Construction RFI template and register

A construction RFI template has two halves that most versions of it only have one of. The first is the question: one thing, stated precisely enough to be answered with a yes, a no or a dimension, tied to the drawing revision and specification clause it’s actually about. The second is the answer: who gave it, on what date, and whether it changes the cost or the programme. A register that only tracks the first half is a list of things asked, not a record of what the project is actually being built to.

RFI stands for request for information. It’s the mechanism a contractor uses to ask the design team or the client-side project manager a specific question about the contract documents — a drawing, a specification section, a detail that is missing or that two documents answer differently — and to get that answer in writing before the work in question is built. An RFI is a question, not an instruction and not a change: the standard format has one question, a drawing and specification reference, a date the answer is needed by and why, the written response, who gave it, and whether the answer carries a cost or time impact. The demonstration row on this page, RFI-041 (Bayside Townhouses (demo)), shows that format working end to end: a genuine clash between a drawing and a specification, answered in writing by the person with authority to answer it, closed once the answer was reflected in a reissued drawing.

This template is written for whoever runs the register on a live job: the site manager who raises the question and needs a paper trail if it turns into a variation, or the project manager who has to know at a glance which questions are still open and which are sitting past the date they were needed by. It works the same way on any Australian head contract, because raising a written question about the documents and getting a written answer is a contract-administration practice, not a mechanism a particular standard form or code sets out. Background on when an answered RFI stops being an RFI and starts being a variation is in RFI in construction, and on what happens next in variations in construction.

The identification block — project, RFI number, date raised, raised by, discipline — is what makes the register searchable in six months. RFI-041 is never reused, even if the RFI is later cancelled; discipline is what routes the question to structural, architectural or whichever consultant can actually answer it.

The question and reference block should stand alone: one question, answerable with a yes, a no or a dimension, next to the drawing revision and specification clause it’s about. In the demonstration row the question is exactly that shape — drawing S-204 rev C shows a basement slab thickening of 450 mm at grid D/4, the structural specification section 3.4 calls up 500 mm, and the question is simply which one governs.

Response required by needs a reason attached, not just a date. In the demonstration row the reason is that the slab thickening sits on the critical path for the 17 August pour, which is what turns 2026-08-14 from a preference into a deadline the site actually has to hit.

The response itself has to come from someone with design authority over that discipline, in writing — a verbal answer on site is not a response, however senior the person giving it. In the demonstration row the structural engineer’s answer, that 500 mm governs and S-204 is to be reissued as rev D, is dated 2026-08-13, a day inside the 2026-08-14 deadline.

The cost and time flags are where an RFI meets a variation. If the answer changes what was priced or programmed, the flag has to carry a variation or extension-of-time number, not just a yes — track that number separately in the variation register. A head contract like AS 4000-1997 or AS 2124-1992 will have its own notice provisions and its own direction and variation clauses governing what happens once an answer changes scope, cost or time — read those clauses in your own contract rather than in this template. The demonstration row closes with no cost and no time impact, which is why it can go straight to closed rather than spinning off a variation number.

More than one question in an RFI. A three-part question gets a two-part answer and stays open on the part nobody addressed — better to raise three RFIs than one that never fully closes.

A reference with no revision number. “See S-204” is not a reference once that drawing has been reissued twice; “S-204 rev C” is, because it tells the next person reading the register exactly which version the question and the answer were about.

Accepting a verbal answer on site and never following it up in writing. It might be the right answer, but the site has now built to an instruction nobody signed, and the paper trail a variation claim needs later does not exist.

Closing the RFI before the answer is reflected in an issued document. Marking the row closed the day the response arrives, before the drawing is reissued or the specification amended, means the next trade to open the drawing register is still working off the superseded page.