“boiler plate” specification drawings on line.

[Elaine M. Johnson]

Looking for an online source for “boiler plate” specification drawings particularly for retaining walls. Thanks.

[Tyson Carroll]

Elaine our specifications did not cover retaining walls but they are definitely boiler plate and have been vetted through a review process cover soils, planting, irrigation, and tree protection. You can download them and their associated details at the ISA website or ours. http://www.urbantree.org.

[Elaine M. Johnson]

Thank You Tyson . The link you prided above does not take one to the site but I was able to find you by googling. Appreciate you taking the time.

[Brandon Clemson]

How tall is the wall? What are the soil properties? Is there surcharge at the top of the wall?

Your state’s DOT or the FHWA has some standard drawings, which may help.

[Alexander J. Clark]

Elaine, I use Time Saver Standards Concise – Site Construction Details Manual. If you haven’t used it, get it. The book has boiler plate details for just about everything. On top of that, there is a CAD detail package CD (not sure if it comes with it or not) that the book references by file name. This has expedited my construction documents ten fold. Well worth the money.

[Alexander J. Clark]

Also, send me a message, I can tell you more about the CAD details package.

[Elaine M. Johnson]

Thank you Alexander. I know of this seminal work but have yet purchase it. Should have years ago, ALAS!

Believe it or not I still hand draw although if time and money allowed I would invest in Vectorworks. I work on a Mac and hesitate to introduce any Windows software. Also, I would love tutorials on the program but living on Cape Cod has a few drawbacks; i.e. very limited resources. I would need to commute to Boston and I am way over doing that anymore. If there was someone near the South Shore, south of Boston, I would be able to do that for private lessons.

[Alexander J. Clark]

I can totally believe you are still hand drawing. Many professionals still are – in fact, I think it sells better. That being said, you simply cannot beat the production power of CAD programs. I believe the time saver standards concise would be useful even to someone who only does hand drawings.

If you need to write really detailed specs, you can use Massachusetts’ Department of Transportation’s spec book as a template for most things. Just copy, paste, then tailor the specs to your needs. CSI is obviously available, but you’re going to pay for it unfortunately. I find DOT specs to be very easy to work with as you can learn their typology, and use it to call out structural components such as footings. Engineers will love you for this. Here is a link to the specs: Look at section 7 (700) Incidental work – around page 127 of the PDF. This should include state standards of landscapey type installs. Best part? ITS FREE!  https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/8/docs/88specs/division2.pdf

Now as far as the drawings are concerned, I would definitely make use of the Time Savers. Worth EVERY penny.

[Alexander J. Clark]

I just realized their PDF is not in text format. If need be, I can convert it to text and email you.

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