In all cases the damage is hard to determine if the work runs over the time limit; and it is impossible to predetermine it at the time when the specifications are drawn. In many cases it happens that the only expense that the owner is put to is that of the employing of some extra force to look after his interest, which expense would stop with the completion of the work. To take care of a case of this kind, the following clause, taken from specifications for some municipal work, is quoted: "No charge shall be made for any delay; but if the completion of the work is delayed beyond the time stipulated in the contract through any act, neglect, or inability of the contractor, and at the same time through no fault of the Village or Engineer, the Contractor shall bear the ex pense of the Engineer for all the time that may elapse until the work is completed, at the rate of $5.00 per day, which amount shall be deducted by the Village from the settlement bill with the Contractor, and shall be paid to the Engineer. Should delays be occasioned through any fault, neglect, or act on the part of the Village, then the time of the contract shall be extended proportionately." On some classes of work, it might be desir able to rush work as much as possible; and as extra inducement, it would be well to offer the $5.00 for each day saved. This would not be much expense on the owner's part, nor much gain on the contractor's; but the contractor would strive for it, if only to gain the repu tation of having received a bonus under such a specification.
The Department of the Interior has a clause in its irrigation contract that covers this matter even more fully: "In case the Contractor shall fail to complete his work in the time agreed upon in this con tract, or in such extra time as may have been allowed for reasonable delay incidental to the work, the Engineer shall compute and apply the direct damage for the loss sustained by the Sec retary of the Interior on account of further em ployment of engineers, inspectors, and other em ployees, including all disbursement on the engi neering account properly chargeable to the work. The amount so applied and computed shall be deducted from any money due the Contractor under this contract. The decision of the Chief Engineer as to the appraisal of such damage shall be final and binding upon both parties." Specifications should recognize the fact that delays on the work by the architect, engineer, or owner entitle the contractor to some considera tion. He must be at least granted an addition to the time of completion. One of the most unfair specifications imaginable is the following: "In the event of any delay in completing the work employed in this contract, the party of the first part shall be entitled to no extra com pensation on account of such delay, as it is hereby assumed that in submitting its tenders it took chances for the occurrence of such delays." Under this clause, if the owner runs short of money or wishes for any reason to shut down the work, he can do so with no cost to himself; but the contractor loses because of idle plant and the percentage of estimate that is held up. He waits in uncertainty until the owner is ready to go ahead; and he gets nothing for waiting. It
is extremely doubtful if such a specification would be upheld by the courts if a contractor took the matter that far. Absolutely no good is accomplished by such a clause; and it lends an element of uncertainty to the work which will be reflected in a contractor's bid in a manner, that is bound to be disadvantageous to the owner in the long run.
The architect, apparently governed by a de sire to have things go well, but perhaps with the idea of having work done to suit his own fancy, will sometimes put in a clause like this: "The Architect will indicate the points at which the work shall be begun. He will have the power to concentrate the work in particular places or to scatter it over different parts at will." This specification may work no end of hard ship on the contractor. Under it, he might be compelled to begin upon a portion of the work on which he has figured no profit, thinking that he could leave it until enough profit had accrued from the other portions of the work to allow of the whole being carried without loss. Thus the unprofitable work would be done entirely at the expense of the contractor's capital. This might be used as a method of preventing "unbalanced" bids, if this prevention were thought desirable; but if such were the object, a clause to that effect and nothing more could be used, and this club-like specification be omitted.
Another disadvantage under which such a specification places the contractor is that, after concentrating his entire force and plant and efforts upon one portion of the work, he may at any time have to change his plans and divert part of his outfit for a short time to some other part of the work, upon the whim of the archi tect. This disorganizes the work and means much additional expense to him. Even if the architect should not want to take advantage of the clause, he could use it as a club to "in fluence" the contractor into doing many things that were not exactly specified.
In the following pages an example of speci fications for a building has been given, and in many cases comment upon specific clauses has been made. In the drawing of specifications for a special case, those that have been used be fore, and which have been evolved through many years of experience, must be depended upon to a large extent. Exact copying of the clauses of an old specification should, however, be done with great caution. No matter how well they may have .worked in other cases, some slight change of conditions in the next case might make them entirely inapplicable. Where years of practice have reduced some particular line of work to such exactness that there is almost no deviation from the fixed methods, it would seem that the specifications for such work might be the same, job after job. Such, however, is not always the case; and no matter how well estab lished the rules of practice may be, each clause should be carefully thought out, and its probable effect upon the work carefully gone over. Never copy a specification simply because it has been used before and has worked well.