The RFI Log SOP

Purpose

A request for information (RFI) is the written question a contractor sends the design team when the documents conflict, leave something out, or do not match the site. This procedure keeps one log of every RFI the shop sends, so each question gets an answer before the crew needs it, and every answer that adds work is caught and priced before the crew builds it. Without the log, questions get asked by phone and answered in a hallway, answers arrive after the ceiling is closed, and an answer that adds a damper and nine labor hours is installed as a favor because nobody read it for cost.

Scope

Covers RFIs the shop originates on its own scope: deciding a question is an RFI, numbering and logging it, setting the answer-due date, sending it through the contractual route, following up, reading the answer for cost and schedule impact, distributing it to the field, and closing it. Does not cover how to word the question (see related: How to Write an RFI That Gets a Usable Answer), pricing and negotiating the change itself (see related: The Paper That Changes a Job: RFI to Change Order), or putting revised sheets in the field set (see related: The Drawing Revision Control on the Truck SOP). RFIs from other trades that touch the shop's work are logged as received items with an R prefix and tracked the same way.

Roles and responsibilities

The procedure

1. Confirm it is an RFI before writing it. The PM checks the question against the whole set first: the plan, the schedules, the details, the general notes and the spec section. Many apparent conflicts are answered on another sheet. Acceptance: the RFI cites at least one sheet or spec paragraph that creates the question, and states what the lead found in the field with a measurement or photo. Wrong looks like a question the documents already answer; withdraw it before sending, because answered-in-the-documents RFIs cost credibility the shop needs for the real ones. Hazard: if the lead verifies a condition above a ceiling, they work from a ladder or lift the shop's procedure allows for that height, and treat any wiring they meet as live; they open no junction boxes to look.

2. Number it and log it before it leaves. Number by the shop's scheme, commonly a trade prefix and a sequence (M01, M02), never reusing a number. A follow-up to a partial answer keeps the number with a suffix (M03.1). Enter: number, date sent, subject in a few words, sheet or spec reference, sent to, and answer-due date. Acceptance: no RFI sent without a log line. Wrong looks like an RFI found in an email thread with no number; log it under the next number that day and note the original send date. Hazard: none, desk work.

3. Set the answer-due date from when the work needs the answer. Work back from the date the crew must act (the day a ceiling closes, a slab pours, equipment is ordered) and ask for the answer at least 5 working days before it, unless the contract sets a response period, in which case use the contract's period and note it. If the need date is closer than the contract period, mark the RFI URGENT, say the need date in the RFI body, and call the GC's project manager the day it is sent. Acceptance: every log line has a due date and the need date beside it. Wrong looks like a due date after the need date; stop and either re-sequence the work or call that day. Hazard: none, desk work.

4. Send it through the contractual route and record the transmittal. RFIs commonly go to the general contractor (GC), who forwards them to the architect or engineer. Sending directly to the engineer may be faster and may not count. Acceptance: date and route on the log line the day it goes out. Wrong looks like a question answered verbally by the engineer on site; write it up as an RFI anyway, cite the conversation, and ask for confirmation, because a verbal answer binds nobody. Hazard: none, desk work.

5. Follow up on the due date and every two working days after. The coordinator sends a written follow-up to the GC naming the RFI number, the date sent, the due date and the need date. Acceptance: every open line past due shows the date of its latest follow-up. Stop rule: any RFI 2 or more working days past due whose need date is within 5 working days goes to the PM that day, and the PM sends the GC's project manager a written notice that the work in that area will stop on the need date without an answer, and that the delay is the shop's schedule impact. Hazard: none, desk work.

6. Log the answer and test whether it answers. Enter the date received. Read it against the question: does it tell the crew what to build, where, and with what? Acceptance: an answer a technician could build from without asking anyone. Wrong looks like "refer to contract documents", "contractor to coordinate", or an answer to a different question; send a follow-up under the same number with a suffix that day, quoting the original question. Hazard: none, desk work.

