I have written specs for my entire career and have used master spec as well as SpecLink. I find speclink to be the best system ever. I can turn around specifications very quickly. However, make no mistake. Without a number of years of general technical experience in understanding the components of a building and how they are to be implemented and understaning materials you will end up with boiler plate specs which will get you into trouble every time. You cannot do specs in a vacuum and without decisions made on materials and systems it is unwise to just add in the section thinking that you will because "we might just be using that". Actualy the best time to execute a full specification is after the construction documents have been completed or at least substantially.Unfortunately. deadlines do not allow that. As a spec writer youhave to be a pain in the butt with the design team.i n terms of selectiionof materials. Invariably, in my experience, the first sections requested by contractors are those that often do not get in depth thought - finsihes. Not so much exterior finishes but interior finishes. If you are working on Core and shell then you have to be able to define what finishes are in that package, though they may be limited in scope. In a ful package, then each finish must be identified. Or at least you need to have the primary and then the alternate but the spec should identify what is the alternate specification.
SpecLink for me asks me the right questions and gets rid of a lot fo gobbledegook that can simply be referenced to the product itself. Frankly, specLink has provided me many enjoyable hours of working on specifications. In my opinion unless it is a public project there is no need for specs that merely provide a paper weight for the contractor in the trailer. Specs which are finely tuned to the actual items that apply to the project will result in fewer RFI's. not to mention in the pricing or bidding stages less confusion as to what to price out. However the ability to quickly turn around a specification secton for an alternate will result in a smoother project.
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Paul Mendolia AIA
Senior Architect
Paul A. Mendolia, Architect
Bronx NY
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