What goes in an RFI

Seven things. Each one is there because it is the thing you cannot reconstruct later.

  1. A unique RFI number. It is what lets the question, the answer and any delay record point at the same event. Without one you end up arguing about "that email".
  2. The date you sent it, and who you sent it to. The wait starts here, so this is the date you will need to show when you are asked how long you were held up.
  3. The drawing, specification or clause you are querying, with its revision. A question about "the slab detail" ages badly. SW-104 Rev C does not.
  4. The location and activity affected. It ties the question to a workfront, so the impact of a late answer is obvious to someone reading it months later.
  5. One question, in one sentence. Two questions in one RFI reliably get one answer, and then you are chasing the half that was missed.
  6. The decision you need and the date you need it by, tied to your programme. "Required by 14 March, because pit excavation starts 16 March" is measurable. "ASAP" is not.
  7. One factual line on what happens if it is late: which activity stops, and what labour and plant are affected. Not a threat — the record you will rely on.

What an RFI is not

An RFI asks. It does not instruct, claim or notify, and treating it as any of those three is where subcontractors lose ground.

If the answer comes back as a direction to build something different, that is an instruction, and a verbal one needs the same-day treatment set out in confirming a verbal direction. If work has already stopped, the delay record is a separate document written on the day it happens — see site delays worth recording.

How to track RFIs so the record holds up

Keep one register, in one place, with a row per RFI and these columns: number, date sent, who it went to, subject and drawing reference, date the answer was required, date the answer arrived, days open, activity affected, and the delay record it relates to. The days-open column is the one that matters — it is the number you will be asked for, and it is nearly impossible to reconstruct from an inbox a month later. Review the open rows at the same time every week and chase anything past its required date in writing, so the chase is on the record too.

When a late RFI response becomes a delay record

The RFI is not the delay record, and one does not create the other. On the day work actually cannot proceed, write a separate record: what could not start or continue, the crew and plant standing or redeployed, the times, the location, and the open RFI number as the cause. An RFI sitting unanswered while your crew works elsewhere is a programme risk; an RFI sitting unanswered while a crew stands is a cost, and only the record written that day shows which one it was.

If the answer changes the work

An answer that adds work, deletes work or changes how something is built is the point to stop and read your own subcontract: what counts as a variation, who may direct one, what form the direction has to take, and how it gets valued.

Queensland's Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 shows where valuation starts. Section 72(1) provides that construction work carried out under a construction contract is to be valued in accordance with the contract where the contract provides for the matter — the statutory basis in section 72(1)(b) applies only where it does not. So the rates and valuation machinery in your own subcontract are usually what gets used.

The same Act is also worth reading on the shape of a variation. In the two chapters where it defines the word — section 8 (chapter 2, statutory trusts) and section 104 (chapter 4, subcontractors' charges) — a variation is "an addition to, or an omission from" the work, so an answer that takes work out is a change as well as one that adds it.

That is Queensland only; every other state and territory has its own legislation and none of it is set out here. For the clause-by-clause read, see how a variation gets valued.

Does an RFI satisfy a notice under your subcontract?

Do not assume it does. An RFI is correspondence; a notice clause usually names a form, a recipient, a time limit and sometimes a required heading, and only your own clause says whether anything you have sent meets it.

So read the notice clauses in your executed subcontract and its annexures. If information is late and your works are affected, send the notice as its own document: a notice of delay template shows what belongs in one, and you can build a delay notice from your records. Whether a particular clause applies to your situation is a question for your own adviser, not for a blog.

A short RFI you can copy

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep it to one screen.

  • RFI [number] — [subject]. Reference: [drawing or specification number and revision].
  • Date sent: [date]. Response required by: [date], because [activity] is programmed to start on [date].
  • Question: [one question, in one sentence].
  • Options as we see them: [option A] or [option B].
  • Affected works: [activity] at [location on site].
  • If the response arrives after [date], [activity] cannot proceed. [Crew size] and [plant] are affected from that date. We will record the impact and advise in accordance with the subcontract.
  • [Name], [position], [company], [date].

Send it, log it, and put the required-by date in your diary the same minute you hit send. An RFI you never chased reads, later, exactly like an RFI you never needed.