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Julia Starzyk

How much does it cost to hire a project manager for house renovation and is it money well spent?

Updated: Jul 30

This is a question I hear quite often.

How much do you charge?

How much do other construction project management services charge?

How about we start with what a construction projects management is and then we can see if the work is actually comparable to the work of a non- construction Project Manager.


As always for ease of reading (and so I don’t look like a complete idiot repeating myself over and over again) let’s set a bit of context and assume we’re working within high end refurb project management space. For the purpose of this post, let’s assume that we have a client (we’ll call him Tom) who is a successful entrepreneur.

Tom has made his millions in the fitness and well-being space, nowadays he invests in start-up businesses needing funding. Tom owns a house in Oxfordshire, he and his family enjoy the peace but since Tom has become an Angel investor, he travels to London on a regular basis. It has become quite annoying for him to spend hours on the train or behind the wheel.

Since he is actually looking to invest more in the coming years he decided to buy himself a little crash pad in London. He found a lovely 3 bedroom flat in the heart of Mayfair but it is in desperate need of refurbishment. He purchased the flat for £7M and he is expecting to spend another £2-2.5M on refurb.

However Tom is a busy man. He knows what he likes but he has neither the time nor desire to look back and forward through the internet finding ‘inspiration’.

The flat needs to look decent, allow him some working space and not separate him from the family. What can Tom do to achieve his aims without losing face and sacrificing on family or business time?


Well he has a few options.


Option one would be to call Bob the Builders Ltd advertising as turnkey, design and build company. He may or may not meet the budget he wants to meet but it will give him a company covering everything under one umbrella. The project manager for renovations in this instance would be a person employed by Bob the Builders Ltd overseeing the project. The cost to Tom would be around £400-450 per day.


Option two would be for Tom to have his own architect with whom he will agree then design along with the Project Manager / Contract Administrator looking after the works. This type of project management consultant would be charging £150 per hour or more depending on where they are based. It may seem more expensive but given that he is in full control of the project - it quite likely will work out to his benefit. In this option Tom will have a PM working on his side and the builder X Ltd doing work will have project manager(s) working on their side.


Option three would be to delegate the construction project management services to the architect who Tom got introduced to some time ago. If the guy can design surely he knows the order of things and how to make it right (right? 🤨 ) It might be true. But if he doesn’t then it’s likely to end in disaster.

So coming back to the question, who is a construction project manager? It’s a person working either on the client's side or contractors side who is overseeing the project as a whole. It might include design management (or parts of it), information release (or parts of it), assessment of delays (or parts of it), ensuring the work is delivered as expected on time and to the given budget.

Is it worth spending money on? Well if you want things to go to your plan - yes. If you don’t care, have a spare bag of money in the closet, don’t mind delays and things going wrong then it probably won’t make much of a difference for you. In Tom's situation it would be crucial to have someone trusted advising him, whichever option he decides to go for. Because when things go wrong, they go really wrong.

Read about 5 biggest mistakes people make when project managing a renovation:




If you feel like Tom and need support with your project, you can book a free, non-obligation discovery call with me here 👇👇👇



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