7. Read every answer for cost and schedule impact before anyone builds it. Compare the answer with what the shop bid: added material, added labor hours, a changed sequence, a different product, work in a finished area. Mark the log N (none), C (cost), S (schedule) or both. Acceptance: no answered RFI without a mark. Wrong looks like an answer marked C with the crew already scheduled to install it; stop that work, send the GC written notice of the change within the notice period your subcontract sets (on many forms it is short and counted from when you knew), open a potential change order and write its number on the log. If the GC directs you in writing to proceed before price is agreed, proceed under that direction and track the hours separately. This is not legal advice; your subcontract decides what notice is required and what proceeding means. Hazard: none, desk work.

8. Get the answer to the field the day it is read. If it changes nothing on the drawings, the PM sends the lead the answer and a one-line instruction. If it issues a sketch or revised sheet, it goes into the field set through The Drawing Revision Control on the Truck SOP. Acceptance: the lead confirms receipt and the log shows the date. Wrong looks like an answer that sat in the PM's inbox for a day while the crew worked the area; tell the lead immediately and check what was built that day. Hazard: none, desk work.

9. Close the RFI only when four things are true. Answered fully, read for impact, sent to the field, and, if marked C or S, linked to a change order number. Acceptance: closed lines carry all four. Wrong looks like an RFI closed with C and no change order; reopen it. Hazard: none, desk work.

10. Review the open log every Monday. The PM reads every open line against the need dates for the coming two weeks. Acceptance: the review date at the top of the log. Wrong looks like a week skipped; do it the next working day. Hazard: none.

The record this produces

The log, one line per RFI, kept in the job file and read by the PM weekly, by the person pricing changes, and at closeout by whoever reconciles the change orders. Each RFI's question, attachments and answer are filed under its number. When a dispute comes up months later about who knew what and when, the log's dates are the record: when the shop asked, how many times it followed up, when the answer came, and when the shop gave notice of cost.

A worked pass: a mid-week log check on a dental office fit-out

The shop has the mechanical scope. The contract sets no response period, so the shop requests 5 working days. The PM pulls the log on Wednesday 3/18 because M03 is overdue, two days after the Monday review.

RFI LOG  Dental office TI, mechanical  as of 3/18
NO  SENT SUBJECT        SHEET TO DUE  ANS  IMP CO
M01 3/02 Duct vs beam   M-201 GC 3/09 3/06 N   -
M02 3/04 EF-2 backdraft M-601 GC 3/11 3/12 C   PCO-1
M03 3/09 Diffuser loc   M-201 GC 3/16 -    -   -
M04 3/11 Damper access  M-301 GC 3/18 3/13 S   -
IMP: N none, C cost, S schedule

• M01, closed. The answer lowered the main 4 in under the beam within the ceiling space; no added work. Marked N, sent to the lead 3/06, closed.
• M02, cost. The question asked how EF-2 prevents backdraft, since the schedule showed no damper. The answer, received 3/12, one working day after its due date, added a motorized damper interlocked with the fan, per a new sketch. Not in the bid: one damper, an estimated 6 labor hours to install and 3 hours of control wiring, 9 hours in all. Marked C. Notice went to the GC 3/12, PCO-1 opened, and the damper was held out of the next day's work until the GC's written direction arrived 3/13.
• M04, schedule. The answer required an access panel the drywall contractor installs before the damper can be tested. Marked S; the lead resequenced the test to follow the panel.
• M03, step 5 stop rule TRIGGERED. Due 3/16, follow-ups sent 3/16 and 3/18, no answer. Today it is 2 working days past due (3/16 to 3/18), and the ceiling grid in that area is scheduled to close 3/23, 3 working days away, inside the 5-day window. The stop rule fires: the PM writes the GC's project manager that the diffuser in room 104 cannot be set without an answer, that the shop will leave that grid opening and its branch duct capped and labeled, and that a return trip after the grid closes is a schedule and cost impact. The log line gets today's date and "escalated".

M03 was answered 3/19 with a sketch moving the diffuser 3 ft east, which went into the field set the same day and was installed before the grid closed. M02 became an approved change. Without step 7 the damper would have been installed from the sketch as if it were in the drawings, and its 9 hours would have been absorbed.

References

• See related: How to Write an RFI That Gets a Usable Answer
• See related: The Paper That Changes a Job: RFI to Change Order
• See related: The Drawing Revision Control on the Truck SOP
• See related: The Submittal Log SOP