Master format is the standard for writing specifications in most commercial building design and construction projects in North America, responsible for organizing data about construction requirements, products, and activities. This organization of information facilitates communication among various stakeholders including architects, contractors, suppliers, and building owners.
Key Insights
- Master format consists of two main groups: procurement and contracting requirements, and specifications. These groups allow for specificity in terms of the project's needs and the methods to achieve these needs.
- The specifications group consists of five sections: general requirements, facility construction subgroup, facility services, site and infrastructure subgroup, and process equipment subgroups. Each of these sections is further divided for a detailed breakdown of requirements.
- Following the Construction Specifications Institute's Master Format Specifications Guidelines, specifications are organized into 48 different divisions covering all aspects of the construction industry. This comprehensive organization helps ensure clarity and uniformity in construction standards.
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Let's begin our discussion about project specifications. What we're going to be talking about is master format, and master format is the specifications writing standard for most commercial building design and construction projects in North America. Master format lists titles and section numbers for organizing data about construction requirements, products, and activities.
By standardizing such information, master format facilitates communication among architects, specifiers, contractors, and suppliers, which help them meet building owners' requirements, timelines, and budgets. Master format has two primary groups, one group for procurement and contracting requirements, another on specifications. Within the procurement and contracting requirements group is Division 0, which talks about procurement and contracting requirements.
Within the specifications group, there are five sections, one for general requirements, facility construction subgroup, facility services, site and infrastructure subgroup, and process equipment subgroups. The subgroups have divisions within those. So, within general requirements is the general requirements division.
Within facility construction, there are these divisions. Within facility services, there are these divisions. Within site and infrastructure subgroup, there are these divisions.
And within process equipment subgroups, there are these different divisions. So, let's start at the top and work our way down. Master format organizes information into 48 different divisions.
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The first division, Division 0, is the procurement and contracting requirements section. So, you can see there's a section about solicitation, instructions for procurement, available information on the project, procurement forms and supplements, contracting forms and supplements, project forms, conditions of the contract, revisions, clarifications, and modifications. Then there's Division 1, which is the general requirements.
And I'm not going to go through everything because I'm providing you a copy of this PDF. But you can see it's going through Division 1, vehicular access and parking, temporary controls. And then these divisions are broken down even farther into subgroups.
There's a section about existing conditions, concrete. So, this is all the specifications about concrete, how to maintain it, how to form it, how to reinforce it. And again, these are the specifications that would be in the specs for concrete.
Masonry, a section on masonry, metals, woods, plastics, and composites, thermal moisture protection, opening, finishes, specialties, equipment, furnishings, special construction, conveying equipment, fire suppression, plumbing, HVAC, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning, integrated automation, electrical, communications, electronic safety, and the list continues to go on and includes earthwork, exterior improvements, utilities, transportation, waterway and marine construction, process interconnections, material processing and handling equipment, process heating, cooling, and drying equipment. So, again, different divisions for everything that's addressed within the construction industry. You will notice that in some places there are gaps and these are holding spots for future divisions.
So, again, we have the site and infrastructure subgroup. Underneath that, we have these five divisions. Facility services subgroup, we have these divisions over here.
So, again, this is how specifications are organized. They're organized per Construction Specifications Institute's Master Format Specifications Guidelines. So, this is the big overview and we'll start going into actual specifications in just a minute.
