What do you do when the plans are wrong?

Stairs that don’t fit? No room for the HVAC ducts? 30 feet of windows in 20 feet of wall? All plans contain some errors. In recent years the number of errors appears to be increasing as owners continue to treat design as a cost center. What do you do when you find something in the plans which is not workable?

When things don’t seem right you should not go ahead without instructions. The first step is to reduce the issue to writing and pass it up the line to the general contractor, or if you are the general, to the designer or owner’s representative. The document used is called an Request For Information or RFI. The project manager will assign each RFI an individual number for tracking.

The designer or engineer will respond to the RFI showing how the problem is to be handled. In some instances there will be no real change or a minor revision to the work and in others there may be major changes and costs involved. The general rule is, the earlier a plan problem is discovered the less time and cost impact to the project. Here is a check list for minimizing the impact of plan problems.

1) Review your areas of work early and put in RFI’s as soon as problems are discovered. Try not to be “surprised” on the job site by problems which were obvious on the plans.

2) Track and tickler file important RFI’s to make sure they are being moved along.

3) Don’t let late answers cause delays. Keep pressure on for answers.

4) If the reply causes the project to take longer or cost more document all costs and notify the general contractor or owner of a changed condition.