Wide-Base Pigeon Spikes Specifications: What to Put in Your RFQ

A specification for wide-base pigeon spikess is only useful if it is unambiguous to someone who cannot see your project. Most disputes on this product do not come from bad manufacturing — they come from a drawing that could reasonably be read two ways, where the supplier read it the cheap way and the buyer read it the expensive way.

This is a practical specification checklist, written around what the standards actually require.

The three specification families you will meet

Suppliers will quote against whichever family your market uses, and the part can usually be built to any of them:

• ISO 4892-2 — weathering of the base polymer.
• ISO 9227 — salt spray on the pins.
• ASTM D638 — base tensile properties.

The mistake is to specify a standard reference without specifying the class or grade within it. If you write only the standard number, the supplier will quote the lowest class that satisfies it. Write the standard and the level you want.

Dimensional data that has to be on the drawing

For this product the critical dimensions are: strip length 500 mm; base width 50–60 mm; pin height 130–160 mm; two staggered rows, 40–70 pins per metre.

Three rules that prevent most dimensional disputes:

1. Give tolerances on every functional dimension, not just the nominal values. A nominal dimension with no tolerance is legally “as the supplier chooses”.
2. Say which dimensions are functional and which are cosmetic. Suppliers prioritise what you prioritise, and they cannot guess.
3. State the gauge or measuring method where a dimension is critical. Two inspectors with different methods will disagree about the same part.

Material and grade

The base specification is AISI 304/316 pins in a wide polycarbonate base, two staggered pin rows. Grades commonly offered include:

• 304 pins, double row (standard)
• 316 pins, double row (coastal)
• extra-wide 60 mm base for deep parapets
• heavy 2.0 mm pin version

Ask the supplier to state the grade on the quotation, not on an assumption. Grade substitution is the single most common silent cost reduction, and it is usually invisible in the finished part — a 201 stainless component looks exactly like a 304 one until the second winter.

Surface treatment

The usual finish for this product is bare stainless pins; grey or clear base.

Two points worth writing into the order:

• A measured requirement, not a process name. “Hot-dip galvanised” is a process; “70 µm minimum, tested by coating mass on three parts per batch” is a requirement.
• What happens at cut edges and drilled holes, if any. These are where coatings are habitually broken and where corrosion starts.

Type tests and routine tests

These are different things and are frequently confused in quotations:

• Type tests qualify the design once. On this product: pin pull-off ≥ 50 N per pin; base flex test across the 60 mm width; salt spray 480 h (316).
• Routine tests are run on every batch: UV ageing 2000 h; staggered-row spacing audit.

Specify which type-test reports you want supplied as documents, and which routine test results must accompany each shipment. On a first order, ask for the type-test report before you place it.

The failure modes your specification should be closing

• Rows collapsing together — stagger not moulded into the pin holes — the two rows fold into one line and birds land between the strips
• Base hinge-line cracking — the long strip is flexed during installation on a curved cornice and cracks at the first hole from the edge
• Undersized base for the glue bead — adhesive-rated base replaced by a screw-hole-only base; glue cannot wet enough area and strips lift in wind

Each of these can be turned into one line in the specification. That is the real purpose of writing it out: not bureaucracy, but making the specific failure you are worried about somebody’s explicit responsibility.

A specification skeleton you can reuse

1. Scope: Wide-Base Pigeon Spikes to be supplied as wide base bird spikes, double row pigeon spikes, heavy duty bird spikes, broad ledge spikes.
2. Dimensions and tolerances: strip length 500 mm; base width 50–60 mm; pin height 130–160 mm; two staggered rows, 40–70 pins per metre.
3. Material: AISI 304/316 pins in a wide polycarbonate base, two staggered pin rows; grade 304 pins, double row (standard) or better.
4. Standard: ISO 4892-2 — weathering of the base polymer; ISO 9227 — salt spray on the pins; ASTM D638 — base tensile properties.
5. Finish: bare stainless pins; grey or clear base.
6. Tests: pin pull-off ≥ 50 N per pin; base flex test across the 60 mm width; salt spray 480 h (316); UV ageing 2000 h; staggered-row spacing audit.
7. Marking and packing: 50 strips per box, 8 boxes per carton; width bands (50/60 mm) never mixed in one carton.
8. Inspection: pre-shipment, against this specification, with photo evidence and test records.

Related: the wide-base pigeon spikes quality inspection checklist turns this specification into an inspection plan you can hand to a third-party inspector.