Guide
What a project manager actually does.
It's a vague-sounding job title, which is why people struggle to work out whether they need one. So this page is the whole list — everything the role covers, where it stops, and the honest test of whether your project is big enough to justify it. If the answer for you is no, that's a useful thing to find out on a web page rather than three months in.
The one-sentence version
A builder builds what is put in front of them; a project manager decides what should be put in front of them, and when. On any project with more than a couple of trades, somebody is doing that job — the only question is whether it is a trained person you appointed, or you, in the evenings, from a group chat.
The list
Before a spade goes in
- Reading the drawings for buildability, and raising the problems while they are still cheap to fix on paper
- Turning the scheme into a sequenced programme with realistic durations, not a wish list of dates
- Building a cost plan from the drawings and specification, stage by stage
- Getting a structural engineer involved where structure is changing, and coordinating their design with the architect’s
- Submitting and tracking planning and building control applications where they are needed
- Identifying long-lead items — steel, windows, bespoke joinery, stone, specialist glazing — and the dates each has to be ordered by
- Putting trade packages out to price, comparing them properly, and appointing on more than the bottom number
- Party wall matters, access, skip and scaffold permits, and telling the neighbours what is about to happen
The list
While the work is happening
- Sequencing trades so nobody works over finished work or rips out something good
- Running site meetings on a rhythm, with notes, so decisions are recorded rather than remembered differently
- Booking building control inspections at the stages that need them, so nothing is covered up before it is seen
- Checking the work that is only inspectable for a short window — damp-proofing, insulation continuity, fixings, falls on drainage and flat roofs
- Pricing variations before they are built, and recording them the day they arise
- Checking valuations and invoices against what has actually been built, before they reach you
- Chasing materials and deliveries so the programme is not waiting on a lorry
- Being the single point of contact — for you, the architect, building control, the trades and the neighbours
The list
At the end
- Walking the property and writing the snagging list properly — finding things before you do
- Chasing the snagging until it is closed out, not until everyone has moved to the next job
- Collecting certificates, warranties, manuals and paint schedules into one place
- Final account reconciliation against the cost plan and the recorded variations
- Handover — keys, meters, instructions, and a home rather than a project
Who does what
Project manager, architect, main contractor — the difference.
The architect
Designs the scheme and, usually, gets it through planning. They own what the building should be. Some offer contract administration as an extra service; many do not, and almost none are on site often enough to catch the things that only exist for a day.
The main contractor
Builds the scheme and manages their own trades, which is real management and often done well. The limitation is structural rather than moral: they are managing their own commercial position, so a challenge to a price or a substitution is a conversation with themselves.
The project manager
Appointed by you and holding none of the building work. Owns the programme, the cost plan, the procurement, the inspections and the snagging, and reports to you. Independence is the product — there is nothing on our side of the table to defend.
Probably not worth it
When you don't need one
- One trade on site, doing one thing — a bathroom, a re-wire, a new boiler
- A single room with no structural change and no building control involvement
- A job small enough that you can hold the whole sequence in your head
- You have run projects before, you are at home during the day, and you enjoy it
Where it earns its keep
When it genuinely pays
- Several trades have to follow each other in a fixed order
- Structure is changing, or building control and planning are involved
- You are spending enough that one unrecorded variation matters
- Long-lead items — steel, glazing, bespoke joinery — sit on the critical path
- You are living in the house while the work happens
- You work full time and cannot be on site to make decisions at short notice
Before you appoint anybody
Five questions worth asking — of us or anyone else.
- 01Do you hold any of the building work yourself? If yes, whose side are you on when a price needs challenging?
- 02What is your construction background, and can I check it?
- 03How many projects will you be running at the same time as mine, and where are they?
- 04How are variations priced and recorded — before the work, or on the final account?
- 05Who writes the snagging list, and who decides when it is closed?
For the record, our answers: none of the building work, ever; a BSc (Hons) in Construction Management and five years managing large-scale new-build construction from 2000 to 2005; a handful of projects, all in Harpenden and St Albans; variations priced before they are built; and the snagging list is written by us and closed when you say it is.