The essentials in 30 seconds
- A work item technical sheet describes a finished piece of work, at CCTP item level: material, performance, installation, location. No price, no quantity.
- Written by you, priced by the company: nothing to do with a product data sheet, an FDES or a quote line.
- Ten fields, from scope to internal notes, then a "Not included" line.
- Its item number (package.chapter.item) is the same on the DPGF line, the company's quote and the handover report.
- A standard is cited there by reference, title and version, never by its content.
What is a work item technical sheet, and what is it not?
A work item technical sheet describes a finished piece of work, at CCTP (technical specification) item level: what is delivered, with which characteristics, to which workmanship reference, where. It carries no price and no quantity. One per work item, numbered like its DPGF (itemised price breakdown) line.
Four documents carry a similar name without being the same thing:
- The manufacturer's product data sheet: dimensions, composition, performance of a product on the market. You ask the company for it as supporting evidence.
- The FDES (fiche de déclaration environnementale et sanitaire, the French environmental product declaration), filed in the INIES database: a product's environmental impacts, nothing about how to install it.
- The notice descriptive of a home sold off-plan or built under a single-family house contract: a regulated document, on a standard template, intended for the buyer.
- The quote line, written by the company: short designation, quantity, price. It answers your sheet, it does not replace it.
The sheet forms the third layer of the CCTP, below the Généralités (general provisions) and the per-package requirements, and is written at the PCG stage (projet de conception générale, the general design package under the CFAI contract), before tendering.
Why one sheet per work item rather than a CCTP written in prose?
Because the company does not read a forty-page CCTP: it looks for the work items of its package and prices what it finds there. One sheet per work item, always built the same way, is read in a minute, priced line by line, checked at handover and reused from one project to the next.
The drywall contractor opens package 02 and finds each work item on a sheet with the same headings, where prose makes them give up after twenty lines. They fill in the price of line 02.1.3 against sheet 02.1.3, and two bids compare line by line. At AOR (handover assistance), a snag is raised against a sheet: "02.1.3, visible joints" (see our handover report template). Finally, from one apartment to the next, the sheet is reused; prose gets copied along with its mistakes.
Which fields should you fill in? The ten fields of a complete sheet
A complete sheet fills in ten fields: scope, typed characteristics, installation and workmanship reference, location and drawing reference, reference product, documents expected, interfaces with neighbouring packages, points to confirm on site, sub-items and extras, internal notes. Each field asks a question worth answering before tendering rather than after.
| Field | The question to ask | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Scope of the work item | What is delivered, in one sentence? | Supply and installation of a solid-core internal door set, timber frame, ready to paint. |
| 2. Typed characteristics | Which measurable values must be met? | Clear opening 83 × 204 cm; sound reduction; UPEC classification. |
| 3. Installation and workmanship reference | To which text, at which version? | NF DTU 36.2, Menuiserie intérieure et agencement, bois et autres matériaux, P1-1, novembre 2025. |
| 4. Location and drawing reference | Where, on which drawing, at which revision? | Bedrooms 1 and 2, drawing A-02 revision C, marks P3 and P4. |
| 5. Reference product | Which product sets the quality, without imposing it? | Model from the finishes schedule, or technically equivalent subject to the designer's approval. |
| 6. Documents and supporting evidence expected | What does the company hand over, and when? | Manufacturer's data sheet, test report, maintenance instructions in the DOE. |
| 7. Interfaces with neighbouring packages | Who does what around the work item? | Frame fitted before package 02's plastering; painting by package 07. |
| 8. "To be confirmed on site" points | What cannot be frozen today? | Handing, once the layout is frozen. |
| 9. Sub-items and extras | What does the company price separately? | Sub-item: door stop. Extra: acoustic version. |
| 10. Internal notes | What do I need to know, and the company does not? | "The client is still hesitating over the colour." Never transmitted. |
Then "Not included". What the company might believe is included: "painting (package 07), security lock, removal of the old frame (01.2.4)". No quantity and no price: they live in the DPGF, with the unit and the measurement method (see our guide to quantity take-off in renovation), otherwise the sheet creates a second source of truth.
