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Folks:
Have recently been asked by someone (speculator that purchases, renovates, sells)to act as project manager on a residential addition/reno of approx 200K in value.
Questions: 1. take the job even? 2. how and how much to charge? per site visit? per hour? % of job, with limited # hours?
And finally, I am assuming that a PM would be required full-time at the start of job to lay out, deal with job set-ups and general conditions, but if the plans and specs are complete, I am thinking 20 hours per week? after things get rolling.
Any input would be appreciated
Thanks
Andy
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Andy,
What is your background? Perhaps I am reading your post wrong, but I get the impression that you have never run a project before, or even written a contract. I'm not trying to be rude, your just all over the board here. How about a little more information so we can help.
*Poundcake:My background is residential renovation, one-man show, running my own projects, but way smaller (max 40-50K)than this one. I also have done all the carpentry and finish work on these projects. This one is too large for me to bid on the carpentry ( I don't have a crew) and I would like to have the luxury(?) of only doing the project management side of things and letting the trades work out their own problems. My questions are how are project management contracts usually written,(lump sum/ percentage of project/hourly etc..) and what sort of things should I be concerned about, besides the obvious like staying away from a client who doesn't know what they want, can't afford good tradespeople and is disorganized. I am also trying to get an idea of how much time people spend on the PM side of things for a project of this size.Thanks,Andy
*> and letting the trades work out their own problemsNow, I have no experience with project management, but I'm betting that if you don't want to be involved with solving the problems of the various trades on the job, then don't go into project management. I would've guessed that that is a major component of the job.Not that I know anything...Rich Beckman
*Rich, you're right. A Project "or" Construction Manager's job is to anticipate, co-ordinate, prevent, "and" solve problems. In solving problems one of your tools is the expertise of those very same tradesmen. They become part of the team and you orchestrate the project thru them. In fact, it's the "manager's" responsibility to create a "team" mentality in everyone elses mind."Can we do this?" What if..........?"To do otherwise just about guarantees failure. That's the reason for the word "manager".
*Okay, okay, okay...My comment "and letting the trades work out their own problems "has been misinterpreted.Sonny, I agree 100% that the expertise of the individual subtrades is a big problem-solving tool, and having good players makes a great team. Rich, I also agree that if you don't want to solve problems you shouldn't be doing the PM job.What I meant to say is that acting solely as the PM on a job would be a major change for me in that I usually have to identify the problem, formulate solutions, evaluate the solutions, and finally execute the solutions. My remark was simply that it would be nice to have help in the first three of these steps, and to be free of the fourth step altogether. Now, back to my original question. Does anyone out there have experience going from managing and working on your own jobs to strictly managing for someone else, and having to come up with a way to get paid that is fair to all parties?Thanks for keeping me honest...Andy