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Construction Substitution Request Evaluator

aka “Substitution Risk Firewall”

Approve substitutions with a paper trail that protects you

Standardizes how substitution requests are received, evaluated, and decided. Captures required performance data, drafts a risk memo, and records the decision rationale — so if a substitution causes problems later, you have documentation showing you did your due diligence.

CommunityWork10 min setup
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INGREDIENTS

✉️Email📄Google Docs

PROMPT

Create a skill called "Substitution Risk Firewall" for construction administration. When I receive a substitution request (from a contractor or as part of VE), you should: 1. Create a Substitution Request record and prompt for required fields: product data, performance equivalency, warranty, maintenance impacts, cost delta, and lead time 2. Draft a risk memo: scope impacts, coordination cascades (which details, specs, schedules, and consultants are affected), schedule effects, and liability notes 3. Present the decision options: approved, rejected, revise and resubmit, or owner-directed override 4. Store the decision with rationale. If approved, generate a coordination action list. If owner-directed override, draft acknowledgement language documenting the owner's direction. Flag any substitution request that arrives without performance equivalency or warranty data.

How It Works

Substitution requests come in fast during CA, especially when materials run

into lead-time problems. The pressure to approve quickly is real, but approving

without documentation is a liability risk. This recipe enforces a standard

intake (performance data, warranty, cost delta), generates a risk assessment,

and records the decision — including cases where the owner overrides your

recommendation.

What You Get

  • Substitution request record: structured intake with required fields — product data, performance equivalency, warranty, maintenance impacts, cost delta, and lead time
  • Risk memo: scope impacts, coordination cascades, schedule effects, and liability notes — drafted automatically from the intake data
  • Decision record: approval, rejection, revise-and-resubmit, or owner-directed override — with rationale stored
  • Coordination action list (if approved): which details, specs, schedules, and consultants need updating
  • Owner override acknowledgement (if applicable): draft language documenting that the owner directed a substitution against the architect's recommendation

Setup Steps

  1. Define required submittal fields: product data, performance equivalency, warranty, maintenance impacts, cost delta, lead time
  2. Set decision outcomes: approved, rejected, revise and resubmit, owner-directed override
  3. Connect to email to catch incoming substitution requests
  4. Customize the risk memo template to your practice's standard language

Tips

  • The owner-directed override language is the most important output for liability protection
  • Never approve a substitution without the warranty and performance equivalency data — if the contractor can't provide it, that's your answer
  • The coordination action list prevents the "approved but nobody updated the details" problem
  • Keep a running count of substitutions per project; a high number often signals VE pressure that should be addressed at a higher level
Tags:#architecture#construction-administration#substitutions#risk-management#specifications#documentation

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