This classification defines building elements as major components common to most buildings. The classification is the common thread linking activities and participants in a building project from initial planning through operations, maintenance, and disposal.

The users of UNIFORMAT II include owners, developers, facilities programmers, cost planners, estimators, schedulers, architects and engineers, specification writers, operating and maintenance staff, manufacturers, and educators.

Use this classification when doing the following:

Structuring costs on an elemental basis for economic evaluations (Practices E 917, E 964, E 1057, E 1074, E 1121, and E 1804) early in the design process. Using UNIFORMAT II helps reduce the cost of early analysis and contributes to substantial design and operational savings before decisions have been made that limit options for potential savings.

Estimating and controlling costs during planning, design, and construction. Use UNIFORMAT II to prepare budgets and to establish elemental cost plans before design begins. The project manager uses these to control project cost, time, and quality, and to set design-to-cost targets. See Appendix X2 for an example of a UNIFORMAT II building elemental design cost estimate.

Conducting value engineering workshops. Use UNIFORMAT II as a checklist to ensure that alternatives for all elements of significant cost in the building project are analyzed in the creativity phase of the job plan. Also, use the elemental cost data to expedite the development of cost models for building systems.

Developing initial project master schedules. Since projects are built element by element, UNIFORMAT II is an appropriate basis for preparing construction schedules at the start of the design process.

Performing risk analyses. Simulation is one technique (Practice E 1369) for developing probability distributions of building costs when evaluating the economic risk in undertaking a building project. Use individual elements and group elements in UNIFORMAT II for developing probability distributions of elemental costs. From these distributions, build up probability distributions of total project costs to establish acceptable project contingencies or to serve as inputs to an economic analysis. (See Practice E 1185 for guidance as to what economic method to use.)

Structuring cost manuals and recording construction, operating, and maintenance costs in a database. Having a manual or database in an elemental format helps you perform economic analysis early in the design stage and at reasonable cost.

Structuring preliminary project descriptions during the conceptual design phase. It facilitates the description of the scope of the project for the client in a clear, concise, and logical sequence; it provides the basis for the preparation of more detailed elemental estimates during the early concept and preliminary design phases, and it enhances communications among designers and other building professionals by providing a clear statement of the designer's intent. See Appendix X3 for a sample preliminary project description (PPD) based on UNIFORMAT II.

Coding and referencing standard details in computer-aided design systems. This allows an architect, for example, to reference an exterior wall assembly according to UNIFORMAT II element designations and build up a database of standard details structured according to the classification.

UNIFORMAT II, as described in this classification, includes sitework normally related to buildings but does not apply to major civil works. It is also unsuitable for process applications or for preparing trade estimates.

FIG. 1 Possible Framework of the Built Environment