What Is RFI (Request for Information)?

An RFI, or Request for Information, is a formal question a contractor submits to the design team during construction, asking for clarification on something the construction documents don't clearly address or that appears to conflict with something else in the documents. RFIs are logged, tracked, and typically require a documented response within a specified timeframe defined in the contract.

RFIs cover a wide range of situations: a genuine ambiguity in the drawings, a field condition that differs from what was anticipated, or a conflict between two documents, a detail that doesn't match a related detail elsewhere, or a specification that calls for something different than what's shown on the drawings. Not every RFI indicates a design problem, some reflect legitimate unknowns that couldn't have been resolved on paper.

A significant share of RFIs on a typical project, though, trace back to issues that could have been caught during design review: coordination conflicts, spec-to-drawing mismatches, or missing information that a more thorough pre-submittal review would have identified. High RFI volume is often a symptom of upstream coordination gaps rather than a reflection of how complex or ambiguous a project inherently is.

FAQ

Is this term used consistently across the industry, or does it vary by firm or region? Most of these terms are used fairly consistently across the industry, though exact usage can vary slightly by firm, region, or project delivery method. When in doubt, project-specific contract documents typically define exactly how a term is being used on that project.

How does this connect to AI-assisted drawing review? Structured AI's QA/QC Compliance Checks, Document Chat, and Overlay features are built to catch the kinds of issues and inconsistencies that show up in exactly this part of the design and construction process, with findings tied to the exact page and location involved.

Where can I learn more about related terms? See the related topics below for connected concepts that often come up alongside this one.