About the ASTM Updates

Standards published by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) make up 43% of the 2,212 documents referenced in SpecLink, the Short Form specs, and PerSpective — the largest number published by a single organization. All of those ASTMs were verified in the last quarter - 30% had been revised and 6 withdrawn. Each revised standard was compared to the previous edition and evaluated for its potential effect on the specifications, before updating the sections. The ASTM updates affected 43% of SpecLink sections, 14 of the 16 Short Form sections, and 12% of PerSpective performance specifying sections.

Monitoring the continual, irregularly timed changes to ASTMs might be an almost impossible project, except that ASTM publishes an annual 4-volume compendium of the standards referenced in the model building codes, SpecLink and PerSpective, and other guide specifications — "ASTM Standards in Building Codes." BSD provides ASTM with a list of standards biannually. BSD furnishes ASTM the information they need to ensure that all of the standards referenced in non-proprietary SpecLink, Short Form, and PerSpective sections are included in this set.

We use ASTMs in Building Codes as the "current" edition for purposes of referencing edition dates for one reason: It's simple. We know that most design professionals don't have copies of many, if not most, of the ASTMs referenced, so we've chosen as our definitive edition the simplest (as well as the most economical) way to purchase them. For $795, you get over 1,500 ASTM's related to construction, in print and with a CD-ROM. There are three other ways to get ASTMs: Individually at an average of $30 per standard; individual volumes of the complete 78-volume set of all ASTMs at an average of $150 each; or the entire collection for over $7,000 in either print or CD-ROM. If you need only a single standard, ASTM's web store makes it easy and quick to get the very latest edition.

So, if you decide to add ASTMs to your reference library, we recommend "ASTM Standards in Building Codes," published annually in early July, for $795. If you are not an ASTM member, you can get the 10 percent member discount if you place your order with Margie Lawlor at (610) 832-9616; tell her you are a BSD SpecLink/PerSpective subscriber. For more information, go to www.astm.org.