So I was purusing my LinkedIn feed this morning, and learned of a signficant kefuffle regarding CSI that I am a bit surprised isn’t being talked about here. I just went back and tried to find the articles, but they are gone, which is interesting. Here is what I recall:
It seems a “preview” site was posted by CSI announcing a plan to monetize MasterFormat via licensing.
There were half a dozen threads saying “this is the end of the CSI” and so forth, and then there was a post by CSI saying the preview site was incorrect, and not meant to be published, and has been taken down. They further said that sometime today (perhaps noon east coast time?) a formal announcement would be made clarifying their new plan/policy/action/whatever.
For whatever reason, I can’t even find that CSI post anymore. Its all very odd.
CSI has now posted the website, and it is especially concerning. Not only are they demanding payment from “commercial users” such as master specification systems, they are going after the entire design and construction community; architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, owners, building product manufacturers, cost estimaters, etc. All this to use a system that was created by hundreds of volunteers over multiple decades. I have never seen an organization take more careful aim at its own foot!
One of my co-workers who is now retired brought this to my attention. In my opinion, this is outrageous! MasterFormat is referenced by almost everyone involved in preparing written specifications and now they want us all to pay for that privilege?
If your practice uses CSI numbers, titles, or classifications in specs, office masters, cmodels, details, templates, or pluginsinternally or externallyyour firm needs a license for CSI Dynamic Standards.
The entities targeted by this thinly-veiled threat include:
Specifiers
Owners and Facility Managers
Building Product Reps and Manufacturers
Architectural Firms
Engineering Firms
Construction Firms (GCS and Subcontractors
Software and Platforms
While the langauge states that you need a license for “CSI Dynamic Standards”, which you are not required to use, this is obviously an attempt to monetize MasterFormat by scaring everyone in the design and construction industry. Seems like an effort by a dying organiztion to save itself.
Isn’t CSI going to be shocked when they learn that the next generation of master systems will not even use numbers, just titles?
Call my opinion sour grapes, but how do you tell the very people that devoted hundreds or thousands of hours to make CSI what is once was, that they now need to buy a license to use the efforts of their volunteer hours?
So far what they are offering seems to be a revolutionary new app that looks up a MF number and title for you. If only we had something like that already…
“Hey ChatGPT, give me the MasterFormat number for concrete masonry units’”
In the CSI MasterFormat system, concrete masonry units (CMU) fall under Division 04 Masonry, specifically in the Concrete Unit Masonry section.
The standard MasterFormat number is: 04 22 00 Concrete Unit Masonry
This section typically covers concrete masonry units (CMU block), mortar, reinforcement, accessories, and installation requirements for unit masonry construction.
Related CMU-specific subsections (examples)
Depending on the specification level of detail, you might also see:
04 22 19 Insulated Concrete Unit Masonry
04 22 23 Architectural Concrete Unit Masonry
04 22 23.29 Split-Face Concrete Unit Masonry
04 22 33 Interlocking Concrete Unit Masonry
These are Level-3 or Level-4 sections used when the specifier wants to distinguish CMU types more precisely.
I asked CSI if we would need a license if we are already paying for a spec writing software like SpecLink (thinking SpecLink would be licensed to use MasterFormat) My firm has a finite budget for specs. We’d have to get rid of SpecLink to pay the licensing fee. Presumably we aren’t the only firm.
This was the reply:
Thank you for reaching out. Regardless of which spec-writing software your firm uses (MasterSpec, VisiSpecs, SpecLink, Specpoint, MS Word, or any other tool), if you’re using MasterFormat numbers and titles in your specifications and deliverables, your organization needs a license for the classification standards themselves through The Construction Standard. There is a common misconception that these tools effectively sublicense the use of the standards to you; however, this is and always has been incorrect.
A CSI Dynamic Standards license gives you authorized, always-current access to the MasterFormat, UniFormat, and OmniClass classification systems those tools are built around.
We also have tools to help you navigate the standards more easily and save you time. You get full access to the Standards Navigator when you sign up.
We’re the authorized licensing partner for CSI’s standards, not a spec-writing platform, so we work alongside whichever software fits your workflow.
MF is a holdover from the days of hard copy. Nowdays, just search in your project file for concrete and you will be presented with a list of documents with that word in the title. No need to memorize or look up an arbitrary number.
Face it - CSI is no longer the organization it used to be, and it is not going back.
Time to tell CSI to take their licensing fees with them as they fade away in the rear view mirror.
The new version of our SimpleSpecs Master Specification System will use only document titles, not numbers.
Since 2004 MasterFormat has tried to be everything to everybody. But does the concrete in a residential driveway have any relationship to the concrete in a dam or bridge? Hardly.
The best thing that could happen to Masterformat would be to let it go back to its pre-2004 status as a building and related site work classification system, thereby avoiding the bulk and confusion that currently exists.