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BSD SpecLink® Short Form Specifications

BSD's Short Form specs are very short, outline style specs that concentrate on brief product descriptions and minimize administrative details and installation instructions.

The master text included with your subscription covers the full range of building construction disciplines. Each division prints as a single document, so topics are organized into major articles within the appropriate division. For example, Division X07 - Thermal and Moisture Protection produces a single document with optional descriptive articles on waterproofing, insulation, roofing, flashing, fire and smoke protection, and joint sealers.

Because the Short Form specs consist primarily of material descriptions, rather than detailed instructions to a contractor, they are:

  • Suitable for expanding performance specifications (from the PerSpective tab) into more descriptive material requirements, both for design-build projects and conventional design-bid-build projects.
  • Useful for schematic design or design development documentation, which is intended primarily to inform an owner about material choices.
  • Complete enough for construction documents on smaller, less complex projects where the alternative would be extensive notes on the drawings.

BSD's Short Form specifications are useful to design professionals in many situations:

At the Programming or Pre-Design Phase:

  • When specific materials and systems are part of an owner's programmatic requirements, Short Form specs allow you to describe them in sufficient detail to assure desired quality, without getting bogged down in administrative detail and installation instructions.
  • When an owner wants to leave open a range of options, use the Short Form specs to define allowable parameters.

At the Schematic and Design Development Phases:

  • Communicate proposed material and equipment options to the owner before beginning detailed construction documents
  • Facilitate early decision-making by presenting alternatives
  • Transmit material and system choices to other members of the team — design-builder, estimator, construction manager, lenders, etc.

At the Construction Documents Phase:

  • Short Form specs can often be used as construction documents for small, low-risk projects
  • Many decisions made on the Short Form tab are connected by intelligent links to the more detailed text on the SpecLink tab, so choices made at the schematic design or design development phases do not have to be re-entered when you begin editing final construction specifications