How Often Should Product Specs Be Reviewed and Compared to Ensure Accuracy?

"Spec Cheque": Accuracy Key to Compliant Specifications, Successful Projects

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Specifying Drinking glass

Imagination and creativity are critical skills that enable architects to create cute, vibrant and sustainable buildings. Nevertheless, one attribute of successful projects that often goes under the radar is the glass specification. From projection conception to completion, specifications provide a necessary "cheque and residuum" to ensure that the proper products are beingness used and that electric current manufacture standards are being followed.

Writing accurate, detailed and upward-to-date glass specifications is an indispensable function of the process. With the sheer level of item required in these instructions – from precise performance criteria such every bit drinking glass characteristics and thermal and optical properties, to surface orientation for low-e coatings in an insulating glass unit (IGU) – architects must be diligent in making sure their specifications convey all the data that downstream suppliers demand to successfully execute their responsibilities on a project. Considerations include:

• Are the most critical specs for your project properly addressed and highlighted sufficiently to inform relevant parties throughout the supply chain?
• Do generic specifications (e.g., general guidelines for glazing) reflect the most current linguistic communication and standards?
• Is the glazing production written into the drinking glass specification still manufactured past the supplier?
• Does the glass product specified for the project meet or exceed the related ASTM standard?
• What process is in identify to ensure that changes to the specs are properly communicated?

Amid the hundreds of potential variables in a glass specification, questions such equally these reinforce the demand for architects to thoroughly vet glass specifications for each projection to ensure that the end result meets the expectations of all stakeholders.

Common Specification Issues
All parties in the drinking glass supply chain rely on accurate, up-to-date drinking glass specifications to consummate their portion of a project. Each besides is responsible for reviewing those specifications for any deviations from industry standards, special requirements or specific architect requests.

Although the vast bulk of glass specifications are fulfilled without consequence, occasional errors occur, with consequences ranging from a developer who is dissatisfied with the appearance of the synthetic building to the replacement of all the glass on a project because a performance specification was missed.
Here are some mutual practices that event in faulty specifications:

• Copied and pasted specs. Copying and pasting information from similar projects can be a time-saver; but using this shortcut in specification writing can result in references to incorrect products and documents that have been decommissioned. Fifty-fifty though specifications contain standard, generic linguistic communication, information technology's critical to review that language for each projection, as drinking glass specs and building codes occasionally modify.

• Outdated standard and test method references. Referencing obsolete standards and test methods can yield additional costs or installations that aren't up to lawmaking. In addition, customers tin receive inferior products or products that don't meet current standards. Exist aware of manufacture performance standards that have been updated or withdrawn, and double-check that any standard referenced in a specification reflects the most current version.

• Wrong products. This issue manifests itself in several ways, including specifying an erroneous or discontinued product for a specific awarding, or referencing a product brand that doesn't correspond to the specified manufacturer. Don't "over-specify." For case, specifying a tempered glass might non be needed to meet lawmaking. Also brand sure that treatments such as low-e coatings, opacifiers and frits are advisable for the surfaces in IGUs and spandrels.

Other safeguards to avoid inaccurate specifications include:

• Verifying that Master Format numbers are current
• Confirming that referenced companies and suppliers are still in business
• Ensuring there are no contradictory requirements between different sections of the spec document
• Making sure that the correct performance requirements are attributed to the specified products; and
• Providing authentic data about the composition of the production being specified.

Valuable Resources
Several major merchandise organizations accept adult publications or provide guidance that architects can – and should – reference to ensure that the specifications comply with the latest manufacture standards. These organizations include:

• Drinking glass Association of North America (GANA), now combined with the National Glass Clan (NGA), serves the architectural glass and metals industry, including glazing contractors, full-service glass companies, glass fabricators, primary glass manufacturers and suppliers to the industry. GANA produces the GANA Glazing Transmission, a comprehensive set of recommendations and guidelines for all aspects of glazing applications and methods. The data was adult, vetted and approved by committees representing glass suppliers, fabricators, glazing contractors and other trade organizations.

• Insulating Glass Manufacturers Brotherhood (IGMA), an international standards-evolution association for the insulating glass manufacture. Alliance members include insulating glass manufacturers and suppliers of related equipment, services and materials. IGMA'southward North American Glazing Guidelines for Sealed Insulating Drinking glass Units for Commercial and Residential Apply contains advisory guidelines on all aspects of IGUs, such as glass types, framing, glazing clearances, setting blocks, spacer shims, and glazing materials and systems.

• American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA), which represents window, door, skylight, drapery wall and storefront manufacturers for residential and commercial sectors. Comprising members from fenestration product manufacturers and their cloth and component suppliers, AAMA develops and updates the standards that are referenced in many national and land edifice codes, and participates in the annual International Code Council Code Adoptions.

• American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which coordinates the U.S. private-sector, voluntary standardization system. ANSI provides a neutral forum for the development of policies on standards issues and serves every bit a watchdog for standards development and conformity cess programs and processes for hundreds of industries. The ANSI Z97.1 standard establishes the specifications and methods of testing for the condom backdrop of safety glazing materials used for all building and architectural purposes. This standard is an of import chemical element in architectural specifications for safety glazing compliance.

• American Club for Testing and Materials (ASTM), which develops and delivers voluntary consensus standards. Through more than 140 technical standards-writing committees, ASTM provides recommendations and specifications for a broad range of industries, including architectural spectacles used in building structure.

• National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC), an contained, non-profit system that establishes window, door and skylight energy operation ratings.

Help from Vitro Drinking glass
A complement to these industry resources is Vitro Glass' "Construct" tool, which lets architects search, construct and compare virtual configurations for monolithic glazings, multi-pane IGUs, and decorative and spandrel spectacles. Three-function specifications in the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) format can be apace generated for any configuration created in "Construct," every bit long equally information technology contains 100-percentage Vitro Glass products. This 3-part specification is presented in a generic format that requires some minimal input to make it a consummate architectural specification.

The 3-office CSI specification lists performance information for individual glazing configurations such as glass thickness, visible light transmittance, interior and exterior reflectance, wintertime nighttime u-value, solar oestrus gain coefficient and light-to-solar gain ratio.

Summary
One of the keys to a successful building project – one that achieves the wait architects envisioned when they designed and spec'd the chore – involves the evolution of and adherence to accurate specifications.

Although architects ready the tone for building projects, every other chemical element in the supply chain, including the glazing contractor, fabricator and raw materials suppliers, is responsible for providing their selected component in compliance with the final glass specification. Each party also benefits from ensuring that those specs are accurate, thorough and reflect the about electric current industry standards.

Numerous resources, such every bit GANA/NGA, IGMA and AAMA, supply industry best practices, recommendations and specifications that should be referenced to enable the development of accurate drinking glass specs. Each of these organizations comprises experienced professionals, who serve as "voices of the industry" to develop the recommendations and best practices for the architectural glass merchandise.

To learn more than nearly the glass-specification process and helpful resources for writing clear, up-to-engagement specs, visit www.vitroglazings.com or phone call the Vitro Architectural Services Squad at 1-855-VTRO-GLS (887-6457).

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Source: https://glassed.vitroglazings.com/topics/spec-check-how-to-ensure-compliant-specifications

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