The project manager’s role can vary quite a lot depending on the scale and nature of the job – their responsibilities can cover any aspect from the design stage through to completion. Essentially though, the project manager is your agent on site – he or she will deal with the subcontractors, make sure work gets done on time and on budget, check that the right materials arrive at the right time and generally smooth the path of the project and deal with problems. So a good project manager will make life a lot easier and is especially important if you can’t be on site regularly while the work is going on. The project manager doesn’t carry the financial risk of paying for subcontractors or materials in the same way a builder would – these payments are made by you direct. As a professional, the project manager will be remunerated either on the basis of an agreed fee or a percentage of the work value. The Chartered Institute of Building publishes a useful guide to managed builds for clients available from its website (0344 630700, www.ciob.org.uk); or you can fi nd various guides to managing selfbuilds at Construction Books Direct (www.constructionbooksdirect.com).