David West wrote:
>
> I posted the following email on the AIC -- ASG (American Institute for 
> Conservation -- Architecture Specialty Group) email forum the other 
> day, and thought it would be useful to get some feedback from the much 
> wider cross-section of the preservation community represented on BP.  
> Initial feedback from ASG has been limited, but what I have received 
> suggests that these documents are not widely utilised at this time.  I 
> wonder whether this is due to a lack of awareness, disagreement with 
> content, or the cost of acquisition.
>
David,

I cannot answer for ASG. From the contractor's end of the spectrum in 30 
years I can say that I may be able to count on one hand the number of 
times that an architect, conservator or consultant has brought up any 
discussion of any ASTM standard as related to a project we were working 
on together. The last time being when a consultant specified a southern 
exposure brick in a northern climate and that went no further than 
agreeably switching one letter for another. Until you posted this list 
of standards I was not even aware that they exist.

So, as I see it though I know that someone is reading the ASTM 
standards, it is not happening very much in the course of the project 
with the 'team.' Yes, specifications do refer to ASTM standards, but I 
see that their primary use is that when everything goes wrong they 
become an enforcement tool, and that hopefully someone knew what it was 
all about beforehand.

I do think it has something to do with the cost of acquisition but more 
as to the hurdles to acquisition... what does get used and communicated 
a great deal is the NPS Preservation Briefs and are available for free, 
and thanks to John Leeke's initial diplomacy and foresight, they can now 
be downloaded by anyone for free... which means that their information 
value moves from the designer's office to the contractor to the property 
owner -- and most folks along that thread may understand what they are 
reading. Which gets to one of my favorite subjects, which is how does 
knowledge get transmitted across a field?

I have never thought that the ASTM standards are meant to be popular 
reading matter. I think it is important that there be standards. I also 
think it is important that we have MSDS sheets though nobody that I know 
actually reads, or understands them, be that the architects or the field 
mechanic. So another side to your question is information overload.

][<

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