Construction and trades
The RFI that gets answered
You will walk away able to write a request for information, an RFI, that a design team can answer in one pass, without a phone call to work out what you meant.
What you will be able to do
- Identify the four parts an RFI needs before it leaves your desk.
- Spot the four ways an RFI stalls, and name the part that is missing.
- Choose the stronger of two drafts of the same question, and explain why.
- Sort what belongs in an RFI from what belongs somewhere else.
- Decide the next move at three moments on a live job.
An RFI that comes back in two days and an RFI that comes back in three weeks usually differ by about forty words. This piece is about those forty words.
How this works
Nine sheets, about eight minutes. Nothing is timed, there is no sound, and nothing is scored on speed. Everything works with the keyboard alone: Tab moves between controls, Enter or Space chooses.
Who this is for. Field engineers, project engineers and superintendents who have to put a question to the design team in writing.
Demonstration sample. RFI procedures, contract requirements and response times vary from project to project; follow your own contract documents, your specification section on submittals and requests for information, and your company's process.
What an RFI actually is
An RFI is a written question to the design team about the contract documents, and it is a contract document itself.
What it is
A request for information, an RFI, is a written question from the field to the design team about the contract documents. It exists because drawings and specifications are made by people, and people leave gaps: a dimension that does not close, a detail that contradicts the section it points to, a product that is no longer manufactured.
A contract document
It is also a contract document in its own right. It gets logged, it gets a number, and it gets read months later by somebody deciding who owed what. Write it for that reader as well as for the one answering it this week.
What it is not
- A change order. It may lead to one. It is not one.
- A complaint about the drawings.
- A request for the design team to design something new.
- A place to argue about schedule or fault.
Why RFIs come back slow, or come back wrong
Almost every stalled RFI fails in one of four ways, and all four are fixable in the writing, before it leaves your desk.
Not a question
It is not actually a question.
A statement that something does not match leaves the reviewer guessing at what you want ruled on.
No reference
The reference is missing.
The reviewer has to hunt for the conflict before they can rule on it, and hunting is what gets an RFI put down and picked up later.
No consequence
Nobody said what it is holding.
With no consequence attached, it sits behind whatever does have a date on it.
No proposed answer
There is no proposed answer.
The reviewer starts from a blank page instead of from a yes or a correction.
The four parts of an RFI that gets answered
An RFI that gets answered in one pass carries all four of these. A draft missing one of them is the slow version of the same question.
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1. The specific question.
One question, asked so it can be answered yes, no, or with a dimension. If you have three questions, write three RFIs. A single reply cannot be partially approved.
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2. The exact reference.
Drawing sheet and detail number, or specification section and paragraph. Name both sources when two documents disagree. "See the plans" is not a reference.
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3. The impact and the needed by date.
What is held, who is standing by, and the date after which the answer costs money or time. State the effect, not your frustration.
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4. The proposed answer.
What you believe is correct, and why. A reviewer who agrees can answer in one line. This is the part most people leave out, and the one that moves response time the most.
Two ways to ask the same thing
You are the field engineer on a mid-size commercial build, a three story medical office shell. Structural drawings show a 6 inch slab on grade at the loading dock. The approved dock leveler submittal calls for 8 inches with added reinforcing under the pit. Concrete for that area is scheduled in nine days. Which RFI do you send?
Belongs in the RFI, or leave it out
Six fragments from a draft RFI on the same job. Decide where each one goes. Choose with the mouse or with the keyboard; there is nothing to drag.
Fragments 1 and 2
"Structural sheet S-2.1, detail 4."
"This is the third time the drawings have contradicted themselves on this building."
Fragments 3 and 4
"We need a response by the 16th to hold the placement on the 19th."
"Please advise at your earliest convenience."
Fragments 5 and 6
"We propose the 8 inch slab per the approved submittal."
"Also, can you confirm the paint color in the lobby?"
Three decisions
Same job, three moments. Each one scores the decision, not the definition.
1. A subcontractor hands you a note: the duct will not fit above the ceiling in corridor 2. What do you do first?
2. You have four related questions about the same wall assembly, all on sheet A-6.1. How do you submit them?
3. The mechanical crew is standing by and you are fairly sure the answer is a 4 inch drop in the corridor soffit. Nobody asked your opinion. What goes in the RFI?
Answered 0 of 3.
The four part checklist
You finished the piece.
Keep this next to the RFI log. If a draft is missing one of these four, it is not ready to send.
Then read it once as the reviewer: could you answer this without opening anything you were not given, and without calling anybody?
Before you send
- One question. Answerable yes, no, or with a number. More than one question means more than one RFI.
- The exact reference. Sheet and detail, or specification section and paragraph. Both sources when two documents disagree.
- The impact and the needed by date. What is held, who is standing by, and a date tied to a real activity rather than a wish.
- The proposed answer. What you believe is correct and why, written so a reviewer who agrees can reply in one line.