Every commercial sitework bid in the Lowcountry eventually comes down to three CSI MasterFormat divisions: Division 31 (Earthwork), Division 32 (Exterior Improvements), and Division 33 (Utilities). If you are a GC estimator assembling coverage for a Camp Hall Commerce Park warehouse, a civil engineer translating scope for a Berkeley County developer, or a project manager onboarding a new assistant PM, you need a shared vocabulary for what lives where. This glossary is that shared vocabulary, written for the way work actually gets bought and built in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties.
JSW Construction self-performs scope across Divisions 31, 32, and 33, which means our estimators, superintendents, and crews work in this taxonomy every day. The codes below are the CSI MasterFormat numbering used by nearly every design professional in South Carolina. We have paired each code with the scope it covers and a Lowcountry example so the abstraction becomes concrete.
Division 31: Earthwork
Division 31 covers everything that happens to the dirt. Clearing a site, stripping topsoil, cutting, filling, compacting, controlling erosion, and shoring deep excavations all live here. On a Lowcountry project with high groundwater, soft organics, and ACOE jurisdictional concerns, Division 31 is where most schedule risk and most bust potential live.
31 05 00 Common Work Results for Earthwork
This is the umbrella section for general earthwork requirements: soil materials, aggregates, geotextiles, geogrid, and the quality control standards that apply across the rest of Division 31. Specs like Proctor density requirements, lift thickness, and moisture control typically cite this section. On a Camp Hall pad, 31 05 00 is where you find the definitions for structural fill versus common fill.
31 10 00 Site Clearing
Site clearing covers tree removal, stump grubbing, brush clearing, demolition of minor site features, and topsoil stripping and stockpiling. In the Lowcountry, 31 10 00 often includes protection of specimen live oaks and grand trees under municipal ordinances in Charleston County and the City of Charleston. It also frequently carries the scope for salvage and chipping of pine.
31 20 00 Earth Moving and 31 23 00 Excavation and Fill
31 20 00 is the parent section for earth moving. 31 23 00 Excavation and Fill is the workhorse code: mass excavation, structural excavation, trench excavation for utilities, backfill, compaction, and import or export of soil. When an engineer says "the cut and fill is in 31 23 00," they mean everything a dozer, scraper, excavator, or articulated truck touches to get the site to subgrade. On soft Lowcountry soils, undercut and replacement with stone is a common 31 23 00 line item.
31 25 00 Erosion and Sedimentation Control
This section covers silt fence, inlet protection, construction entrances, sediment basins, turbidity curtains, wattles, and the SWPPP (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan) narrative and inspections required under SCDES NPDES permits. Every site larger than one acre in South Carolina triggers 31 25 00 scope. Berkeley County and Charleston County plan reviewers scrutinize E&S plans closely, and missed SWPPP inspections can halt work.
31 40 00 Shoring and Underpinning
When an excavation is deep enough or close enough to an existing structure that open cut is unsafe, Division 31 40 00 kicks in. Scope includes sheet piling, soldier pile and lagging, trench boxes for deep utility runs, soil nailing, and underpinning of adjacent foundations. For a downtown Charleston infill project or a deep wet well installation in North Charleston, 31 40 00 is a specialty line item often carried by a subcontractor to the sitework prime.
Division 32: Exterior Improvements
Division 32 covers everything you see at a finished site that is not a building and not a buried utility: pavement, curbs, sidewalks, fencing, landscaping, and striping. This division is where the project starts to look finished, and it is also where punchlist items accumulate fastest.
32 10 00 Bases, Ballasts, and Paving
The parent section for pavement systems. 32 11 23 Aggregate Base Courses is the sub-section for graded aggregate base (GAB), crusher run, and other stone base layers that sit between the prepared subgrade and the wearing surface. On a Lowcountry truck court, you will typically see 8 to 12 inches of 32 11 23 stone base specified over a geogrid reinforced subgrade.
32 12 00 Flexible Paving
Flexible paving is asphalt. This section covers hot mix asphalt (HMA) binder and surface courses, tack coats, prime coats, and milling and overlay work. Surface 8 and Surface 9.5 mixes are the SCDOT standard surface lifts most Lowcountry commercial parking lots use.
32 13 00 Rigid Paving
Rigid paving is concrete pavement: dumpster pads, truck aprons, heavy duty drive lanes at distribution centers, and interior warehouse slab on grade transitions to exterior. With the Volvo, Mercedes, and Camp Hall industrial corridor driving heavy loads, 32 13 00 is a growing scope in the Lowcountry.
32 16 00 Curbs, Gutters, Sidewalks, and Driveways
Cast in place concrete curb and gutter, valley gutters, flatwork sidewalks, and concrete driveway aprons. ADA compliant ramps at sidewalk intersections are typically drawn here, though the detectable warning strips themselves sometimes migrate to 32 17 00.
