Builder, Direct Labour or Project Manager???

Starting house shortly. Always planned on building it myself but now with builders prices dropping I'm not sure is there as much value to be had from direct labour anymore. Considering the project manager route.

Has anyone had experience of project managers. If so what did they cost?

If you are considering a contractor rather than direct labour then you won't need a project manager. The contractor will, in effect, be the project manager, you will still need an engineer to sign off on the various stages.

Thanks Baldy,

Obviously I will only be going with one of the three. I'm not looking for the cheapest option, rather the best value for money.

There are really only 2 options here. Either give the whole job to a contractor (having your engineer checking and signing off the stages) or go self build/direct labour, in which case you organise the work yourself or pay a project manager to do this for you. Your engineer will still have to sign off. The project manager for one-off houses is IMHO, a luxury of the Celtic Tiger.

Would you not agree though that the project manager, if chosen by reputation, will save money in the long run, i.e pricing around for best prices on materials etc.

When a project mgr saves money by pricing around the saving goes in your pocket.
When a builder does this the saving goes into his....maybe I'm wrong.

For me at the moment it a worry about the time it will take from my working week...

Agreed, he could save money by pricing materials, he will also cost money. This is only true if you are supplying materials.

Pricing is so competitive nowadays that contractors and, to an even greater extent, sub-contractors, are pricing materials very tightly themselves in order to get the work. A lot of my work is for self-builders and by them choosing their subbies carefully, the work is done efficiently and to a good standard without them having to do an extraordinary amount of work.