What Is a Construction Change Directive?

Change-order negotiation can take weeks of estimates, subcontractor quotes, and markup arguments. Meanwhile a slab is open or an inspector is scheduled. The CCD separates the direction to build from the settlement of money. The owner accepts the risk of paying by the contract’s fallback method if negotiation fails. The contractor accepts the duty to perform and to keep cost records.

Without a CCD, a verbal "just do it, we’ll sort out the cost" is a claim with bad paperwork. With a CCD, the direction, the date, and the scope are written. The fight, if there is one, is about the amount, not about whether the work was ordered.

AIA general conditions typically allow the adjustment to be agreed as a lump sum, determined by unit prices in the contract, or calculated as the contractor’s actual cost plus a fee, with specified markups. The CCD itself can propose one of those. If the contractor disagrees with the proposed method or amount, the work still proceeds and the architect makes an interim determination, subject to the contract’s dispute path.

Actual-cost work needs daily records: labor, equipment, and material tickets signed in the field. Contractors who treat a CCD like a lump-sum change and skip the tickets lose the ability to prove cost. Owners who ignore the tickets and demand a lump sum later invite the same dispute.

If everyone agrees the change is minor and free, an ASI is the matching form. Issuing a CCD for a no-cost clarification spooks the cost report and implies entitlement that does not exist. If everyone already agrees the price and the days, skip the CCD and sign the change order. The directive is the middle case: change is required, agreement is not in hand.

Scope written on the CCD should be buildable. "Proceed with the revised lobby" without a sketch forces the contractor to guess, then price the guess. Attach the drawings or the narrative the estimator will measure.

A CCD left open through the job becomes an argument at final payment. The project manager should track each CCD with a status: issued, cost submitted, interim determination, converted to change order. The schedule of values and the pay application should not bill the work as original scope while the CCD is unresolved.

Time adjustments need the same closing. A CCD that adds days does not extend the contract until the change order says so, unless the contract provides otherwise. Leaving time "to be determined" until the end is how liquidated damages and delay claims get tangled.