32 17 00 Paving Specialties
Pavement markings (striping, stop bars, crosswalks), ADA truncated dome panels, wheel stops, signage posts and mounts, and thermoplastic markings for higher traffic areas. The municipal zoning approval for a Lowcountry commercial site almost always includes a striping and signage plan priced under 32 17 00.
32 30 00 Site Improvements
Chain link, ornamental aluminum, and vinyl fencing; bollards; site benches, trash receptacles, bike racks, and other site furnishings; retaining walls (though segmental block walls sometimes land in 32 32 00 or Division 31 depending on the spec writer). For a Berkeley County school or industrial park, 32 30 00 carries the perimeter security fence.
32 90 00 Planting
Landscaping and irrigation: sod, seed, trees, shrubs, mulch, planting soil, and tie ins to irrigation mains. Tree mitigation plantings required under Charleston County or Mount Pleasant ordinances are priced here.
Division 33: Utilities
Division 33 is the buried infrastructure: water, sewer, storm, gas, fiber, and site electrical. In the Lowcountry, where high water tables, tidal influence, and aging municipal systems collide, Division 33 often drives the critical path.
33 10 00 Water Utilities
Domestic water and fire service mains, ductile iron pipe (DIP), PVC C900, service laterals, meter vaults, fire hydrants, backflow preventers, and tie ins to Charleston Water System, Mount Pleasant Waterworks, Berkeley County Water and Sanitation, or Summerville CPW mains.
33 20 00 Wells
On site water supply wells and test wells, typically for irrigation or industrial process water at sites outside the urban utility envelope. Some Camp Hall tenants use 33 20 00 irrigation wells to reduce metered water load.
33 30 00 Sanitary Sewerage Utilities
Gravity sanitary sewer, force mains, manholes, cleanouts, lift stations, and service laterals. Low pressure sewer systems (LPS) used in parts of Berkeley County and rural Dorchester County are priced here.
33 40 00 Storm Drainage Utilities
Storm sewer pipe (RCP, HDPE, PVC), catch basins, drop inlets, junction boxes, headwalls, flared end sections, detention and retention pond outlet structures, and underground detention chambers. Given Lowcountry flooding concerns, 33 40 00 scope is often the most scrutinized part of a site plan review.
33 50 00 Fuel Distribution Utilities
Natural gas service extensions from Dominion Energy mains and any on site propane distribution piping. Less common on the typical commercial site, but critical for restaurant pads and manufacturing tenants.
33 60 00 Hydronic and Steam Energy Utilities
Campus scale chilled water or steam distribution between buildings. Rare on Lowcountry commercial work outside of medical campuses and large institutional owners.
33 70 00 Electrical Utilities
Primary and secondary electrical distribution: conduit duct banks, handholes, pad mounted transformer pads, and coordination with Dominion Energy or Berkeley Electric Cooperative. This is the "dry utility" workhorse section.
33 80 00 Communications Utilities
Outside plant (OSP) telecommunications: fiber conduit duct banks, handholes, pedestals, and service entry facilities for Home Telecom, Brightspeed, Hargray, and Comcast. With the Brightspeed BEAD buildout and Home Telecom ARPA expansions moving through Berkeley and Charleston counties, 33 80 00 coordination is a growing part of every commercial project.
Why MasterFormat Division Accuracy Matters on Bid Day
Miscategorizing scope between Divisions 31, 32, and 33 is one of the most common ways sitework bids get busted. If a GC lists stone base under 31 23 00 instead of 32 11 23, sitework subs may price only the earthwork and assume the paving sub picks up GAB. If fiber conduit is shown under 33 70 00 instead of 33 80 00, an electrical sub may price it while the low voltage sub also carries it, or neither does. The result is either double coverage that inflates the bid or a hole that shows up as a change order at 30 percent submittals.
Accurate MasterFormat coding is how you get clean bid coverage, apples to apples sub comparisons, and a schedule of values that ties to the spec book. It is also how an owner avoids paying twice for the same scope. When JSW bids commercial sitework, we map our takeoff directly to the CSI structure the design team used, and we flag any scope that the spec writer placed in an unusual section before bid day.
Expert Insight from Nikki Walker
"The bids we win cleanly are the ones where our takeoff mirrors the engineer's spec structure exactly. When a civil sheet calls out 32 11 23 stone base and our proposal uses the same code, the GC's estimator can drop our number into their bid tab in ten seconds. When we self perform 31, 32, and 33, we eliminate the seams where scope usually falls through. That is how Camp Hall and Berkeley County projects stay on schedule."
Nikki Walker, JSW Construction
Need a sitework partner who lives in the CSI structure your design team wrote to? Ask JSW to price any division on your next Lowcountry commercial project, or learn more about our commercial sitework capabilities.