FAQ
Straight answers about RCDD design work.
Everything clients, GCs, and partner firms ask before working with us — answered the way we’d answer on a call. No marketing-speak rephrasing.
Hiring an RCDD
Registered Communications Distribution Designer — BICSI’s credential for ICT (information and communications technology) design. It certifies that the holder designs telecom infrastructure — structured cabling, pathways, spaces, outside plant — against the BICSI and TIA standards bodies of knowledge, and it carries continuing-education and recertification requirements. It is a design credential, not an installer license and not a state-issued engineering license.
Three places it becomes a requirement: the owner’s specification (many Division 27 specs require RCDD-designed or RCDD-reviewed drawings), the AHJ’s acceptance criteria for the telecom package, and bid qualification (a named RCDD on the org chart). Even where it isn’t required, an RCDD-designed package typically survives plan review and construction with fewer RFIs — which is the cheaper path even before the credential question.
BICSI maintains a public credential directory. Ask for the designer’s name as registered and check it — a legitimate RCDD will expect you to. Ours is verifiable the same way.
The deliverable is identical — a sealed drawing package against the same standards. The workflow differs: we work in your file environment (SharePoint, BIM 360, Procore, or ours), hold scheduled coordination calls, answer RFIs within one business day, and use live video walks with your on-site team where eyes on the space matter. Routine observation belongs to the team already on site.
It depends on scope: a peer review of an existing package costs a fraction of a full design; a multi-building OSP refresh is its own animal. We quote fixed fees from defined scope, so the number is known before work starts. Reach out with drawings or a scope narrative and you’ll have a real proposal quickly — not an hourly guess.
Honest answer: it depends on current commitments — we’re a deliberately small practice and don’t overbook. Peer reviews and consultations usually start within days. Ask; you’ll get a real date, and if we can’t hit your schedule we’ll say so on the first call.
Stamps, codes & compliance
Yes. RCDD sign-off is a credentialed design sign-off, not a state-issued PE license. We seal electronically with date and revision history, consistent with BICSI documentation norms. Where the AHJ or scope requires a licensed PE, we cross-coordinate with the project’s stamping engineer — that division of roles is normal on telecom packages.
Often, for communications scope — but it’s the AHJ’s call and varies by jurisdiction. The reliable approach is confirming acceptance with the specific building department before the bid. Our state-by-state Stamp Guide covers how the decision works and what to check in each state.
The current-edition BICSI TDMM for design discipline; ANSI/TIA-568, -569, -606, -607, and -758 for cabling and pathways; the NEC and local AHJ amendments as the code overlay; ANSI/NECA/BICSI 568 as the installation reference. Project specifications take precedence wherever they’re tighter — and we document any conflict resolution explicitly.
Permits are pulled by the licensed installing contractor or the GC — we produce the as-permitted drawing set, answer plan-review comments, and coordinate directly with the AHJ on the telecom package when that helps. We design anywhere; installation licensing is your contractor’s lane.
Working with us
A cloud-shared file system you nominate, version-controlled drawing sets, a weekly coordination call, RFI responses within one business day, and live video walks with your on-site team at the moments that need eyes on the space — pre-rough-in, punch, tricky pathway conditions. Every client also gets a project room: drawings, approvals, RFIs, invoices, and messages in one place instead of an inbox thread.
Scope-dependent, but a full design package includes: drawing set (plans, risers, elevations, details), specifications, bill of materials with quantities, standards-traceability notes, and revision history — issued through formal transmittals. Peer reviews return a marked-up set plus a severity-ranked issue log where every finding cites the standard it’s based on.
From a single telecom-room redesign or a one-set peer review up to campus-scale OSP work. We’re the wrong fit if you need a 30-person production studio — and we’ll tell you that on the first call rather than discover it at week six.
Yes — a substantial share of our work is exactly that, much of it white-labeled: your project number, your file structure, your title block. Your client sees your firm; you get a credentialed designer without the overhead.
Yours, by preference — SharePoint, BIM 360/ACC, Procore, or plain structured folders. Drawings in AutoCAD or Revit per your standards. If you don’t have a file standard, we bring one.
Every issued set is versioned with a revision history. In the client project room you review the set, comment directly on sheets, and sign off electronically — the approval record carries who, when, and which revision, which is exactly what you want in the file when questions come up at closeout.
Yes — that’s our Design Review / QA service. You get an independent, standards-cited second opinion: severity-ranked findings, each tied to the BICSI/TIA/NEC clause it rests on, before you commit a number to paper.
Federal contracting isn’t our focus. We serve general contractors, A/E firms, and building owners on commercial and institutional work. If your project touches federal requirements, we’ll be straight about where our scope fits and where it doesn’t.
White-label & overflow
We design under your brand: your title block, your file and layer standards, your project numbering. Deliverables go through your QA gate before your client sees them. NDAs and non-competes are standard practice for us, and the engagement can be hourly, weekly, or fixed-fee per package.
No — and we put that in writing. Non-compete-friendly is part of the white-label offer. A practice this size lives on repeat overflow relationships with firms; burning one for a single direct client would be terrible business even if it weren’t wrong.
Yes, as a named subconsultant — that’s common for bid qualification. What we don’t do is lend the credential without doing the design work behind it; the seal follows the work.
Deeper reading: the state-by-state Stamp Guide · RCDD vs PE · Insights
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