NSCA05 MasterFormat 04

What happened to Division 17? And what is ITS? An overview of the CSI MasterFormat 04 and it’s impact on the ITS Industry

Discussion Points 

History of MasterFormat and ITS

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ITS Consultant

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What BICSIʼs is doing to help

Overview of MasterFormat

What is CSI 

The Construction Specifications Institute

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CSI was founded in 1948.

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The mission of CSI is to continuously improve the process of non-residential building design and construction. They strive to help everyone involved in that process to work together smarter by fostering clear communication among everybody on the project team. The communications channels they focus on are the written construction documents – how theyʼre written and how their content is organized.

What is CSI CSI Accomplishes this in three ways: 1.

Voluntary standards for creating and organizing specifications – the written “instructions” for putting together a building -- and other written data about the structure. One example is MasterFormat™.

Itʼs the industryʼs “Dewey Decimal System” for organizing nonresidential buildingsʼ specifications.

2.

Continuing education sessions, conferences, and certification programs enabling practitioners to read and write written construction documents.

3.

Construction product shows. They inform everyone on the project team about the best construction products for meeting building projectsʼ specifications.

What are Specifications 

A building canʼt be built with just a set of blueprints.

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Detailed instructions to the builder -specifications -- are vital.

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Building a child's birthday present that comes with "some assembly required" without reading the instructions first would highlight the importance of specifications.