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Module 5 For Construction intermediate 50 min

RFIs, Submittals & Change Orders

The paperwork that holds up your money. Clear beats clever.

Draft a Change-Order Narrative for a Hidden Condition

You are the GC on a roughly $3.0M ground-up medical office building, lump-sum prime contract with the Owner. You self-perform concrete and rough carpentry. While excavating for footings, your crew hits unsuitable soils and rock that nobody planned for. This is a hidden condition worth about $85K to deal with, and you need to get a change order moving before it eats your schedule. AI is going to help you write the NARRATIVE only (what was there, what changed, what caused it, what it impacts) so the Owner's Rep cannot wave it off. The price stays yours, prepared separately, and it never goes in the AI draft.

Recommended tool

claude

Claude is strong at holding a long context document plus your field facts and producing a tight, well-organized narrative that walks original condition, change, cause, and impact in order, while flagging gaps instead of inventing facts. It will not slip a dollar figure in where you did not give one.

Bring to the exercise

  • Your Construction Context Document (project type, contract type, your scope, key role labels)
  • The original condition as the contract documents showed it (the geotech report assumption, the plan note, the spec section) and where to find it
  • What your crew actually found in the field, with dates, photos, and field notes
  • The cause or trigger (a differing site condition, an Owner-directed change, a design clarification) and the contract clause that covers it
  • The impacts: scope added, schedule days lost, other trades held up, equipment idled
  • A past change order on a similar job that got denied or slow-walked, and why it stalled
  • Your own separately-prepared pricing (kept OUT of the AI draft) and the requested action and deadline

Step 1 of 8

Build Your Approach

Step 1

Build Your Approach

Before any drafting, draw the line between what needs YOUR professional judgment (the price, the scope commitment, the contract clause, the signature) and where AI can help (structure, drafting, checking, organizing). AI is the new apprentice; you stay the foreman.

What to substitute before pasting

  • [FOR EXAMPLE: ...] Your own list of the calls only you can make. Edit it to match this job.
I am the GC on a roughly $3.0M ground-up commercial project and I need to draft a change-order NARRATIVE for a hidden condition we hit at the footings. I am NOT asking you to price it. I price it myself, separately.

Before we do anything, help me draw a clean line. Make two lists:

1. What only I, the contractor, can own here: [FOR EXAMPLE: the dollar amount, the scope I commit to, which contract clause applies, what I am willing to sign].
2. Where you, as my apprentice, can actually help: structuring the narrative, drafting language from facts I give you, checking the story holds together, organizing impacts.

Then ask me: where on this job is my own field judgment most essential, and where am I tempted to let you guess? Do not draft anything yet.
What good output looks like
  • Two clear lists that put money, scope commitment, clause selection, and the signature squarely on your side.
  • AI names structuring, drafting, and gap-checking as its lane, not pricing or scope.
  • It asks you where your field judgment is essential before it offers to write anything.

Verify before using AI's output

Turn Messy Walkthrough Notes into a Clean Punch List

You are the GC on a roughly $3.0M ground-up medical office building, lump-sum prime contract with the Owner. You are near closeout, walking the building with the Owner's Rep and the Architect. You scribble notes fast: door 112 sticks, paint scuff in the corridor by radiology, missing cover plate in exam 4, HVAC grille loose over the nurse station, caulk gap at the sill in the lobby. Now you have two pages of messy field notes that need to become a clean punch list, grouped by area and by trade, that you can actually track to closeout. AI structures the raw observations. You confirm every item is real and assign it to the right trade, because the wrong assignment sends the wrong sub and burns a day.

Recommended tool

claude

Claude is strong at taking messy, half-written field notes and organizing them into a consistent, grouped structure (by area, then by trade) without losing or inventing items, and it will flag an ambiguous note as a question instead of guessing which trade owns it.

Bring to the exercise

  • Your Construction Context Document (project type, the areas/rooms of the building, your subs by trade with role labels)
  • Your raw walkthrough notes exactly as you wrote them (shorthand, half sentences, room numbers, photo references)
  • The list of trades on the job (Sub A electrical, Sub B mechanical, finishes, your self-perform crews) as role labels
  • Your quality standard: what "acceptable" means on this job and what counts as a real defect vs. a non-issue
  • A past punch list that dragged at closeout (items that bounced between trades or stayed open too long) and why
  • Who tracks the list to closeout and how items get signed off

Step 1 of 8

Build Your Approach

Step 1

Build Your Approach

Before structuring anything, draw the line between what needs YOUR judgment (is this a real defect, which trade owns it, does it meet the standard) and where AI helps (grouping, formatting, deduping). AI is the new apprentice; you stay the foreman.

What to substitute before pasting

  • [FOR EXAMPLE: ...] Your own list of the calls only you can make. Edit it to match this job.
I am the GC on a roughly $3.0M medical office building, near closeout. I have two pages of messy walkthrough notes and I need a clean punch list grouped by area and by trade. I will NOT have you decide what counts as a defect or which trade owns an item. I decide that.

Before we start, help me draw the line. Make two lists:

1. What only I can own: [FOR EXAMPLE: whether an item is a real defect, which trade is responsible, whether the fix meets my quality standard, what is ready to sign off at closeout].
2. Where you, as my apprentice, can help: reading my shorthand, grouping items by area and trade, formatting a trackable list, spotting duplicates, asking when a note is unclear.

Then ask me: where on this list am I most likely to let you guess at a trade assignment I should be making myself? Do not structure anything yet.
What good output looks like
  • Two lists that keep "is it a defect" and "which trade owns it" on your side.
  • AI claims grouping, formatting, deduping, and asking-when-unclear as its lane.
  • It asks where you might be tempted to let it guess a trade assignment.

Verify before using AI's output