Somewhere between buying the plot and moving in, most self builders hit the same question: who is actually running this? It is a fair thing to ask, because the answer changes your budget, your stress levels and often your completion date. Here is a straight assessment of when paid project management earns its keep on an East Devon build, and when it does not.
The title covers a lot of ground, so it helps to be specific. On a typical new build or large barn conversion, the project manager holds the programme, orders materials to arrive at the right time, books trades in the correct sequence, chairs site meetings, checks valuations before you pay them, and keeps the building control inspector and structural engineer in step with what is happening on site.
The unglamorous part is the bulk of it. Chasing a joinery lead time, spotting that the electrician needs first fix done before the plasterer arrives, catching that the window schedule does not match the revised opening sizes. None of that is dramatic, but each missed item costs days, and days on a self build cost money in scaffold hire, welfare hire and finance interest.
Standalone project management in Devon usually falls somewhere between 5 and 12 per cent of build cost, depending on whether you want someone on site weekly or simply coordinating from a distance. On a £350,000 build that is a meaningful sum, and it is reasonable to ask what you get back for it.
The honest answer is that it rarely pays for itself in headline savings. It pays for itself in avoided waste: the concrete pour that does not get cancelled, the second scaffold lift you do not pay twice for, the six weeks of overrun that never happens. If your programme slips by two months on a build with a bridging facility behind it, you have often spent more than the management fee would have been.
A main contractor route works differently. If you appoint a builder on a full build contract, coordination is already inside their price rather than a separate line. That is usually simpler for a first time self builder than employing eight or nine separate trades and holding the ring yourself.
Plenty of people do run their own builds successfully, and we would not pretend otherwise. It tends to work when several of these are true.
Local conditions shape how much coordination a build needs. Much of the coast around Budleigh Salterton and Otterton sits on Otter Sandstone and red mudstone, and ground conditions vary noticeably plot to plot, so foundation design can change after the trial holes are dug. That is a classic point where an unmanaged programme drifts.
Sites within the East Devon AONB or a conservation area often carry conditions on materials, render colour, window detail and sometimes ecology or bat surveys with seasonal windows. Discharging those conditions on time matters, because a condition left hanging can stall you at a fixed point in the programme rather than a convenient one.
Access is the other recurring one. Narrow lanes around the Otter valley and tight coastal streets restrict deliveries, and a wagon that cannot turn is a wasted day. Anyone managing the build, you or someone paid to, needs to have walked the delivery route before the first load of blocks is booked.
It is not a binary choice. Some self builders manage the day to day themselves but bring in professional support for the parts with the most risk: the groundworks and structural phase, the weathertight envelope, and the final coordination of services and snagging.
Others keep control of the finishes and fit out, where the personal decisions live, and hand the structural shell to a contractor on a fixed price. If you are weighing this up, it is worth having a frank conversation about your specific plot and drawings before you commit either way. The right answer is usually clear once someone has looked at the site.
Some can, and some offer it as a separate contract administration service, but design and site management are different skills and not every practice takes it on. Ask directly what site attendance is included and how often they will visit, as monthly is very different from weekly.
They usually coordinate the visits and make sure work is ready to inspect, which avoids abortive call outs. Responsibility for compliance still sits with the designers and the trades doing the work, so it is worth being clear in writing about who signs off what.
Not automatically, but many self build mortgage lenders and warranty providers ask who is managing the project and may require stage inspections or a named professional. Check the conditions before you appoint anyone, because retrofitting a requirement halfway through a build is awkward and sometimes expensive.
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