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Sloppy specifications and change orders
How much does poor contract documentation cost Canada's construction industry?
Heritage engineer John Cooke
Ottawa Construction News staff writer
How much does sloppy and incomplete construction
documentation cost the Canadian construction indus-
try? It is hard to quantitatively answer this question, some
industry leaders say, but the implications are immense.
“The situation isn't getting better,” Ontario General
Contractors Association (OGCA) president Clive
Thurston told a gathering at the national Construction
Specification Canada (CSC) convention in Kitchener, On-
tario in May. “On average, specifications are 70 per cent
complete. Owners will not spend the money to put out
14 – Summer 2014 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report
a decent set of bid documents.”
John Cooke, an Ottawa-based professional engineer
specializing in heritage restoration, agrees. “If you talk
to anyone in the industry, especially contractors and
owners, they will tell you the cost of poor specifications
results in an excessive number of change orders, and
this is a huge cost to the industry.
“It impacts on costs, both the final costs and sched-
ule – the schedule impacts contractors' ability to meet
the deadlines, and the owners' ability to bring the new
structure into use.”
The consequence of incomplete or sloppy documen-
tation on change orders is controversial.