In these days of increasing material and labor costs many people are starting to think about if they could carry out their own building work or at least manage others while they carry out the work for them.

This article has been written with the intention of assisting the layman build or project manage their own house or an extension to their house which would enable them to make considerable savings on labor costs.

I have written it out in the order and sequence that any new build carried out by yourself or a builder would be carried out, and if you stick to this sequence it would make things go a lot easier, this way you will be finishing one thing before starting something else.

You will need a good architect who will draw up a set of plans for you, and as you are the one paying for his fee you should insist that he makes all the measurements clear and precise so they can be easily followed, you should also ask him for a full specification so that later when you have to go to your builders merchant you will know exactly what materials you have to ask for and order.

You will need to go to your local building control office and make the necessary arrangements for the building inspector to come out and inspect the various stages of your build, but they will explain that to you and it will be written on the appointment cards that they will give you which must be filled in and given to them so that they can firstly come and see what has been done and they will have the cards for their records, that is the official part of things taken care of so now it is up to you to sort out how much of the work you want to tackle for yourself.