CSI Releases Draft of UniFormat for Public Comment

Staff -- Associated Construction Publications, 4/3/2008

Alexandria, Va. (April 3, 2008) – The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) has released the first draft of a revision to the 1998 version of UniFormat for public comment. The construction community is invited to comment on the draft. All comments received before June 15, 2008, will be considered by the UniFormat Task Team.

UniFormat provides a uniform classification system for organizing construction information into a standard order, based around functional elements. Often referred to as systems or assemblies, Functional elements are major components common to most structures that perform a given function regardless of the construction method or materials used to achieve that function. Because the functional element classifications provided by UniFormat are standardized, users can easily understand and compare project information across project types or options.

The use of UniFormat can also provide consistent comparable data across an entire building life cycle. The use of UniFormat’s elemental framework reduces the time and cost of evaluating alternatives in the early design stages of a project, assuring faster and more accurate economic analysis of alternative design decisions. 

CSI plans to publish a revised version of UniFormat near the end of 2008, after the review comments have been received and analyzed by the task team and others involved in the process. This revised version of UniFormat will be coordinated with MasterFormat 2004, but will only cover building construction topics. The following year, the task team will work to expand UniFormat subject matter to cover all types of construction.

The draft can be accessed by visiting www.csinet.org/uniformat (or go to www.csinet.org/, click "Standards & Formats" and then click "UniFormat"). Comments can be made on this draft by sending an e-mail to Greg Ceton, CSI’s Technical Program Manager, at gceton@csinet.org, or by visiting the CSI Forums at www.csinet.org/ and posting a comment in the UniFormat Forum. The public review and comment period will remain open until June 15, 2008.