Drawing Standards Are Great, Paint Standards Are Not

Links Drawing Manual ASME Y14		We use standards as a guide for developing drawings and we use standards in our specifications usually as a reference. Using standards as a reference in specifications reduces the volume of paper that would have to be issued with each project to define the materials and their installation.
		Most of the standards we use are updated on a basis that is regular enough for our industry. The biggest problems we face are lack of standards and deletion of standards or demise of a standards organization. For example, the Federal Specification system is becoming (if not already) extinct. Although numerous of their standards were not very well developed (sometimes the packaging part of a standard was more detailed than the standard for the product that was being packaged), they had something that could be referenced.
Paint Standard FED-STD-141 Bitumen Standard ASTM D 1327		One of the big items that the Fed Spec system covered, that is not currently being covered by any standards organization, is paint. Sometimes, standards are not developed soon enough after a product is developed (re: standard for modified bitumen roofing probably took 20 years to get developed). Roofing is a huge market, but roofing manufacturer's would not come together to develop a standard for some of their products. Paul A. Presson, RA, RID Certified Construction Specifier Certified Building Official

JOIN IN! We'd like to know how you feel about standards. Please e-mail me at the address below. Tell us who and where you are, and what position you hold. Then, kindly answer the following questions:

1. What kinds of standards are most important to you in your work?
2. How do you use them?
3. Are they updated on a timely basis?
4. What is YOUR definition of a "good" standard?

We will print a representative sampling of the answers we receive, and, unless notified otherwise, we will provide attribution. Please let us know if you do not wish to be identified and/or to have your employer's name listed if you're among the people whom we quote.

Thanks,
Jaren Green, Editor
jaren.green@ihs.com
Global Engineering Documents, A Division of IHS Engineering

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