Answers back before the crew needs them.

Send what you have. Get the finished document.

4 steps, one of them a person.

Notes from the RFI desk

Most RFIs come back with a question instead of an answer for one of four reasons. There is no sheet or detail number, so the architect has to go looking. Two questions share one RFI, so one of them gets answered. There is no proposed answer, so the reviewer starts from a blank page. There is no cost or schedule flag, so the answer arrives as if it were free.

We check all four before an RFI goes out. Each one carries the sheet, the detail, one question and the answer we would give. The flag is set when the answer moves the price or the date. The RFI is then on record as notice. The change order request that follows cites it by number.

The register comes from the spec

The rule most often gotten wrong: the register is built from the spec, not from what the subs send. Division 01 33 00 sets the procedure, the review period and the transmittal. Each section's submittal paragraph lists what that trade owes: product data, shop drawings, samples, certificates, test reports. A sub's list is a starting point. The spec is the register.

Every item is numbered by spec section. 08 11 13-02 is the second hollow metal submittal, wherever it sits in the pile. Each one gets a submit-by date worked backward. Start from the day the material is needed on site. Subtract the lead time, the review period in 01 33 00 and the sub's time to prepare it. What is left is the submit-by date. It goes on the register and on the two-week look-ahead. A long-lead item with no submit-by date is a late item with a start date nobody wrote down.

Reading the stamp

Four stamps come back, and each one means something different for the purchase order.

• No Exceptions Taken. Release the order. The sub fabricates to what was submitted.
• Make Corrections Noted. Release the order with the corrections made. No resubmittal, unless the stamp asks for one for the record.
• Revise and Resubmit. Nothing is ordered. The sub answers every comment and it goes back through the same review period.
• Rejected. The product or the drawing does not meet the spec. A different product goes in, or a substitution request goes in first.

Two mistakes repeat. A sub reads Make Corrections Noted as a rejection and waits for a clean stamp that will not come. Or a sub orders on Revise and Resubmit because the comments looked minor. The stamp goes to the sub the day it lands, in writing, with what it means for the order. And one rule from the A201 that gets forgotten: the architect's review checks the design intent. It does not relieve you of dimensions, quantities or coordination with the other trades. A stamped shop drawing with the wrong field dimension is still your wall.

When the answer costs money, or the review runs late

An RFI answer that adds scope is not a change order. It is the reason for one. The day the answer lands, we draft the change order request. It cites the RFI number and carries the cost and the days. It goes out inside the notice period in your contract, for your signature. Under an unmodified A201 that period is 21 days from the event, and your contract may cut it shorter. Wait for the next pay app and the claim can be gone.

A review that runs past the period in 01 33 00 can make material late. That delay belongs to the reviewer only if the log shows it. Sent date, due date, each follow-up, the stamp date. The first follow-up goes out the day the period runs out. It names the material and the date the crew needs it. If days are lost, the delay notice is drafted with the log attached. Without the log, the delay is yours.

On the page, like everything else.

Asked on the first call.

Usually handed over together.