Any builders out there?

This is ok in theory and will potentially save you loads of money. The problem comes when one of your trades makes a mistake...who pays to put it right, then does it get picked up by the next trade and does he put it right, after all its not his job...etc etc. It is handy to have someone to point the finger at and have them sort out the mess at their expense.
I have worked directly for people that have attempted this and the finished result is almost guaranteed to be way below the standards I would expect from one of our jobs. As I sit here I'm actually chuckling away thinking of some of the things I've seen.

If you have a little knowledge, can read drawing, can see the finished job before its out of the ground and can spend time checking, watching and rechecking, then anyone can manage their own project successfully. If you think your going to go to work every day and return home to marvel at the work that has been done in your absence, then you may be in for an expensive lesson.

 

id like to see a chuckling builder , most i know drink tea and eat bacon sarnies

 

WHS, £1000 per square metre is about right, but depends on fixtures and fittings, if its a kitchen extension expect to pay this, if its a room you may get it down to approx £700-£800 per metre, at least a quarter of your budget will be the underground stuff and floor slab upto blues and never seen

 

I lent my floor nailer to a estate agent I know that was managing his own job. He kept ringing me on the sly for contacts and suppliers he could use etc. I put him on to a top guy for oak stairs, not cheap but just the sort of thing he needed in his new place. When I popped by to pick up my floor nailer (to be nosey really) his stairs weren't oak, but gloss white. I rang the painter who I had also recommended to him, to ask why he had binned the oak stair option? He told me that he hadn't and that the 2 chippies that had fitted them had done so much damage that the only option was to fill and paint them. The guy has never admitted that he has oak stairs under the gloss paint

 

its the crumbs n tea stains you cant get rid of them

 

DIY project management can work, just depends on your time, experience and expectation of the end result.

Quality, cost and timescale are the only three variables and you only have to watch Kevin McCloud et al to see it's very difficult to hit all three if you do it yourself.