Information

I really enjoy history. Little did I know I would be reflecting on my own to talk about the Request For Information (RFI) process. Today, we have so much access to information at our finger tips, anywhere and anytime. Yes, I’m talking about the Smartphone. However, if you rewind just 15 years, or even better 20 years ago. You dialed 411 to get information. The extent of the feedback was a phone number and sometimes an address.

Now let’s put that into context of the RFI. I remember a metric that a projects success used to be measured by the number of RFI’s. But this was a different time, drawings were done manually on drafting boards. The most common mistake was a missed dimension or a string that did not add up. I remember drawing the strings, left to right and top to bottom. Then the extension lines, tick marks and so on. On the first pass I would base the dimensions the scale of the drawing and the backcheck would be the overall dimension. Typically, this overall would stay the same, but if a small adjustment was needed, you changed the dimension.

This is where the error might come into play. But not always would it be from an adjustment, the original dimension may have been miscalculated. To this day, I can run a string of dimension on the calculator using decimals for feet and inches. I’m sure it is the same wonder for interns today as I was younger and watched older architects use the slide rule with ease. Back to the RFI, when the contractor would begin the layout of the building, we would receive an RFI indicating a missing dimension or bust.

Fast forward a few years, I’m off the drafting board and I have entered the word of CAD. This was the promise of perfect dimensions. But what would happen during design. A series of walls would need to move. While I would take to the time to make the plan change and let the computer do the work. There would be others that would just get out their calculator and change the dimensions. This type of practice would typically lead to an RFI. But then I noticed a new trend with CAD. The missing dimension. So much time would be spent in drawing the walls with pin point accuracy, that the final step of adding the dimension was missed. I was doing Construction Administration almost 100% of the time at this point in my career, I was not in the office much. The contractor would ask me the question and I would have to get back to the office for the answer. Yes, this is before the days of cells phones, I could call if there was a phone in the job trailer. But who knows where that phone had been.

Technology keeps changing and the tools may be different. Over the past 10 years I have been using Building Information Model (BIM) 100% to produce my drawings. I’m the Operation Manager for a small firm and guide the continued use of the software. But I don’t review every drawing, that is the role of the Project Manager. But I’ve noticed a new trend with the BIM. Great detail goes into drawing the walls, adding the accessory or other building element. It is so easy to click on an object and know what it is. But if that information is not conveyed in a note or dimension, it is just a bunch of lines on the drawing. We still need the drawing in the field for the contractor to build the building. The key is to take the practice of manual drafting and point to everything with a note and add a dimension in every direction. 

This approach of notes and dimensions will fix the basic drawing communication. And I know, this should be basic practice. But it is partially a lost approach to drawings. Going back to our roots of drafting will reduce the time consumed after drawings have been completed and reduce the number of RFI’s. Now, to get back to that last RFI I was working on.

…and now for something completely different.
The world’s oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9,000 years old!

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