in the bid being disqualified. For subcontractor bids that are
used to bid the project, the contractors should verify that the
addenda have been received by subcontractor and incorpo-
rated into his or her bid.
3–12 Errors in the Specifications
Ideally, the final draft of the specifications should be written
concurrently with the preparation of the working drawings.
The specification writer and production staff should keep
each other posted on all items so that the written and
graphic portions of the document complement and supple-
ment each other.
Many architects/engineers have been highly successful
in achieving this difficult balance. Unfortunately, there are
still offices that view specification writing as dull and
dreary. For this reason, they sometimes assign a person
not sufficiently skilled to this extremely important task.
Also, many times, the specifications are put off until the
last minute and then rushed so that they are published
before they have been proofread. Some architects/engineers
brush off the errors that arise with “we’ll pick it up in an
addendum.”
Another practice that results in errors is when the
architect/engineer uses the specifications from one job on a
second job, which involves cutting a portion of the old spec-
ification out and inserting portions to cover the new job.
Inadvertently, items are usually left out in such cases.
The real question is what to do when such an error is
found. If the error is discovered early in the bidding period
and no immediate answer is needed, the error is kept on a
sheet that specifically lists all errors and omissions. Con-
tractors are strongly urged to keep one sheet solely for the
purpose of errors and omissions so that they can find the
error when they need to. Most specifications require that26 CHAPTER THREE
FIGURE 3.6.Addendum.