Specifications For Building Conservation

In Specifications for Building Conservation, the National Trust draws on a range of case studies and specifications to provide a much needed guide to specification writing for building conservation. Although traditional building accounts for approximately a quarter of all buildings in the UK, the old skills and understanding required for their care and maintenance have been increasingly eroded over the last century. As the largest heritage charity in Europe, the National Trust has a first class reputation for high standards of conservation and care, and in this three volume set, the Trust brings together a remarkable pool of expertise to guide conservation professionals and students through the process of successful specification writing. This first book focusses on the materials used for the external fabric, detailing successful approaches employed by the National Trust at some of their most culturally significant sites. A range of studies have been carefully selected for their interest, diversity and practicality; showcasing projects from stonework repairs on the magnificent Grade I listed Hardwick Hall to the re-thatching of the traditional cottages of the Holnicote Estate. Complete with a practical Conservation Management Plan checklist, this book will enable practitioners to develop their skills, allowing them to make informed decisions when working on a range of project types. This is the first practical guide to specification writing for building conservation and the advice provided by the National Trust experts will be of interest to any practitioners and students involved in building conservation, both in the UK and beyond. Profits generated from the sale of this publication will go to the National Trust Building Apprenticeship Scheme. This provides placements for traditional skills at National Trust properties.

A two volume set that deals with architecture/building.

This book is the second in a series of volumes that combine conservation philosophy in the built environment with knowledge of traditional materials, and structural and constructional conservation techniques and technology: Understanding Historic Building Conservation Structures & Construction in Historic Building Conservation Materials & Skills for Historic Building Conservation The series aims to introduce each aspect of conservation and to provide concise, basic and up-to-date knowledge for architects, surveyors and engineers as well as for commissioning client bodies, managers and advisors. In each book, Michael Forsyth draws together chapters by leading architects, structural engineers and related professionals to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of conservation work. The books are structured to be of direct practical application, taking the reader through the process of historic building conservation and emphasising throughout the integrative teamwork involved. This present volume – Structures & Construction in Historic Building Conservation - traces the history of structures in various materials and contains guidance on the survey, assessment and diagnosis of structures and the integration of building code requirements within the historic fabric. It discusses conservation engineering philosophy, exposes the conflict between building codes and conservation legislation, and offers solutions. Leading-edge, on-site metric survey techniques are described and a range of structural advice is given, including methods of repair in relation to philosophical principles. Causes of induced movement in historic buildings are explained, together with basic soil mechanics and the assessment and diagnosis of structural failure. Chapters also cover the conservation of different types of construction: masonry, iron and steel, and concrete and reinforced concrete. Fourteen chapters written by the experts present today's key issues in structures and construction for historic building conservation: Bill Blake, Michael Bussell, David Cook, Dina F. D'Ayala, Steve Emery, Michael Forsyth, Ian Hume, Peter Norris

This practical guide to the assessment and repair of historic buildings is invaluable for structural engineers, architects, surveyors and builders working in all aspects of building conservation. Taking a practical step-by-step approach, the authors discuss the appraisal of buildings and the differences in structural behaviour between new and existing structures. Each stage in the appraisal is explained, using examples from the authors' own work. Each major construction material is assessed in detail, with separate sections on masonry, concrete, timber and the particularly complex issues of iron and steel framed buildings. Techniques for testing the ability of a building to continue its existing use or to be converted to a new use are explained.

