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The Essential Guide » The Planning Stage » Can We Project Manage Our Self Build, Renovation or Conversion Project?
The text below is “un-edited” and “un checked” in its original draft format. It is included here as, even in this format, it could provide some useful help and advice.
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Can we project manage it ourselves?
This will be one of the most widely read pages in this guide! – It is one of the biggest questions asked by anyone considering Self Build or Renovation projects. If you get the answer wrong, it can have fairly major repercussions. – Not just with regards to the project, but also wider implications, both financially, and personally.
One of the reasons I have written this guide is to give anyone thinking of having a go at a Self Build, Renovation or Conversion project, access to information which they can use from day one of “planning a project” right through the whole process to moving in and tidying up the loose ends.
Hopefully, having access to this manual will give you more of a chance of being able to Project Manage your own build. However, after reading some of the pages you may start to get the feeling that the responsibilities which being a project manager bring throughout the project, which you will have to take to make a success of it, might be a bit too much for you, with all the other work and family commitments that you may have to consider.
If that’s the case, then reading this guide might actually lead you down the route of handing some, most or all of the project over to a “Package Build Company” or professional “Project Manager”. Either way the guide will have done its job, which is to help you to decide on the best plan, and the best course of action for YOU and YOUR FAMILY.
So, how can you know before you even start if you are going to be able to successfully project manage any particular project? Well the answer to that is obviously “You can’t know 100%” BUT, if you at least “consider” all the areas of the project that you will need take on responsibility for, you are giving yourself the chance to say “That bit sounds easy enough”, or “I have no idea about how I would do that”. At least that way, piece by piece, you will be able to build up a picture of everything that you will come across during the project, and once you see the whole the WHOLE picture you will be in a far better position to make an informed decision as to whether or not you feel confident enough to “go for it”.
If you don’t, it’s not the end of the world. You can then just decide what and how much you can cope with yourselves, and pass the rest over to people who “do this stuff every day”, and will be able to run it for you. You can then tailor your budget to cover their fees before you commit yourself to going ahead, and if you find that that will make you struggle financially, you are still in the position where you can work out a “plan B”.
Ok, to “Project Manage” a Self Build, Renovation, or Conversion:
1) You will need to either have the free time available already, or make plans to free up a considerable amount of time. Possibly over a period of 12 months, or more. This will include being available: When the site is surveyed / for initial meetings with sub contractors / visiting with all the people who will become involved during the project such as the designer, planning officers, suppliers, subcontractors etc, and so on. – It may surprise you how all the individual parts of the “organisation process” can easily “eat up” hours, days and even weeks!
You probably don’t need to take months off work, but you may need to store up your holidays, and have a boss who is happy to let you disappear at a moment’s notice to meet someone, pick something up that is needed on site immediately, or to solve a problem. – One thing you will learn is that people in the construction industry seem to have a mental block about thinking ahead! – No matter how much I try to “drill” into subcontractors that they need to give me notice when they are running short of anything, so that it can be ordered, and delivered. – Still, one of the most common phone calls I get will be, for example from a bricky at 11.30am, along the lines of: “We’re going to need some more cement”, to which I reply “When?” – “After lunch”!
Self employed people tend to have a bit more flexibility in this area, they can normally organise their work around what is happening on site. Sometimes you won’t be needed for days on end, but at other times you might be needed 3 times in a day.
This is one area that you really can’t just “cross your fingers” about and hope it goes alright. If you can’t be present when you are needed, the whole thing could very quickly fall apart.
2) Financial implications:To properly Project Manage the job you may need to take substantial amounts of time off work. So, whether you are “Employed” or “Self Employed” you need to include for your lost earnings as part of your budget, and as a REAL COST to the project. If you are not “bringing in” a wage or salary, then that is a REAL COST to the job, just as real as bricks and trusses! – You are also cutting out the possibility of actually putting EXTRA time in at work so you can earn EXTRA money to help with the cost of the project.
