Tolerances for materials, fabrication, and erection shall be as stipulated in Sections 5, 10, and 11. Tolerances absent from this Code or the contract documents shall not be considered zero by default.
Commentary
Tolerances are not necessarily specified in this Code for every possible variation that could be encountered. For most projects, where a tolerance is not specified or covered in this Code, it is not needed to ensure that the fabricated and erected structural steel complies with the requirements in Section 11. If a special design concept or system component requires a tolerance that is not specified in this Code, the necessary tolerance should be specified in the contract documents. If a tolerance is not shown and is deemed by the fabricator and/or erector to be important to the successful fabrication and erection of the structural steel, it should be requested from the owner's designated representative for design. The absence of a tolerance in this Code for a particular condition does not mean that the tolerance is zero; rather, it means that no tolerance has been established. In any case, the default tolerance is not zero.