Home > Technical & Detailing Guide > Formalising the specification

This section gives guidance on writing a timber specification in drawings or documents. It also provides references to underlying regulatory documents, technical application guides and technical terms.

Writing the specification
Once selection of timber has been completed its important that the correct information is presented so all involved know what is required. This is also an important mechanism to protect the designer from any deviations to specification that may occur during the job. A one line timber specification can be made up of a series of abbreviated words and numbers, each describing a particular characteristic of the timber element. The basic principles are shown in Table 18 and an applied example is shown on Figure 15. Here it is notable that items are usually shown on the side of the drawing with an arrow. Another option is to include the information in a key or table with member sizes. A third option is to write the information on a separate specification document. Under any of these scenarios it is important to ensure that the materials specified are cross referenced with contingent information covering timber durability and workmanship. This may be linked to notes covering regulations, standards, legislation and on-going maintenance regimes.