Section Names & No.s for Manufacturers' specs.

Specification & Product Discussions MasterFormat 2004 Discussions
1

I’m writing specs. for 2 manufacturers: Precast pavers and Venetian Plaster finishes. In both cases they have numerous products which are very similar. In the case of the Venetian plaster, they have minor differences in the formulations which give them different textures, different exposure conditions, or they get the base material from a different quarry in Italy, etc. They want separate section for each product. They want their product names to appear in the section title.
Does the MasterFormat system allow for this?
I don’t want to tell my clients they can’t do it, as they use these for marketing as well as technical assistance to specifiers.
Should I use the blanks in the system, i.e.
09 25 24
09 25 26?

or
09 25 23.01
09 25 23.02?

(I’m in the rebel Southern California area where we are still using 5 digits, so I have not become intimately familiar with MF04).

2

look at Wassau windows specs for an example of how to put THEIR title in the document while still keeping a normal title for the section (and the table of contents of every project it gets used in!)

3

MasterFormat is not meant to be used as an advertising tool; section titles should remain generic. If you write master guide specifications that do not conform to MF04 guidelines, it defeats the purpose of the standard. As noted by Chris, you can be clever and use a two-line section title that includes the manufacturer’s name and product; I trust that any good specifier would immediately delete the proprietary text and use MF04 to verify the correct section title and number.

4

Thank you. I can use 2 line titles like Wausau. The 2 I looked at on their web site are still in 5 digits, so I’m in good company. However, I will use MF 04 for the manufacturers’ specs.