Build Route Options - Part Two

ABOVE: Caron Pain managed her own project and built a five bedroom house for just £110,000 - Read More 

• Read Part One

This would involve finding, scheduling and directly paying tradesmen, from groundworkers to plumbers; organising and running the site, from hiring toilet facilities and security fencing to keeping the site tidy; dealing with the grey areas between trades; taking deliveries and dealing with materials on site; ordering and paying upfront for materials and ensuring they get delivered when needed; and liaising with warranty and building inspectors. Effectively, the smooth running of the project is entirely down to the self-builder.

You’ll need to be able to visit the site before work starts (8am is the traditional start time) and once work has finished, every day until the end of the project. In addition, you’ll need to be able to get to the site at a moment’s notice to deal with deliveries, meet building inspectors, service providers and so on. As a result you’ll be better suited to this role if you are local.

Experienced main contractors bring a bulging contacts book of reliable local tradesmen to the party. If you’re intending to dispense with the services of  a project manager and take over the role yourself, you’ll need to be able to replace that contacts book with one of your own. Being your own builder requires early contact with trades and materials suppliers in order to be able to come up with a realistic budget — critical if you need to arrange finance, and important to manage properly, keeping a tight reign on cash-flow during the build.

It might well be worth investing in one of the leading cost-estimating and projectscheduling software programs — available from HBXL (hbxl.co.uk) and Easy Price Pro (easypricepro.com).

You’ll need to establish a relationship with a local builders’ merchant. You will be able to negotiate a discount as a trade customer and organise payment terms (usually either 30 or 60 days) which can help with cash-flow. You’ll also need to contact the suppliers of your specific products as early as possible — the worst-case scenario for a self-builder acting as project manager is to have labour on site ready to work and no materials to install. Lead-in times can vary enormously so contact your companies as early as possible. Invest in a lockable storage container (they cost around £1,000) to enable you to order things in early.

How much time is involved?

On most sites, you need to spend an hour managing the workflow for every six or seven hours spent working ‘on the tools’. This ratio varies somewhat throughout the job – the finishing stages require much more coordination of trades and consequently demand more management time – but overall you need to be able to commit this time to management otherwise the job will come off the rails.

Be Aware of the Critical Path
Make decisions early to ensure a smoother project

It is very common to start work on a project with lots of details yet to be sorted out. For instance, many self-builders have little idea of which kitchen or bathroom they will end up fitting into their house whilst the foundations are being poured. Many haven’t even thought about heating systems. But there comes a point in the job when these buying decisions have to be made and often the choices you make have ramifications for other aspects. For instance, a decision to use underfloor heating may affect the flooring and even the finished floor levels, which may in turn effect items like staircases. In order that the job moves forward in the most economical way, it is vital that the client role is carried out effectively which, broadly translated, means making your mind up on time. And, wherever possible, not changing it shortly afterwards. A good project manager will seek to work out deadlines for these specifying decisions and ensure that the client plays their part. If you are both project manager and client, it’s easy to lose track of these.

Working with Subbies
Establishing good foundations with subbies is key to project managing, and to budget

Fixed price vs daywork

Most building work is undertaken for a fixed price, agreed beforehand. However, in order to get a fixed price, you have to have a reasonably welldescribed job. There are many instances, particularly on renovation work, where it’s not possible to predetermine what the work involves and here you have to hire builders on a price per hour basis, sometimes known as daywork. In fact, most jobs end up being done as a mixture of price work and daywork. Be sure if you hire a builder on a fixed price that you establish what the daywork rate is as well at the very beginning.

An alternative payment system sometimes used by bricklayers and plasterers is to use measured rates. Here, the rate/m2 is established at the outset and the final price is later determined by the area worked.

Be prepared to fire

If the builder or the subcontractor really isn’t performing as you had hoped, then you have to be prepared to fire them. This is never easy and can be costly, but it’s usually better than hanging on in the hope that things will improve — they rarely do. It’s often best just to accept that you made a mistake in hiring them in the first place rather than pursuing them with the threat of legal action.

Horses for courses

If you want to use building systems or products which are not mainstream, then you should think more carefully about who you hire. Ideally look for a builder who has experience of what you are trying to achieve. Failing that, look for one who is enthusiastic and flexible.

Using a Main Contractor
With so many options, how do you decide what's best?

The self-builder employs a main contractor to run the building site on a day-to-day basis. This will usually involve the main contractor being responsible for organising a smooth flow of labour onto the site when necessary (and paying them directly), dealing with the unloading of deliveries, organising warranty and Building Regulations inspections, running the site itself, and working from the design plans. In addition, depending on your arrangement, the main contractor might also be responsible for ordering materials. You should visit the site at least once a week to check on progress, to ensure that the drawings are being followed, and that the main contractor has everything they need. Communication is critical to the success of this route — this is most definitely not a hands-off role.

The Tendering Process

One of the most important but frustrating aspects of this route is the tendering process — putting your plans to various builders to get them to quote. The key to success here is making sure your plans are as specific as possible, allowing minimal wriggle-room when it comes to costs later on. It’s well worth meeting your chosen builders who you intend to invite to tender, physically on site, before sending out the plans. You should allow a month for the return of quotes.

Why Are Builders So Expensive?
Here's why the quotes you're getting back are a little high

The builder’s mark-up consists of two separate elements: one is the time and money spent undertaking the role of project manager, the other is the risk premium attached to your particular job. When a builder takes on a job for a fixed price, they are taking on an element of risk and they make an informal assessment of how large this risk actually is. They look at how simple your job will be to build, how much to allow for overruns and how easy a client you will be to deal with. If they see the risk is high, then they may well mark up the basic labour and materials costs by 50% or more. Many people turn to DIY project management because they can’t afford the amounts asked for by builders quoting for the whole job. Sometimes they would be better advised to simplify the design and to cut costs at the outset.

Build Route Choices
We asked 200 people: What build route will you take?*

*Respondents to survey in Homebuilding & Renovating September 2008

Getting the Right Builder
Taking a professional approach can help you acheive a better working relationship with your builder

Whether you plan to give the entire contract to a single builder, or to act as the project manager and hire individual subcontractors, you have to know how to hire. Despite the attempts of many agencies over the years to identify rogue builders, there is still no guaranteed way of spotting potential problems that may lie ahead. However, the more professionally you approach the task, the better your chances of having a successful outcome.

Check status beforehand

If the builder claims to be member of a trade organisation and perhaps displays this on their letterhead or on their van, then check this out with the relevant organisation as soon as possible. Don’t wait until you’ve already hired them or, worse still, after things have gone wrong.

Work from recommendation

If possible, always hire people who come with a recommendation. Talk to locals, talk to neighbours, talk to building inspectors and, if you can find any nearby, talk to other self-builders — always a fund of useful information. And if you establish a good working relationship with your early subcontractors, such as your groundworkers or bricklayers, then they can often supply you with good leads.

Talk to previous clients

Good builders value their reputation and should have no hesitancy in recommending previous clients for you to contact. So though a builder will naturally point you towards their better jobs, there is still a lot to be gleaned. Check on quality, timekeeping and tidiness.

Further reading:

• Build Route Options: Part One
• Tips & Advice for Those Running a Site
• A Complete guide to the Trades

Return to The 12 Steps of Self Build - Your Route