Day 13: RFIs, Submittals, Changes, and Documentation
9% of the exam - about 2.5 hours - 14 practice questions
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Reading
Requests for Information
An RFI asks a question about the contract documents: a conflict between drawings, an ambiguity, a missing dimension, a field condition that does not match. The RFI process exists to resolve those without stopping work.
The CM logs the RFI, routes it to the party who can answer it, tracks the response against the contractual response time, and distributes the answer. Two things about RFIs are heavily tested.
First, an RFI response that changes scope, cost, or time is not merely an answer. It is a change, and it must be converted into the change order process. Answering an RFI with "provide stainless steel instead of galvanized" and leaving it at that is how owners end up paying for changes nobody tracked.
Second, RFI volume and response time are early warning indicators. A surge in RFIs on a particular drawing set signals design quality problems. Chronic late responses from the design team create contractor delay claims. The CM reports both to the owner as trends, not just as a log.
Submittals and the standard of review
A submittal is the contractor's demonstration that a proposed product or method conforms to the contract documents: shop drawings, product data, samples, mockups. The review chain typically runs contractor to CM to designer and back.
The critical exam point is the standard of review. The designer reviews for general conformance with the design intent. The designer does not verify dimensions, quantities, fabrication means, or field measurements; those remain the contractor's responsibility, and submittal stamps say so explicitly. A designer who takes on verification of the contractor's dimensions has assumed liability that was not theirs. Similarly, approval of a submittal does not relieve the contractor of contract compliance. If an approved submittal contains a deviation that was not clearly flagged, the contractor generally remains responsible.
The CM's own role in submittals is procedural rather than technical: check completeness, confirm it is required by the specification, log it, route it, track it against the schedule, and escalate when review is late. The CM does not substitute its judgment for the designer's on design conformance.
Deviations must be explicitly identified by the contractor. Burying a substitution inside an otherwise conforming submittal and relying on the reviewer to catch it is a recurring source of dispute, and contracts typically require that any deviation be called out in writing.
The change order process, and what a construction change directive is for
A defensible change order has a clear sequence: an event occurs; notice is given within the contractual period; scope of the change is defined; the contractor prices it; the CM prepares an independent estimate; the parties negotiate; the owner authorizes; the change order is executed; the schedule and budget are updated to reflect it.
Where projects go wrong is skipping steps under time pressure. Work proceeds on a verbal direction, pricing follows months later with no contemporaneous record, and the negotiation becomes a memory contest. The construction change directive (the AIA term; other contract families provide a similar tool under other names) exists precisely for this: it is a written order that lets the owner direct changed work to proceed before price is agreed, with cost determined afterward by a defined method. The CM uses it rather than letting work proceed on a handshake.
The full change order sequence, event to executed change. A construction change directive exists for exactly the moment this sequence would otherwise stall the job.
Documentation is the whole game
The exam's consistent posture on claims is that contemporaneous documentation decides outcomes. Daily reports recording manpower, equipment, weather, work performed, and delays. Meeting minutes issued promptly with an objection period. Photographs dated and located. Correspondence logs. Schedule updates preserved as separate files rather than overwritten.
The specific discipline the exam rewards is documenting at the time, in neutral language, without regard to who it helps. A daily report written to build a claim is worth less than one written to record reality, because the first is impeachable and the second is not.
Why this matters for the exam
RFIs, submittals, and change orders are three different tools, but the exam tests the same underlying idea across all three: does this action stay inside the defined process, or does it quietly become a change, a design decision, or a claim without anyone tracking it as one.
Practice Questions
1. An RFI response directs a material upgrade that increases cost. The CM should:
File the response and proceed, since the designer answered the question in writing
Reject the RFI
Convert it into the change order process
Have the contractor absorb the added cost, since the response answered the contractor's own question
Answer: c. An RFI is supposed to clarify, not modify. When the answer adds cost, the substance is a change, and treating it as a filed response leaves the contractor performing unpriced work.
2. The designer's submittal review is for:
Guarantee of fabrication accuracy
General conformance with the design intent
Verification of contractor dimensions and quantities
Approval of means and methods
Answer: b. The designer confirms general conformance with design intent. Dimensions, quantities, and fabrication accuracy stay with the contractor, and the submittal stamp usually says so explicitly.
3. A contractor installs work per an approved submittal that contained an unflagged deviation from the specification. Responsibility generally rests with:
The CM, since the CM checked the submittal for completeness and routed it to the designer
The owner, since the owner's design team reviewed and stamped the submittal before installation
The contractor, since approval does not relieve contract compliance and the deviation was not identified
The designer, since the designer's stamp approved the submittal and therefore accepted the deviation in it
Answer: c. Approval does not waive the contract. An unflagged deviation was never brought to the reviewer's attention, so the contractor cannot rely on a stamp it obtained by omission.
4. A surge in RFIs concentrated on one drawing set most likely indicates:
Design quality problems worth reporting to the owner as a trend
Good documentation habits on the design team, which should be recognized in the monthly report
An efficient contractor that is resolving conflicts before they become field problems
Excess float
Answer: a. RFIs cluster where drawings are unclear. A concentration on one set is a measurable signal of design quality, and the owner needs it as a trend, not as forty separate items.
