What is an RFI in construction, and how do you run them well?
A request for information turns a question into a tracked, dated obligation with somebody's name on it. Here is how to write one that gets answered.
An RFI — request for information — is a formal question asked during construction when the drawings or specifications are unclear, contradictory or silent. It is how a question stops being a conversation nobody can find and becomes a tracked obligation with a name and a date on it.
What a good RFI contains
- A number, sequential, so a missing one is visible.
- A subject somebody can scan in a list.
- The question, precisely, with the drawing or spec reference. "S-201 shows a W12x26 over the great room opening. It will not clear the duct run on M-301. Please confirm the size and depth."
- Ball in court — the company that owes the answer. Not "the design team".
- A date the answer is needed, tied to when the work is actually reached.
- Whether cost or schedule is affected, so it can be triaged.
Ball in court is the whole point
A register that counts open RFIs is a filing cabinet. One that says who owes an answer and for how many days is a tool. The moment the list is sorted by days-late with a company against each row, the weekly meeting changes character entirely: nobody has to accuse anyone, because the list has already said it.
If a contractor waited eleven days for an answer that blocked the framing, that is a documented delay belonging to whoever sat on it. Without an RFI register it is one person's word about a phone call.
Bad RFIs
- Too vague. "Please clarify the bathroom." Clarify what?
- Several questions in one. It will be answered partially and then be half-open forever.
- Asked too late. An RFI raised the day the crew arrives is a delay by construction.
- Asked when the answer is in the documents. It costs credibility, and the next one gets less urgency.
- No named recipient. An RFI addressed to nobody is answered by nobody.
When the answer costs money
Frequently the answer to an RFI is more expensive than what was drawn. That is not a problem — it is exactly the moment a change order should be raised, referencing the RFI that caused it. Done that way the chain is legible years later: this question, that answer, this cost, approved on that date, by that person.
That chain is the difference between a defensible extra and an argument.
Common questions
What does RFI stand for in construction?
Request for information — a formal question raised when drawings or specifications are unclear, contradictory or silent.
Who answers an RFI?
Whoever owns the answer: the architect for design intent, the engineer for structural or systems questions, the owner for selections and scope.
How long should an RFI take?
It depends on the contract, but the important thing is that a due date is set against the work it blocks, and that the elapsed days are visible.
Keep all of this in one place
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