MANUAL Published: 01 January 2009
MNL11563M

Contract Documents and Moisture Control

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CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS ARE NORMALLY EXecuted by means of a written formal contract. While the extent of detail may vary according to the complexity of the work, the documents must describe the services to be performed accurately and unambiguously. Most construction projects consist of contract clauses, drawings, and specifications. The contract clauses cover the administrative operations of the contract. The technical description of the work is provided in the drawings and specifications. In general, drawings depict the layout of the work, indicate the materials to be used, and the arrangement of those materials. The specification describes the materials, their properties, quality, and methods of installation. Together, the drawings and specifications form the definition of the project. When there are conflicts between the drawings and specifications, most contracts state that the specifications will take precedence over the drawings. For this reason, it is important that the specifications accurately reflect the intentions of the project designer. The extent and detail of the construction documents vary depending on the size and complexity of the work. The documents for a large building may consist of hundreds of drawings and many hundreds of pages of specifications. A small building may require only a dozen or less drawings and 20 to 50 pages of specifications. A major rehabilitation project may require almost as many or as many drawings as a new building, but a minor repair job or the installation of a minor moisture control measure may only require a small sketch and a one-page written contract. However large or small, the documents must always be in writing, must be concise, unambiguous, spell out the specific tasks and performance levels to be accomplished by the contractor, and the amount and method of payment. This chapter discusses rehabilitation or addition projects of a size that do require more than a simple contract, but are small enough that a professional specification writer is generally not needed. The chapter also discusses the overall organization of the contract documents for large new construction.

Author Information

Crofford, Horace, Calvin
Naval Facilities Engineering Command
Mundle, Richard, B.
Naval Facilities Engineering Command
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Developed by Committee: E06
Pages: 463–471
DOI: 10.1520/MNL11563M
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-8400-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-7004-9