Could I project manage this job or should I give the entire job over to a builder?

[teaboyjim]

In the next few days I'll be meeting builders and tradesman over at my halfway refurbished project house.
Is it possible for me to directly employ the trades who are going to do the work such as plasterer, electrician (Rewire), plumber (New central heating) and project manage it myself or would lack of experience cause issues - just how experienced do you need to be?
Alternatively should I use the knowledge I've gained here and just give over the entire job to one builder who has his own subcontractors?
Would there be a significant price difference between the two ways of completing the project do you think?

 

[^woody^]

Have you defined what your understanding of "project management" is? Organising, ordering, quality control, cost control?

Does this actually need to be "managed", as opposed to getting an electrician in the rewire, then a heating engineer to install the heating, then a plaster to plaster?

BTW, don't call the bloke installing central heating a "plumber" if you know what's good for you.

 

[teaboyjim]

Yeah I have a fairly good idea of what it means to be a project manager and I know my strengths and weaknesses. Quality control is difficult if you don't know too much about how a job should be done eg I couldn't necessarily know if the electrician has done good work or not so my method of getting over that issue would be to try to ensure that he has a good reputation and can be trusted.

If I knew a builder who could spare a few hours a week like a consultant I'd do that but I think it would be difficult to find someone

 

[^woody^]

But you don't need to project manage those three jobs, and you don't need to micromanage the trades. Its as I said above, the electrician comes in and does the rewire, your involvement in that is minimal except for specifying the fittings and locations. Likewise for the heating and plastering. ie there is no project management involved.

 

[teaboyjim]

I'm thinking about needing someone to be able to pull and coordinate all the jobs together

 

[^woody^]

I'm thinking about needing someone to be able to pull and coordinate all the jobs together

The wont be any need.

You ask the blokes how long their work will take when they come to quote.

So if the sparks says four days, you plan a start date and then tell the heating engineer to start one or two days after the sparks finishes. Same principle the heating engineer and plasterer

In practice, the trades are not sitting around waiting for your start day so despite say the place being ready for the heating engineer, he may not be available until a week or so later. Likewise for the plasterer. They will normally tell you this when they come to quote.

But typically, while one trade is working and say half way or nearly finished, there may be scope for the next trade to start so you could just give them a call and see if they are available.

So that's it, no management, no big deal. In all, this takes about 15 minutes of your time.

 

[teaboyjim]

In fact the job isn't a complete refurb with the plaster coming off of all of the walls.

 

[charliegolf]

BTW, don't call the bloke installing central heating a "plumber" if you know what's good for you.

Or tell the plumber that if you had the time, you'd do that bit yourself, "'Cos it's only a bit of plastic lick and stick. Isn't it?"

For my house build, I drew the floorplan I wanted on graph paper, did a free hand general arrangement and got someone to do the plans for Planning and BRegs. It worked, save for the soil pipe in the lounge. He moved it!

 

[teaboyjim]

Did you project manage the building of your house yourself Charlie?

 

[charliegolf]

Did you project manage the building of your house yourself Charlie?

I did. In simple terms, I told the trades what I wanted - sockets, lights, positions for example- and they gave me a price and a shopping list. The guy who did my plans was also the Zurich guy, the self-build NHBC insurer, who signed off each stage. He was also willing to check quality of work if I was a bit worried. I opened an account with Builder Centre and went from there. It was a lot of work, and I put myself under too much time pressure. We moved in 17 weeks after breaking ground. Hasn't fallen down yet.

 

[teaboyjim]

That's really impressive! Did you find it more difficult and challenging than you first thought? Congratulations though on managing it all yourself

 

[charliegolf]

Well it's an extra job, so meant going every day after work (school), and often before too. I think it was more tiring than difficult or challenging per se. I chose the wrong guys on the ground works- work was ok, but getting them on site was a pain. We cut them loose after that. It's not the tradesman's job to go and fetch at the merchants, so they are all at you at once if you haven't got what they need. At 64 I've been twitching to do it again... Not very likely!