The trick is to work for a company then steal all their details when you open your own firm.

That's the only logical way of explaining the exact same detailing mistakes by every office I ever prepared specs for.

Back to the question: I'll add a level of difficulty; is there a good reference guide for standard CONTEMPORARY details? I'm familiar with all the standard books that will help you detail a gazebo.

I like the DETAIL line of books/magazine (out of Germany?), though many of them may be out of touch with our codes.

DETAIL mag is fun. But by their very nature, they only tend to feature wacky ass detailing that's often comically redundant. I would NOT recommend that DETAIL be anyone's primary point of reference when it comes to architectural detailing. Especially if you are just learning the ropes.

This may not be of any use to you architectonic, but almost every manufacturer has great details for their products. This was not the case at all 10-15 years ago. All of that info that used to be hidden in product libraries is available to anyone with an internet box.

Want to detail a stiffened metal panel rainscreen-principle system installed on extrior sheething on cold-formed studs? Look up 2 manufacturers and compare their details. Now you are an expert on that system. etc...

rusty...so as i paruse through my collection of architectural porn aka "Dwell" magazine...i can contact a manufacturer of said three panel sliding glass door system and they can hook me up?

I've never heard of Detail mag, i gotta check it out

Is it nanawall?

You should be able to find the manufacturer's website and directly download their drawing details. Most will offer dwg's as well as pdf's, unless they are a tiny company from Sweden that's only made 20 doors for local projects.

E-mailing them will definitively get you the needed files (as long as you're not a dick).

DETAIL mag is cool, but very expensive. One can judge the smugness of an architectural firm by either presence or absence of Detail magazine in their lobby.

Also a note on using manufacturer's details: They are often overdetailed, and look just plan silly if simply inserted into drawings that are on the level of design development. One needs to simplify them (no need to show aluminum reinforcement withing the door frames. Really. Noone cares).

Haha rusty, the copy paste phenomenon...I love it when I have seen the detail a million times at different engineers or archs offices and then go do something for a firm that knows their shit and
they go 'wow what a fucked up detail" and my response "every firm in nyc does it that way" and then we say "thank god, keeps us in business" (as in thanks for the leaks, structural damage, and serious fire hazards)

If its suburban construction Journal of Light Construction online (ie light framing home construction)

Anything else it really depends on the detail.

Hey rusty want to pick your brain on this one..nanawal recessed threhold in a stone floor that becomes deck in upstate nyc...wood framing with steel beams to hang wall from. I know nanwall has test proving their water penetrationetc...but I have heard doubts...any suggestions besides sloping deck away and maybe a flush grill over a gutter?

Aside from a magazine, Detail also has a line of books - focussing on specifics, like building with glass, building with concrete etcetera. Expensive, but awesome.

Italian magazine The Plan http://www.theplan.it/J/ offers something similar to Detail.

for standard details use

AGS: url=http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Graphic-Standards-Tenth-Book/dp/0471348163]Architectural Graphic Standards[/url

cant get more standard than that

Ok ..why that link did not work I have no idea

here it is...
link

Do you guys have anything like this

i don't know if mftr details are "over designed" but they are standard details that maintain their warranty, and nothing else. unfortunately, mftr details, know nothing about the surrounding construction, which is why they should be carefully integrated by anyone thinking they are the catchall. they are not.

The basic problem with Standard Details...as there is no such thing as a Standard Detail...cause details are always changing.

standard details and sealant go together like bread and butter.

I thought sealant worked on everything.
Run out of grout, sealant.
Welder breaks, sealant.
No Zero threshold installed, sealant.

Yes no detail is ever standard even in standard work and like beta notes manuf. Only care about their assembly and not how it is connected to say a substrate over framing "by others"

Try explaining this to clients who wonder why they are being billed so much for what seems to be a standard detail. You tellk them - well you wanted to cut costs so your GC substitued the part of the assembly that is tested or warrenteed and guess what won't perform as well as what we the architect had spec'd...so you just say, whatever, build it how you want, we quit and good luck with that.

Leak leak leak

I use "Architectural Detailing - Function, Constructibility, Aesthetics" by Edward Allen and Patrick Rand. It's not so much a collection of details as a concise run through of the factors that go into the design of them, along with a a few case studies....no point in copying details w/o understanding how the heck they work.