How to use SpecHub

1. Choose Create a free account at the top right. Give your name, work email and company, then confirm the email we send you.
2. Pick your country in the top left. It decides which datasheets, specifications and compliance statements you see.
3. Use the menu: Solution Finder to start from a project, Specifications to start from a CSI or NBS section, Compliance for codes, standards and certification letters, Surface Studio for colours and finishes, Engineering Tools for calculations and Knowledge for CPD seminars, case studies and articles. To ask the DCP team a technical question, use Support in the main menu. This Site guide, at the top of the page, explains how the website works.
4. Everything you keep goes to your Design Desk (the orange button), project by project and area by area.

Tip. Lost? Every page has a breadcrumb under the menu, and the footer lists every part of SpecHub.

1. Open Solution Finder and pick the project type, for example Towers & Apartments.
2. Pick a product group (Waterproofing, Flooring and so on), then the place (basement, podium, car park deck).
3. Waterproofing places open the DCP ARMOUR finder: answer three questions (where, how much water, how dry it must stay) and it gives the complete system and its level.
4. Flooring places open the flooring finder: the premium and the standard system for that use.
5. Open the system to see its build-up, documents and specification.

Tip. Adding to a project area? Start from "Add a system" in that area on your Design Desk: the finder then remembers the project and area for you.

1. Open Specifications and choose CSI MasterFormat or NBS.
2. Pick a Division (for example 07 Thermal and Moisture Protection), then a section. The list is grouped by kind, and each row shows its key facts.
3. Not sure of the section? Answer the two questions under Not sure which section?: what you are specifying and which kind. SpecHub lists what DCP has, with the sections it sits in.
4. Use the row of choices under the heading to jump to any other Division or section, or the row of sections to move along the Division.

Tip. Type a section number in the search box at the top ("07 14 16" or "J30") to go straight there.

1. Open Compliance and pick a card: Country Construction Specifications / Codes, International Standards or Certification Letters.
2. For QCS 2024, pick a Section and a Part. Each statement sits under the clause it answers.
3. Press Preview to look inside a statement. Tick what your project needs, then add it to your Design Desk.
4. Where QCS 2024 has no clause for a product, the statement says so plainly.
5. For a certification letter, choose the kind, the country and the product. A "To whom it may concern" letter needs no account; a letter for your customer and project needs a free account.

Tip. The guided finder (Which product group? Which kind?) works here too, and keeps your answers when you go back.

1. Open Product Library or System Library at the top of the page (on a phone, they are in the menu).
2. Pick a product group, then a sub-group (products) or a family (systems).
3. Open a product for its properties, datasheet and documents for your country.
4. Use Search (the magnifier) for a product name, a use, a chemistry, a seminar or a section number.

Tip. After opening a product from a list, use "‹ Back to …" above the breadcrumb to return to the same list.

1. Look at the build-up, layer by layer, and open it in 3D where offered.
2. Choose a colour and finish where the system has them: SpecHub makes the colour card.
3. Tick the documents your project needs: the CSI specification (Word and PDF), datasheets, drawings, method statements.
4. Press Add to your Design Desk, choose the project and the area, and it is filed there.

Tip. Normal accounts do not download from system pages: everything is filed on the Design Desk first, so the project keeps one complete record.

1. Make a New project: name, client, location and the project type. The usual areas are filled in for you; change them as you like.
2. The project page shows everything in the project and a card per area with its counts.
3. Open an area to see its documents by kind. Press View to look at a document, or download it in PDF, Word or DXF.
4. Press Download (ZIP) on an area, or Download the project (ZIP), for everything in folders.
5. Use Ask DCP on a project to ask the team about it: the answer comes back to the project and to My support requests.

Tip. Use Project details to keep the stage, the client and the location of the project up to date.

1. Open Knowledge, then CPD Seminars, and pick a seminar. Filter by discipline, level, pathway or how you want to take it.
2. Online: press Watch the video or Go through the slides. Each module counts when the video has played or every slide has been shown.
3. After the last module, take the assessment. Pass it and your certificate goes to your Design Desk, with its LEU credit.
4. In your office: press Book for your office, tick one or several seminars and tell us when. You follow the booking in My support requests.

Tip. Your progress is saved: stop at any time and carry on later, on any screen.

1. Open Engineering Tools and pick a tool. Each tool has its own manual, and every input has an (i) tip.
2. Work through the steps on the left. Each step has its own address, so the browser Back button moves one step back.
3. Check the results and the calculation sheet.
4. Press Save to Design Desk to keep the design in a project area. SpecHub warns you before you leave work that is not saved.

Tip. Start a tool from a project area ("Calculations") and it saves to that area by itself.

1. Open Support (in the main menu), choose what it is about, write your question and send it. You can ask a team member by name.
2. Every request gets a number and shows where it is: Sent, With DCP, Answered, Closed.
3. When we answer you get an email. Read and reply in My support requests, one of the three sections of your Design Desk (also in the menu under your name).
4. Requests from your projects, seminar bookings, samples and design briefs are in the same list.

Tip. Without an account you can still ask: the answer comes by email.

1. Open the menu under your name at the top right: My projects, My learning, My support requests (the three sections of your Design Desk), Practice profile and Sign out.
2. In Practice profile, add your practice name and logo: they go on the documents SpecHub makes for you.
3. Forgotten your password? Choose Forgotten your password? on the sign-in page and follow the email.

Tip. Your country is set when you sign up. To change it, ask us through Support.