5. A construction change directive is used when:
The contractor and owner have already agreed on the price, and only a record of the agreement is needed
The schedule has float
The change is minor and the price has already been agreed in writing by both parties
The owner needs work to proceed before price is agreed, with cost determined later by a defined method
Answer: d. A construction change directive lets the owner keep work moving when price is not yet agreed. It preserves schedule without requiring the owner to accept an unpriced number.
6. The most persuasive evidence in a later claim is generally:
The contractor's bid
The original baseline alone
A detailed narrative written after the dispute arose
Contemporaneous daily reports recording conditions in neutral language
Answer: d. Daily reports written at the time, in neutral language, carry weight precisely because they were not written for the dispute. A narrative composed afterward reads as advocacy.
7. The CM's role in submittal review is primarily:
Approving substitutions and deviations on the owner's behalf whenever they would save time or reduce cost
Procedural: completeness, logging, routing, tracking against schedule, and escalating late reviews
Pricing the work
Technical design judgment on conformance, replacing the designer's review to save time
Answer: b. The CM manages the process: completeness, logging, routing, tracking against need dates, and escalating when reviews run late. Technical design judgment stays with the designer.
8. Chronic late submittal responses by the design team create exposure because:
They have no effect, because the contractor's own float absorbs any delay in the review
They can generate contractor delay claims against the owner
They improve quality, since a longer review gives the designer more time to check details
They reduce retainage
Answer: b. Late reviews are an owner-side failure, since the designer is the owner's consultant. The contractor can point to them as the cause of its own delay.
9. Work proceeds on a verbal direction with pricing deferred and no contemporaneous record. The primary risk is:
Improved relations, because the contractor is trusted to start work without paperwork
Reduced overhead
The later negotiation becomes a memory contest the owner is likely to lose
No meaningful risk, since verbal directions are enforceable on the same terms as written change orders
Answer: c. Without a contemporaneous record, the later pricing discussion rests on two parties' recollections. The contractor did the work and knows what it took; the owner is arguing from the outside.
10. A deviation is present in a submittal but is not called out in writing by the contractor. If it is later discovered, the most likely outcome is:
The CM bears responsibility as the routing party, since the CM logged, checked, and forwarded the submittal
The designer bears full responsibility for missing it, since the designer's stamp approved the whole submittal
The contractor remains responsible, since the deviation was never clearly identified for review
The submittal is automatically void
Answer: c. A reviewer cannot be expected to catch what was never flagged. The duty to identify a deviation belongs to the party proposing it.
11. In the change order sequence, the CM's independent estimate is prepared:
Only if the contractor requests it in writing after submitting its own priced proposal
Never, since the contractor's priced proposal is accepted as given when it falls within the contingency
After the owner has already authorized payment
Before negotiation, so there is a basis for comparison against the contractor's price
Answer: d. The independent estimate has to exist before negotiation, or there is nothing to negotiate against except the contractor's own number.
12. Meeting minutes issued promptly with a defined objection period matter because:
They create a record that stands unless timely challenged, strengthening its reliability later
They replace the need for daily reports, since minutes summarize each day's manpower and work
They are required only on public projects, where the awarding agency prescribes the objection period
They have no legal or practical weight, since only signed contracts and change orders are admissible
Answer: a. An objection period that passes without challenge makes the minutes harder to dispute later, which is exactly why prompt issuance and a real deadline both matter.
13. Which distinguishes an RFI from a change order?
Only the contractor can initiate an RFI
An RFI clarifies existing contract documents; a change order modifies scope, cost, or time
They are the same instrument under a different name
An RFI always costs money; a change order never does
Answer: b. An RFI is meant to resolve ambiguity in what already exists. The moment the answer adds or changes scope, cost, or time, it has left the RFI process and needs to become a change order.
14. A daily report is written specifically to support a claim the writer already intends to make. Compared to a neutral, contemporaneous report, this document is:
Less credible, since it can be impeached as advocacy rather than a neutral record
Irrelevant to any later dispute, because only records prepared after a claim is filed are admissible
Equally credible either way, provided the report is signed and dated by the superintendent
More credible, since it anticipates the dispute and records the facts favorable to the claim
Answer: a. A record built to help one side is easy to challenge as advocacy. A record built to describe what happened, regardless of who it helps, is much harder to attack.
Micro-Assignment
Build a one-page RFI and submittal log template you would actually use, with the specific columns you believe matter, including contractual response due date and days outstanding. Then write a short paragraph defining the trigger at which you would escalate a late design response to the owner, and what you would say.
Glossary
RFI
Request for Information; a question about the contract documents.
Submittal
Contractor's demonstration of conformance; shop drawings, product data, samples.
General Conformance
The designer's review standard; not verification of the contractor's dimensions or means.
Construction Change Directive
Owner direction to proceed before price agreement, with cost determined by a defined method.
Contemporaneous Documentation
Records made at the time of the event; the decisive evidence in claims.
Deviation
A departure from the specification in a submittal; must be explicitly flagged by the contractor to shift review responsibility.