In Focus: Project Management

We plan to build our own home in the near future and will be looking to employ someone to manage the site. However, we wondered how involved a project manager would be? And where can we find someone for the role?

There are broadly three different aspects to the role of project management; on site management, the scheduling of labour and materials, and professional supervision of the works.

A site manager, or site foreman runs the site day to day. Responsibilities can include recording who is attending site and when, making decisions on what work can be done according to the weather conditions, overseeing health and safety, checking and signing for deliveries, supervising the quality of work, and resolving any problems that arise. This role is often undertaken by a main building contractor or their foreman, but on some self-build projects where there is no contractor is handled by a site foreman appointed by the self-builder, typically from amongst the trades and often a carpenter because they are on site throughout all key stages of the build. A site foreman will We plan to build our own home in the near future and will be looking to employ someone to manage the site. However, we wondered how involved a project manager would be? And where can we find someone for the role? usually be paid an additional sum on top of their daily rate to reflect this responsibility. Occasionally this role is undertaken by a specialist clerk of works, employed on a daily rate; visit icwgb.org to find one.

The main task of project management involves sourcing, ordering and scheduling labour, plant and materials to get the house built, including managing payments, organising statutory inspections for Building Regulations and any building guarantee scheme, and taking overall responsibility for quality. This role is typically undertaken by a main contractor or by the self-builder, but is sometimes handled by an independent project manager.

A contractor will include the cost of project management within their price for the job — typically a mark-up 10-20% on top of labour and materials. A specialist project manager will assume largely the same role as a building contractor, but unlike a contractor, will not be hiring labour or materials directly — this is all paid for at cost directly by the self-builder. A project manager is paid a fee for their services running the build, usually a daily rate or a fixed price for the job, possibly with some incentive structure to encourage them to constrain costs. Visit the Homebuilding Directory to find a specialist self-build project manager.

The third role, sometimes referred to as project management, is that of a supervising professional — where an architect, architectural technologist or chartered surveyor oversees the build and acts between client and builder, administering the contract and releasing stage payments. Ideally the supervising professional is also the originator of the building’s design, but this is not always the case.

Using a professional in this capacity gives the work a degree of protection against latent defects, because the inspections and certificates issued are backed up by their professional indemnity insurance cover. Some lenders will accept architect certificates in place of a structural warranty. A few lenders insist upon professional inspections as a trigger for the release of payments in a stage-release mortgage.

A supervising professional will be paid either an hourly rate, a fixed rate, or where they are offering a full tender and contract administration service, a fixed percentage of the contract value — typically around 3-4%. Find an architect at architecture.com, an architectural technologist via ciat.org.uk or a surveyor at rics.org.

Further reading:

• The Project Managers Toolkit
• How to Run a Building Project
• Talk to other self builders about project management in the Homebuilding Discussion Forum