The Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute will host a webinar on “Specifying Cold-Formed Steel” on Thursday, December 5 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time. The webinar will cover best practices for writing and reviewing structural general notes and architectural specifications. It is designed for architects, engineers, building officials and contractors. Participants are eligible for 1.5 continuing education units.

Structural general notes and architectural specifications are often neglected until late in the design process. Outdated or erroneous general notes can be costly to the owner and time-consuming to the Engineer of Record.

This webinar will equip writers of general notes and specifications to: 1) quickly identify problems with outdated or improper specifications, 2) write specifications with little chance of misinterpretation, and 3) create easy-to-follow specifications that permit contractor innovation while ensuring code compliance and long-term serviceability.

Contractors or specialty designers who must comply with general notes and specifications will learn how to: 1) quickly find pitfalls in submitted specifications,  2) understand the questions to ask when bidding or building projects with specific specification language, and 3) win projects based on accurate bidding and fair interpretation of the specifications.

The webinar presenter is Don Allen, P.E., from DSi Engineering, who has been involved with thousands of cold-formed steel design projects and has written and interpreted specifications for a broad range of clients. In his current position, he writes and interprets structural general notes and architectural specifications on a daily basis. Allen served as chairman of the Steel Stud Manufacturers Association committee tasked with providing steel industry advice on MASTERSPEC and MASTERFORMAT.

He currently chairs the American Iron and Steel Institute Committee on Framing Standards General Provisions Subcommittee and is Vice Chairman of the CFSEI Atlanta/Southeast Chapter. He was the 2013 recipient of the CFSEI Distinguished Service Award. More information on the webinar and registration details are available at www.cfsei.org.