For field 3, the CCTP rule applies: reference, title, part and version, checked against the CSTB list of DTUs, never the content, which is protected. The references, package by package, are in our list of NF DTUs for interior renovation.
The item number: why is it the key between CCTP, DPGF and quote?
The item number identifies a work item in every contract document. It reads package.chapter.item: 05.1.2 means package 05 Interior joinery, chapter 1 Doors, item 2. The same number appears on the technical sheet, on the DPGF price line, on the company's quote and on the handover report.
Without a shared number, nobody can prove that "bathroom partition" (CCTP), "98/48 partition" (DPGF) and "moisture-resistant plasterboard partition" (quote) refer to the same work item. Three rules:
- The number is derived from the position, it is not typed: entered by hand, it does not survive the insertion of an item.
- One sheet, one line, one number. Supply and installation priced separately give one sheet and one sub-item, never an orphan sheet.
- The number no longer moves after sending. Renumber during the tender, and the prices received no longer match anything.
The structure of the DPGF is detailed in our annotated DPGF example.
What does a complete sheet look like? Four annotated sheets
Four model sheets for an apartment, each written on the ten fields and numbered package.chapter.item: an internal door set, a plasterboard partition, the wall tiles of a bathroom and a consumer unit. Each one is followed by what it must pin down.
Package 05 – Interior joinery · 05.1.2 Internal door set
To pin down: the handing, or the sliding direction, stays "to be confirmed" as long as the layout is not frozen: a door set ordered with the wrong handing cannot be turned around. NF DTU 36.2 changed its title in November 2025; a sheet reused from an older project probably cites the old one.
Package 02 – Plastering, partitions · 02.1.3 Plasterboard partition
To pin down: the acoustic performance is written as an expected value, with the evidence that proves it: "acoustic partition" without a figure is worth nothing at handover. The build-up is up to the company.
Package 08 – Tiling · 08.2.1 Bathroom wall tiles
To pin down: the waterproofing under tiling has a written owner: here the tiler, and the plumber stops at the connection plates. Left implicit, each package assumes the other is doing it. Outside the scope of P1-1-4, require the Avis Technique (CSTB technical assessment) of the chosen system.
Package 03 – Electrical · 03.1.1 Consumer unit
To pin down: no DTU covers electrical installation work: the reference is NF C 15-100, of which only the 2024 edition has applied since 1 September 2025 (Apave). The consumer unit diagram handed over in the DOE will be read by the next electrician: ask for it in the sheet, not at the end of the works.
What are the most common mistakes in a technical sheet?
- The sheet copied from another project. The drawing reference points to the previous apartment: the company concludes that nothing has been reread, and prices with a margin.
- The brand imposed without "or equivalent". The product is out of stock, no alternative is admissible, the programme waits. Only the French public procurement code (art. R. 2111-7) requires the wording, on public contracts; on a private contract, you alone carry the risk.
- The standard without a version. "Compliant with DTU 36.2" referred, until November 2025, to a text that did not cover fit-out.
- The interface between packages left implicit. Waterproofing, sealing of frames, making good of chases: if the sheet does not name the package, two companies price it, or none does.
- The quantity or the price slipped into the sheet. They live in the DPGF. In the sheet, they create a second source, which diverges at the first change.
So, what about Nodal?
In Nodal, each item of the DPGF carries a structured technical sheet: scope, typed characteristics, installation, location and drawing reference, reference product and equivalence clause, documents and supporting evidence expected, interfaces between packages, "to be confirmed on site" points, sub-items and extras, internal notes the company never sees. The sheet is projected as a bullet-point description, and the points to reread are flagged before sending.
The item number (01.2.3) is derived from the position, is never typed and is printed everywhere: cover page and table of contents of the description PDF, "N°" column of the DPGF Excel file, the company's response page. 43 standard work items have their sheet composed by the team, without AI; the catalogue of 57 standards across 19 packages follows the CSTB list of 9 December 2025. During tendering, the company confirms it has read the descriptions before entering its prices, and the returns compare line by line: available depending on the plan.
Article published on October 18, 2026. Standards references checked on October 18, 2026 against the list of DTUs published by the CSTB as of 9 December 2025. A professional synthesis, not legal advice. Examples to be adapted to each project.