Closing "revise and resubmit" comments in one cycle
The curtain wall submittal for a two-storey car dealership comes back "revise and resubmit": 14 comments across 31 sheets, some in the architect's red, some in the envelope consultant's blue. The glazing subcontractor's project manager wants to fix "the main ones" by Friday. The fabrication slot is five weeks away.
Log every comment in a response table, answer each one with what you changed and where, make the drawings match, and resubmit the whole package with the changes clouded, so the reviewer can close everything in one pass. Second rounds fail on comments fixed in part, answers scattered through emails and new changes slipped in unmarked. Each round costs time: in the City of Los Angeles's engineering procedures, for example, a shop drawing marked "Rejected / Resubmit" does not meet the contract drawings or specifications, and nothing may be procured, fabricated or built until the revised drawings come back with an acceptable mark.
The response table
- Log every comment the day it returns: number, sheet, reviewer and the reviewer's words, from the drawings and the cover letter.
- Sort each one: a correction you accept, missing information, a question, or a point you dispute or believe changes the contract.
- Call the reviewer before you redraw about anything unclear or disputed, and agree what would close it.
- Answer each line with the action and where to find it: "Anchor spacing revised to 600 mm, sheets CW-210 to CW-212, clouded", never "noted". Fix a repeated detail on every sheet it appears on.
- Raise comments that add work as changes, through the general contractor, before you resubmit: see when an answer changes the work. A different product needs a substitution request.
- Resubmit the whole package: every item on the original transmittal, the revision raised, changes clouded, the table on top, and any change nobody asked for listed separately.
Common mistakes
- Answering "will comply" and changing nothing.
- Sending only the revised sheets.
- Fixing a detail where the reviewer marked it but not on the three other sheets where it repeats.
- Arguing a comment in the table instead of calling first.
Checklist
Before the resubmittal goes
- Every comment numbered, from the drawings and the letter
- Each answered with the change and its sheet
- Unclear and disputed comments settled by phone
- Comments that add work raised as changes
- Changes clouded and the revision raised
- Unrequested changes listed separately
- Whole package resubmitted, table on top
Check your understanding
A reviewer asks for heavier anchors than the specification requires, and your engineer says the specified anchors are adequate. Do you revise, resubmit unchanged, or something else?