Sir Roger Pratt's "Rules for the Guidance of Architects", written on 7 December 1665, included the following statements which embody succinctly the principles of the specification of building works and indeed of contract administration, and are as true today as they were nearly 350 years ago: To determine anything without due premeditation is rashness. Not to come to any determination in a convenient time is an effect either of ignorance or sloth. To wittingly omit to do that at the first, which at last we shall be forced to, at our greater disadvantage, is the extremity of folly. To be so forward in premeditation as to make no trade at a stand for want of direction, which will cause great repining etc. and to be careful to see them exactly performed, for otherwise all trades will be at catch with him. To contrive all things with the most orderly thrift and longest duration. However, Pratt seems to have relied on entrusting the works to known competent workmen rather than incorporating these wise principles in a written specification. This method of working appears to have continued until the rise of the general contractor in the nineteenth century when a written specification became an essential part of the design process. The specification was needed to describe the materials to be used and ways of working them and to ensure comparability of tenders, particularly for public works. This encouraged books on specifications, starting with Alfred Bartholomew's "Specifications for Practical Architecture" in 1840, revised in 1846. It began with a long 'essay on the decline of excellence in the structure and in the science of modern English buildings with the proposal of remedies for those defects'. This was followed by 54 specifications for various types and classes of buildings, notes on various materials, and an alphabetical digest of the London Building Act, with a comprehensive index - a multi-purpose book, like many of its successors. Noting that Bartholomew was no longer in print, T. L. Donaldson was prompted to produce his Handbook of Specifications in 1859, in which, after setting out the principles of specification writing, he reproduced 46 specifications for actual buildings and other works by his illustrious contemporaries. This included the "Houses of Parliament" by Sir Charles Barry and "Newcastle High Level Bridge" by Robert Stephenson, and was followed by 136 pages on the law as applied to building matters. This is a fascinating book, invaluable to construction historians, but will have been of less use to authors of specifications than a sequential list of trade-based clauses. Bartholomew's book was revised again, twice, by Frederick Rogers, in 1886 and 1893, but still with a similar 'essay' followed by specifications for various types of building (but now only 27), rather than trade-based clauses, for which we had to wait for the first edition of Macey in 1898. Frank W. Macey's predecessors had a tendency to set out what should be covered in specifications and the ills of poor specification, together with a quantity of information about the use of various materials and construction methods. This was admittedly useful, but better covered in the books on building construction that had started to appear at about the same date, such as Mitchell and Rivingtons (published in facsimile by Donhead in 2004). Macey, by contrast, dived almost straight in to trade-based clauses in a logical order. The specification author in an architect's office must have heaved a sigh of relief when Macey landed on his desk, because here was a book that provided just what he needed to 'cut and paste', in the order he needed it, and with marginal sketches showing how the materials and details were applied. Similarly, students of architecture had a useful source of reference for the work by the various trades, instead of having to look at the trade in each specification when referring to earlier books to decide which example to follow. Contemporary reviews of Macey criticized the book for being 'out of date' as he failed to cover all the latest developments in materials. In hindsight that attitude appears less than fair, because any architect incorporating recently introduced materials, such as reinforced concrete or metal lathing, would make sure he was fully conversant with them and their use, and would be able to describe them adequately as a matter of common prudence. No book would be able to keep up to date with the rapidly developing variety of materials appearing almost daily at the dawn of the Edwardian era. That was more than adequately addressed by the annual (initially quarterly) Specification published by the Architectural Press, which started the same year that the first edition of Macey was published and continued to keep construction professionals informed every year until 1992. Frank Macey revised and enlarged the text in 1904 for the second edition, having published his companion volume on "Conditions of Contract" in 1902, and taking account of criticisms in The Builder's review of his first edition. It is his second edition that this introduction accompanies, having been chosen by Donhead to give us an exhaustive reference to the materials and construction in use at the end of the Victorian era and the dawn of the twentieth century. It will also help us today when drafting specifications for work on buildings that have just passed their centenary. Frank William Macey (1863-1935) practised as an architect in the City of London before emigrating to Canada. He was the first resident architect in Burnaby in British Columbia, where he settled in the first decade of the twentieth century, and obtained a number of commissions from prominent businessmen who were building grand homes in the new community of Deer Lake. He designed predominantly in the British Arts and Crafts style and introduced the use of rough-cast stucco for building exteriors, a characteristic for which he was renowned. He also designed three churches, two of which are still standing. Macey's Specifications in Detail survived his departure to Canada. The third edition, co-authored by J. P. Allen, PASI was published in 1922, and the fourth edition, revised by Donald Brooke, MA BArch ARIBA MIStructE, a Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Liverpool and J. W. Summerfield, FASI MRSanI, a quantity surveyor, was published in 1930, with a second impression in 1937. The fifth edition, revised by the then late Donald Brooke and Stanley Wilkinson, BArch ARIBA, a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Construction at the University of Liverpool, was published in 1955 and takes specification writing through to the introduction of the National Building Specification in 1973, continuing where Macey had started, with trade-based clauses in a logical order. A contemporary reviewer of the first edition praised 'so much that is excellent in the book and so many things explained, of which the young architect would have much difficulty in finding a description in other books'. The fact that Macey gave 'a great amount of practical information as to the details of construction on points which are not usually to be met with in text books' means that this facsimile should find a place on the bookshelves of construction professionals from all disciplines today, alongside Donhead's other facsimiles, as a well indexed guide to what they can expect to find when working on late Victorian and Edwardian buildings. Students of conservation practice may like to note this comment from the same contemporary reviewer: It may, therefore, be looked upon as a guide to the young architect in practical matters, quite as much as a model for specification writing. It indeed attempts to furnish the novice with the knowledge that he ought to possess before sitting down to write a specification. If Macey's book was valued a hundred years ago for these reasons, there is all the more reason today to use it as a reliable reference to what will be found in buildings that have celebrated their centenary. Lawrance Hurst August 2009.

Updated edition of the comprehensive rulebook to the specifier's craft With this latest update, Construction Specifications Writing, Sixth Edition continues to claim distinction as the foremost text on construction specifications. This mainstay in the field offers comprehensive, practical, and professional guidance to understanding the purposes and processes for preparation of construction specifications. This new edition uses real-world document examples that reflect current writing practices shaped by the well-established principles and requirements of major professional associations, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), and the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). Also included are guidelines for correct terminology, product selection, organization of specifications according to recognized CSI formats, and practical techniques for document production. Fully revised throughout, this Sixth Edition includes: Updates to MasterFormat 2004, as well as SectionFormat/PageFormat 2007 and Uniformat End-of-chapter questions and specification-writing exercises Samples of the newly updated construction documents from the AIA New chapter on sustainable design and specifications for LEED projects Updated information on the role of specifications in Building Information Modeling (BIM)

This book describes all the principal methods of arranging letting building contracts for conservation work. It also covers contractor selection, the use of directly employed labour, and contractual considerations.