Does anyone else think it’s funny to see CSI MasterFormat 2004 section numbers rammed into the old CSI MasterFormat 1995 categories in construction estimates?
This is what most of the construction estimates that I see look like:
Division 1 General Requirements
01 50 00 Temporary Facilities and Controls
Division 2 Site Work
02 41 19 Selective Demolition
31 00 00 Earthwork
32 12 16 Asphalt Paving
Division 15 Mechanical
22 00 00 Plumbing
23 00 00 HVAC
Division 16 Electrical
26 00 00 Electrical
It looks funny to see section numbers that start with 22 put under Division number 15. In the olden days, like maybe in 2003, the same info would have looked something like:
Division 1 General Requirements
01500 Temporary Facilities and Controls
01732 Selective Demolition
Division 2 Site Work
02300 Earthwork
02741 Asphalt Paving
Division 15 Mechanical
15000 Mechanical
Division 16 Electrical
16000 Electrical
See how nice and neat that looks with those first 2 numbers of each section matching the Division number of the category? But then the spec writers went and started using different section numbers. So there was some confusion, a period of transition…
But now, 9 years after MasterFormat 2004 was published, I’d expect this same info to be categorized like this:
Division 01 General Requirements
01 50 00 Temporary Facilities and Controls
Division 02 Existing Conditions
02 41 19 Selective Demolition
Division 22 Plumbing
22 00 00 Plumbing
Division 23 Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning
23 00 00 HVAC
Division 26 Electrical
26 00 00 Electrical
Division 31 Earthwork
31 00 00 Earthwork
Division 32 Exterior Improvements
32 12 16 Asphalt Paving
But mostly, it’s not. Those square pegs keep getting rammed into those round holes.
Comments From a Spec Writer 
It is a bid odd that, nearly ten years after the introduction of MF04, older versions remain in use. Despite a push from the top – Federal adoption – and from below – manufacturers making the switch – some parts of the country seem to be firmly entrenched in MF95. Or, more likely, a mishmash of 95, 88, and a random number generator.
I will confess to a bit of heretical behavior, driven by practical considerations. Prior to MF04, there was a somewhat even balance between the typical two-volume project manual, with Divisions 15 and 16 in one volume, and everything else in the other. Both contained certification pages and a complete table of contents.
The move to MF04 created a printing problem. I refused to print three volumes, and including everything in sequential order left me with one volume half the size of the other. Instead, my first volume contains Divisions 00 through 14 plus the 30s series, and the occasional 40s section, while the second volume contains the 20s. As expected, there have been no problems.
However, as we move to electronic distribution, those issues vanish, and we’ll go back to sequential order. One less geometrical incongruity!
Electronic distribution solves a lot of problems… and creates some more!
Sheldon
So you thought there was a problem, but there really wasn’t!
Yeah – there really isn’t a problem with what Sheldon’s been doing, and there really isn’t a problem with putting MF 2004 Section numbers into MF 1995 Division categories in an estimate – it just looks funny.
Some of us have a higher tolerance for geometrical and numerical incongruity and things like that than others of us do…
One thing I noticed in the hybrid table of contents was the insertion of Division 31 and 32 Sections in Division 02. I a still not happy with the move of site work to Divisions 31 and 32. While specifications are not strictly work-sequence related, they are generally arranged in construction sequence. If all I want to do is dig a hole and put in some pavement, it strikes me strange that we are directing the excavator to look in Divisions 31 & 32, usually in Volume 3 of the Project Manual. It feels as though Division 02 has been hijacked by the bridge and dam engineers.
Steve
You are correct that MasterFormat has never been organized by sequence of construction – finishes before elevaors and MEP rough-in.
One of the problems being faced in the expansion of MasterFormat was that Division 2 along with a few other divisions were overcrowded and there was no room for expansion. These divisions need to be subdivided.
During the process to expand MasterFormat there was some reaction to distributed drafts to completely reorder the format – if you are going to change it go all the way and start from scratch for the best system – such a scheme was formulated and circulated for reaction. The reaction was to stay with the scheme that kept the distrubance to existing divisions to a minimum and that was what was adopted – minimizing the disturbance to Divisions 3-14.
In other words the resulting revised and expanded format was a compromise – keeping the disturbance to the existing format to a minimum won over concerns to have the purest form of organization.
Bob, thanks so much for sharing this bit of history.
Quite interesting! We have Project Managers here who just “love” to re-use specs, say from 1990 something
Old text, old products, do not reflect many mergers, use old format and numbering– we talk a lot!!!
Time and construction do not stand still
Ralph W. Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT
Senior Architect- Specifications
In my new business, I intend to try and get to the bottom of this square peg/round hole issue with contractors. Or as I view it: throwing 2 puzzles into the same box, shaking it up, and trying to make a single picture.