Revisions To MasterFormat Announced

The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) have announced the 2011 updates to MasterFormat®, the tool used to organize construction documents for commercial, industrial, and institutional building projects in the United States and Canada. The updates are part of MasterFormat‘s annual revision cycle.

“CSI and CSC carefully considered the latest user proposed changes to MasterFormat,” said CSI Executive Director and CEO Walter Marlowe, P.E., CSI, CAE. “CSI and CSC member experts made nearly 100 refinements that incrementally improve MasterFormat so that it better meets the needs of today’s users.”

“The efficiencies provided by MasterFormat continue to increase the relevancy for users – whether for project manual organization or for information storage and retrieval,” said CSC President Corinne Golding, RSW.

The most significant update to MasterFormat in 2011 involves the re-organization of the Concrete Reinforcing section under Division 03 – Concrete. Among the changes:

  • Reinforcing Steel (03 21 00) has been changed to Reinforcement Bars (03 21 00), covering plain steel, galvanized, epoxy-coated, and stainless steel reinforcement bars, as well as composite reinforcement bars (glass fiber-reinforced polymer, organic fiber-reinforced polymer, and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer).
  • Welded Wire Fabric Reinforcing (03 22 00) has been renamed Fabric Grid Reinforcing (03 22 00), and a number has been added under it: 03 22 19 Composite Grid Reinforcing.
  • Fibrous Reinforcing (03 24 00) has been added.

Another significant refinement to MasterFormat reflected user feedback on Division 43 – Process Gas and Liquid Handling, Purification, and Storage Equipment. The 2011 updates to MasterFormat help Division 43 correspond better with Division 46 – Water and Wastewater Equipment, added in 2010. CSI and CSC collaborated with the Environmental Engineering Coalition (EEC) on the changes to Division 43.

Among the other updates to MasterFormat:

  • Under Division 07, Tinplate and Ternplate Roofing (07 61 91) has been deleted, because the term is no longer in use. Also, three numbers have been added:
    • 07 64 13 Standing Seam Sheet Metal Wall Cladding
    • 07 64 16 Batten Seam Sheet Metal Wall Cladding
    • 07 64 19 Flat Seam Sheet Metal Wall Cladding
  • Under Division 28, Fuel-Gas Detection and Alarm (28 33 00) and the subjects under it have dropped the word “Fuel” from “Fuel-Gas.”
  • Under Division 08, Access Doors and Panels (08 31 00) has been clarified to state that it encompasses “interior and exterior.” The change makes it clearer that Access Doors and Panels addresses floor doors and floor hatches.

The MasterFormat Maintenance Task Team (MFMTT) conducts the MasterFormat revision process. The task team is a committee of volunteers appointed by CSI, CSC and MasterFormat stakeholders (ARCAT, ARCOM, Building Systems Design, Inc., the Construction Sciences Research Foundation, Inc., McGraw-Hill Construction and Reed Construction Data). The next MFMTT’s annual revision review workshop will take place this summer, and results from that meeting will be announced in January 2012.

MasterFormat is a master list of numbers and titles classified by work results or construction practices, used to organize project manuals, detail cost information and relate drawing notations to specifications. By fostering fuller and more detailed construction specifications, MasterFormat is designed to reduce costly changes and delays in projects due to incomplete, misplaced, or missing information.


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