Something to think about: If you are losing £350 a week by Project Managing the job, and you are not creating the income which you would normally be creating. Then over an 8 month project you could lose, in VERY REAL TERMS about £11,000. - Now, how much would it cost you to take on a Project Manager? – Possibly less than that. If you did take on a Professional Project Manager”. He would take most of the pressure off your shoulders, probably get the job done quicker, possibly save you money by not making the mistakes that you may make, and leave you free to put in the overtime to help to cancel out his fee! – Sounds like something worth considering to me! ( OK, you have to balance that with the pleasure of being able to say “We did that” when it’s all finished. But, it’s just something to bear in mind).
3) You’ll need at least a reasonable level of intelligence and common sense.
Building is not difficult. - It is “2 parts knowledge and 3 parts common sense”. Renovation projects require a bit more knowledge than new build because you can have a lot of unique factors which come along with trying to “fit new into old”. With new build, it’s normally a bit more straightforward. BUT, there will be many times during the project where you need to think your way through a problem and come up with an sensible and practical answer, “on the spot”. - With half a dozen tradesmen standing staring at you, - not being able to carry on with their work until you solve the problem (and probably charging you “daywork” for their lost time!) In this situation, intelligence can help you solve the problem, and common sense can help you do so in the right manner which won’t cause another problem further down the line.
4) You’ll have to be prepared to do a lot of research, possibly some travelling to meet people, visit exhibitions, and look at other projects. I keep mentioning “research” throughout this guide and for a very good reason. During the project, you will be, in effect making decisions that affect maybe 20 or more different trades. You will be choosing literally hundreds of different products, and making thousands of decisions, - each one having a “time” and “cost” implication. If you don’t have the knowledge and experience of the industry which will help you to make the correct decisions, and you don’t do the research, then you WILL fail!
You may think that that sounds very daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. When I use the word “research”, I don’t mean you need to be up to “degree standard” in every subject, - but you do need to know “What are the implications of a sloping site, poor access or boggy ground?” – “How do I design a good layout?” – “Which will suit us, and the site best – Timber frame or Traditional build?” – “What materials shall we use for each part of the work? As you read this guide, possibly together with visiting an exhibition, reading the specialist magazines, talking to people on the “Networking” part of this site, where you can learn about other people’s experiences, you will naturally start to get a feel for it all. As this happens it should start to become apparent what you need to know and how you need to go about planning and completing your own project.
The more research you do, the more confident you will feel when you start work, and the more likely you will be to succeed, within your budget, and on time.
5) You’ll need to have at least some level of “practicality” about your personality, and at least a basic knowledge of how the building process works and how a house goes together. – You don’t need to be a good DIY’er, but one of these projects can often demand that you make quick decisions based on a practical situation on site. If you know that you are not good in this area, it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to Project Manage, but it could cause one or two problems along the way. For example: If you are standing with the groundworker and you are both “staring blankly” into the foundations at a HUGE chunk of “muddy soil” that has just fallen in from the side of the trench, right in the middle of the foundations, - one of you has got to make a decision on what to do about it. - You need to know in those circumstances that you can’t just “bury it” in the concrete, or break it up and spread it out along the bottom of the trench (that could be disastrous!). You need to understand a bit of “how it all works” in order to make the right decision in those and possibly hundreds of similar situations.
( What should you do? – If the machine can reach it without risking “pushing in” any other parts of the trench, get him to dig it out. OR, if he can’t quite reach it, but can get his (bucket) near it, and it is safe to go down into the trench, shovel it into the bucket by hand. OR, “Hand dig” it out of the trench onto, and just leave it piled anywhere out of your way. - Then after you have poured the footings and built the brickwork up to slab level, the excavator can remove it while it forms up the rest of the ground ready for the floor slab).
This guide should be a great help to you along the way with all the “practical stuff”, and you can use the networking part of this site to talk to other people who might be able to help you. But if you start from a position where you know at least a few of the basic principals it will definitely be helpful.
6) You also need reasonable communication skills.
On one level you need to be able to communicate with professional people, such as Architects, Planning Officers, and Main Contractors. Getting over what you want and need from them clearly so that there are no “mix ups”, “errors” or “omissions” due to misunderstandings.
You also need to be able to get your message over to “the lads” on site. If you can strike up a good relationship with them, they can be a great help to you. These people often have a wealth of knowledge, which, if they like you and get on with you, they will be only too pleased to pass on to you. Good communications skills can not only make for a more pleasant atmosphere on site, but if one of “the men” passes on a hint to your which save you ordering something, then you could possibly save time and money.
