, NBS Journal 08.

Hamil, S. (2007) ‘NBS Plus information on manufacturers’ websites’, NBS Journal 11.

Joint Contracts Tribunal (2007) SBC/Q: Standard building contract with quantities, Sweet & Maxwell.

Joint Contracts Tribunal (2007) DB: Design and build contract, Sweet & Maxwell.

Madeley, P. (2005) ‘NBS Plus − the story so far’, NBS Journal 06.

RICS & Construction Federation (1998) SMM7: Standard method of measurement of building works, RICS.

Rosen, H. & J. Regener (2004), Construction specification writing: Principles and procedures, Wiley-Blackwell.

Now in its 5th edition, this usefully tackles US forms of contract as well as more conventional issues.

Simpson, J. (2001) quoted in Slavid, R. ‘Maintaining a sense of history’, the architects’ journal, 5 July.

Teale, R. (2005) ‘Residual standards content’, NBS Journal 07.

Tilley, P.A. & S.L. McFallan (2000) Design and documentation quality survey, CSIRO.

Waterhouse, R. (2004) ‘A code of procedure for production information’, NBS Journal 04.

Watson, R. (2003) ‘Introducing the next generation of specification products’, NBS Journal 02.

Willis, C. & Willis, A. (1997) Specification writing for architects and surveyors, Blackwell Science.

Both authors are quantity surveyors (QSs). The bulk of the book is about the technical content of work sections, e.g. relevant BSs.

Wilson, A. (2006) 'NBS Domestic', NBS Journal 09.

Wilson, A. (2007) 'NBS for small works', NBS Journal 11.

<<Summary|

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