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If you've been around construction for any length of time, you've seen references to ANSI standards. And you've probably asked yourself, "What does ANSI standards mean for construction?"
The first thing to know is that “ANSI” stands for American National Standards Institute.
American National Standards Institute, or ANSI, is a private, nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary, consensus standards. They are the voice of the U.S. standards.
These standards include many processes, personnel, products, services, and systems in the United States.
An ANSI standard is a document that has been established by consensus of various people and associations that have an interest in that specific topic.
The document was created by following conformity assessment systems that provide rules, guidelines, or characteristics for activities or their results.
ANSI standards are voluntary standards that have been created to provide clarity about - and often suggest conformity with - a product or activity.
How ANSI Describes Its Standards
American National Standards provide dimensions, ratings, terminology and symbols, test methods, and performance and safety requirements for personnel, products, systems, and services in hundreds of industries. Many ANS (American National Standards) make it clear how to improve the safety of products for the protection of consumers, including products such as baby cribs, bicycle helmets, home appliances, lawnmowers, ladders, etc.
I’ve listed many of the ANSI standards in construction further down in this article, but keep reading to first learn how those standards are created.
Oddly enough, ANSI doesn’t actually develop standards.
This confuses many people, including me when I first started learning about ANSI standards for construction.
Instead, ANSI creates an environment and framework for other associations and groups to create standards.
These groups are called Standards Developing Organizations.
Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) can be public or private groups. These groups create the standards.
You would recognize many of these SDOs by name:
These SDO groups bring forth proposals for standards in their area of expertise.
What ANSI does is provide an extensive process to ensure there is structure to the discussion during the development of standards.
It also safeguards that consensus is reached among interested parties that are affected by the proposed standard.
This creation of voluntary standards is powerful because it follows a consensus process, including a public review period by the general public, which allows time for public comments.
This due process ensures new standards are in the best interest of the standards-developing organization, consumer groups, and a variety of industries.
As a result, the ANSI specifications are likely to be adopted as a series of standards that define consistent definitions, industry standards, quality standards, and general requirements for professional societies and the general public.
Once a proposal meets ANSI approval, it becomes an American National Standard, also known as an ANSI standard.
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While the American National Standards Institute is a non-profit organization based in the United States, its impact is that of an international organization.
ANSI accreditation and voluntary consensus standards not only improve U.S. quality of life, but they also help the global market.
For example, an ANSI standard will often establish a minimum requirement, a set of requirements, a standard test method, or a design standard for an entire industry.
Consistent standards across an industry help to ensure the global competitiveness of U.S. businesses.
In addition, they provide consistency throughout the global economy by influencing international standards organizations.
So, what does all this mean for construction?
And, how do ANSI Standards affect your construction company?
First, understand that ANSI's standards are voluntary.
However, they are regarded as being very thorough and well thought out. As a result, an ANSI standard will generally become accepted practice. This is because the standard underwent an extensive process designed to build consensus.
What this means for construction is that governing bodies will often refer to, or even defer to, an ANSI standard.
Instead of trying to create their own standards or policies, local municipalities, trade associations, or government agencies will adopt ANSI standards that have already been created for that topic.
These organizations will also utilize ANSI standards to create updated standards for an existing standard their own organization has already written.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA, is an example of this. OSHA will look to ANSI standards and adopt portions of them as its own guidelines.
ANSI Safety standards cover many applications throughout the United States.
Some of these include managerial best practices, consumer safety, and end products that the public uses.
As contractors, we see ANSI standards in engineering, equipment, machinery, and worker safety.
Almost all of the voluntary safety standards you see were created by Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) in conjunction with ANSI.
Three of those safety-related SDOs are:
There are several groups of ANSI safety standards for construction.
Here are some of the ANSI standards categories that affect contractors:
Within each of the above categories, there are many standards for specific aspects of that category.
You can purchase ANSI safety standards, and any other ANSI standards, here.
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ANSI has published many standards. To keep them organized, they group them into different series.
The ANSI standards for construction are housed in their series A10. That series is called Safety in Construction and Demolition Operations.
How ANSI Describes The Series: Safety in Construction and Demolition Operations
"This standard is one of a series of safety standards that have been formulated by the Accredited Standards Committee on Safety in Construction and Demolition Operations, A10. It is expected that the standards in the A10 series will find a major application in industry, serving as a guide to contractors, labor, and equipment manufacturers."
So, for us contractors, ANSI standards are intended to serve as a guide for governmental authorities.
Many governmental authorities (such as OSHA or your local building department) will adopt these standards instead of creating their own rules and guidelines from scratch.
By the way, if you want to create internal standards and systems for people at your company to follow, check out this article for how to do that.
Most of the time, when a contractor in the United States is interested in ANSI standards it is because they see a reference to it in construction documents.
Or, they’ve been told to reference ANSI safety standards by a local inspector.
For busy contractors like you and me, the information surrounding the American National Standards Institute can be time-consuming and a bit confusing.
ANSI has so many standards that it takes too long to sift through their website and try to find the information you might need. There is just too much information and it is not laid out well. In addition, most of the information is only accessible through the purchase of the standards.
What I’ve found is that when you need a construction-related ANSI standard, the easiest, fastest thing to do is to go to their webstore and purchase the standard(s) you need.
For construction companies, that is most often going to be the A10 Construction and Demolition Standards Package.
Once you purchase and download the series you need, it is easier to find the section you are looking for and apply it to your business or the project that requires adherence.
If you are a business owner, part of an industry association, or a government agency interested in becoming a member of ANSI, you can learn more here.
Before you go, here are two articles you might enjoy:
1. If you are looking for ways to increase sales at your construction company, this article shows you how.
2. If you aren't sure what the difference is between gross profit and net profit, this is the best article you'll ever read that explains it in a way us contractors can remember.
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Hi, I'm Doug Herbert. I'm a 30+ year veteran of the construction industry and the active President of Herbert Construction Company in Atlanta, GA.
Contractors are often over-worked, stressed, and frustrated with their business.
I created Profitable Contractor to help good contractors make more money, find better employees, and delegate tasks so they can make it home in time for dinner.
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