Then there are the neighbours! – On occasions you will have problems here (a Project Manager is a handy person “to blame” for all the terrible noise and mess!) – Remember you will be living around these people for years to come. They may be peeved that you got Planning on the ground where they have always walked the dog, and they now have to go half a mile up the road every morning AS WELL as having a monstrous new building right next to them! – They May have a grudge against you before you start!
Communication skills can help you overcome these attitudes, and sharing a “bacon butty” with them when they are looking over the fence can be a good start! – As I mentioned, this is where the Project Manager is handy to have too! – You can pretend that you are JUST as shocked at the noise and mess, and you will “Tell him in no uncertain terms that your neighbours are not happy, and that he needs to get his act together!” That way, you are the “good guys” and he is the “baddy”! – He goes home at night and forgets all about it and you get to stay friends with your neighbours!
7) You need to be able to make decisions, sometimes quickly.I have touched on this further up the page, but just want to emphasise the fact that indecision can cost money on a building site. You often won’t have time to say 2 Well, erm, I’ll think about it overnight, and try and get back to you tomorrow” – That just won’t wash! – What if the groundworkers are pouring the concrete floor slab. – The concrete came 2 hours late because the “batching plant” broke down. - It’s 4.00pm, the lads want to go home, but there is still about 9 cubic metres left to pour, which is more than one full wagon load. They say to you “Can we put a shutter up against the concrete we have poured and carry on tomorrow? The footy starts in an hour and a half.” What would your answer be? – You HAVE to make a decision there and then! – and it needs to be the right one.
This scenario is another one of those which can repeat itself hundreds of times during the project.
( What is the right decision? – Pour the concrete! – Stuff the footy! – If you stop halfway through a concrete pour, you get what is called “a cold joint”, which means that the concrete “goes off” (sets) and the new concrete can’t bond with it. Although that may not cause a disaster, cold joints are “frowned upon” from a structural point of view ( for reasons I won’t go into here).
8) You’ll need to have some skills on “the paperwork side”, including:
a) Filling in forms in order to apply for accounts at “merchants” and other suppliers.
b) Preparing contracts and tender documents: (don’t panic over that just yet – read about contracts later in this guide!)
c) Recording details of daily progress: – This can be very important, days, weeks or even years “down the line”. – Say you find a substantial crack in one of your external walls which suggests settlement. You remember a problem in THAT exact part of the footings where there was some running sand, which the groundworker said was OK to concrete over. If you end up making a claim against the groundworker, and you have a comprehensive diary to back you up, you will stand a far better chance of being successful with your claim.
d) Financial control: Compiling estimates of the likely costs for the project, and then keeping a record of “who has been paid what” is very important. You then need to make comparisons between your original estimates and what you actually end up paying out, so that you know if your are keeping to your budget.
e) Reconciling delivery notes with invoices: Sounds simple enough! – But tradesmen lose delivery notes! – It is always good to reconcile delivery notes to invoices, especially if the delivery note had a scribbled not on it saying “Delivery was 2 sheets of plywood short, they said they would deliver it tomorrow”. If you don’t have that delivery note you can’t check whether the extra plywood DID come the following day.
f) Compiling your VAT return. If you are not strong on figures, you can probably get a bookkeeper to do this for you, but it’s just another of those jobs that comes under the remit of your job as “Project Manager”
9) You will need some sort of transport available to “fetch and carry”. The “cries” of “We need cement”. “We have no wall ties left”. “We’ve run out of nails”. “We are 2 plasterboards short” and many many similar “calls” will be made during the project. You will be expected to magically make the missing items appear in next to no time, so a van, preferably one that can take an 8’ x 4’ sheet of plasterboard, chipboard, plywood etc would be good. – If you took on a Project Manager you would probably find he either owns one or has access to one if he needs it.
Note:
The Permanent Self Build Exhibition at Swindon offer "Project Management Training courses" fairly regularly. - If you would like to find out more, have a look at their web site at: national.homebuildingshow.co.uk
Note:
The Permanent Self Build Exhibition at Swindon offer "Project Management Training courses" fairly regularly. - If you would like to find out more, have a look at their web site at: national.homebuildingshow.co.uk
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