What is a request for information (RFI) in construction?

• Mark up a drawing in the browser viewer and turn the redline straight into an RFI or a change request.
• The question and the document that raised it stay together, so the answer is read beside the sheet it applies to.
• RFIs, transmittals, and change requests run in project spaces, where contractors join as Collaborators who see only what you grant them.
• Put a change request on hold while you wait on an answer, then release it, with both moves logged.
• Forward a change request to the right reviewer or discipline without losing the thread.
• When the change is approved, the revision is incremented and synchronised back to the drawing title block.
• When the project ends, the record stays with the asset, so the RFI history and the drawings it changed stay together.

redline to rfi · project spaces · collaborators · holds and forwards · revision on approval · audit trail

01

What is an RFI in construction?

An RFI, or request for information, is a formal question raised during construction when the contract documents are unclear, incomplete, or in conflict. A contractor or subcontractor writes the question against the drawing and specification it relates to, submits it to the design team or the owner's representative, and receives a dated written answer. The RFI and its answer are numbered and logged, so the instruction the site worked from can be produced later.

02

What does RFI stand for in construction?

RFI stands for request for information. In construction it names a formal question raised while the works are underway, usually by the contractor or a subcontractor, and answered in writing by the design team or the owner's representative. The same three letters mean something different in procurement, where a request for information is a document sent to the market to learn what suppliers can offer before a request for proposal goes out. On a construction project, an RFI is a contract administration record rather than a tender document.

03

What is the difference between an RFI and a submittal?

An RFI travels out from the contractor as a question, asking the design team to clarify the contract documents. A submittal travels in from the contractor as a deliverable, asking the design team to review and accept shop drawings, product data, samples, or manuals against the specification. The RFI resolves an ambiguity, and the submittal demonstrates compliance. They often relate to the same item of work, with months between the RFI answer and the submittal it shaped.

04

Who raises an RFI, and who answers it?

The contractor or a subcontractor usually raises it, because they are the ones who meet the gap while building. It is answered by whoever holds responsibility for the design: the architect, the engineering discipline concerned, or the owner's representative on an owner-managed project. On a large project the routing matters as much as the answer, since an RFI sent to the wrong discipline sits unanswered while the work waits.

05

What is an RFI log, and what does it record?

An RFI log is the register of every RFI raised on a project, one row per question, numbered in sequence. Each row records the RFI number, a short subject, the drawing and revision the question was raised against, the question itself, who raised it and when, the party it was routed to, the date the answer is needed, the response and its date, the status, and any cost or programme consequence. Read down the status column and you can see which questions are still holding up work. Read the log at handover and you can see why the asset differs from the design that was released.

06

What should an RFI form contain?

An RFI form should carry the fields the log needs: a unique reference number, the project and the party raising it, the drawing number and revision being queried, the specification clause where one applies, the question written so someone who has not walked the site can answer it, the date raised, the date an answer is required, the response with the name and date of whoever gave it, the status, and a note of any cost or programme consequence. Any photo or markup that shows the condition belongs with the form rather than in a separate email, so the question and its evidence stay together.

07

Why do RFI outcomes have to reach the drawing record?

Because the people who operate the asset read the drawings, not the RFI log. If an answer changes a route, a clearance, or a specification and the change lives only in the RFI, the drawing keeps showing the superseded design. Years later a maintainer works from that drawing and finds the asset does not match. Every RFI that alters the design has to land as a revision on the affected drawing and carry through into the as-constructed set.

08

Is an RFI the same as a variation or change order?

No. An RFI asks a question, and a variation changes the scope, the price, or the programme. Many RFIs are answered with a clarification that costs nothing. Some reveal a genuine change, and the variation follows as a separate instrument with its own approval. Keeping the two distinct matters, because an RFI answered casually can commit a project to work nobody has priced.