RFI handling and response The question decides the answer.

Identifying what genuinely needs an RFI

Not every gap does. Some are answerable from the specification, some are a shop decision, and some stop being ambiguous once the drawings are read properly.

Writing the question so it can be answered once

State the condition, cite the drawing and specification references, describe the conflict precisely, and propose an option where a proposal is appropriate.

Including what the reviewer needs in order to decide

Usually a sketch or an extract, because a written description of a geometric problem rarely lands.

Tracking to closure

Open items logged and dated, chased on your instruction.

Feeding the answer back

Into the drawings and into the affected schedules, take-offs and production data, so the response does not sit in an inbox while the set stays wrong.

An RFI that asks "please advise" invites deliberation. An RFI that states the reading of the specification, describes the drawn condition, proposes an interpretation and confirms that detailing has proceeded on that basis invites a yes.

That is not a presentation trick. It is the difference between asking a design team to solve a problem and asking them to approve a solution. The second is faster, and it produces fewer follow-on questions.

The judgement of what to propose comes from specification analysis and constructability review, which is why all three sit under the same service line rather than being sold separately.

• Conditions with no detail at all
• Details that conflict between drawings, or between a drawing and a reflected ceiling plan
• Specification clauses that contradict the drawn design or the finish schedule
• Specified products that are unavailable, discontinued or unsuitable for the condition
• Dimensional impossibilities, most often where millwork meets structure or services
• Junctions with other trades where responsibility for the tolerance is unstated

Raising an unnecessary RFI costs credibility with the design team, and credibility is what makes the necessary ones move quickly.

Questions answerable from the specification are answered from the specification. Questions that are a shop decision are returned to you as a decision, not forwarded to the architect. Questions that dissolve once the full set is read are not asked at all.

The count and the recurring themes are reported back to you. On a badly documented project that report is often the most useful thing in the package.

Shops working from incomplete design documentation, which is most shops. Project managers tracking open questions across several packages at once. Contractors whose millwork RFIs are stalling procurement.