Kieran McCarthy: Sourcing labour for your home build or renovation

What is the best for restoration — direct labour or hire a contractor?

Projects often have many moving parts and you need to look at all the work that will need to be done.

Hello Kieran I wonder if you can help me here. Direct labour or contractor? I am carrying out a full restoration on a totally derelict house, with an extension. Which would be best for my project?

Sarah in Cork

Hello Sarah
Thanks for this excellent question. (Full disclosure. I run my own building company so you can keep that in mind as you read this article) I guess this really boils down to the specific project you have in mind and to your available time, your stress threshold, and your working knowledge of the building trade. Let me dive a little deeper here.

I remember one sunny afternoon walking through a project we were working on in Blackrock in Cork. It was about halfway through the project and like any other building project, it was alive with day-to-day problems and issues that needed solving. Everywhere we looked someone was asking pressing questions and demanding an immediate solution. As I walked through the project with our client, she turned to me and said: “I don’t know how you do your job.” It is something that always stuck with me.

Kieran McCarthy: 'Direct layout building will take an inordinate amount of your time and energy.'

In a very simple project, (let’s say building a garden room for simplicity) you could very easily argue that a direct labour approach would be cheaper. You would be employing all the subcontractors yourself and sourcing all the materials. You could make nearly every last decision on the project yourself and you could gear these decisions towards fastest build, highest quality, cheapest price or whatever blend of these metrics suited your world view. The issue arises when you start to look at more complex builds, when there is more to building than merely assembling all the necessary tradesmen and materials and coordinating them. Now you actually need to be expertly project managing them and impart a level of experience and in-depth knowledge of what’s happening, what’s next, and what to look out for. It all boils down to a few key judgement calls, the outcome of which may not be evident until months or years after the project is finished.

Your project entails the strip-out and renovation of a derelict house, with an extension to be built. There are many moving parts here and if you look at all the work that will need to be done compared to what will actually appear on a drawing at any stage, you will see where the complexity and tedious nature of this project lies. Much of the issues will not be immediately evident but will only present themselves to either the trained eye of a tradesperson or once the strip-out works are complete. My biggest fears when looking at old buildings are timber rot, clay sewers and dampness. These can be hard to spot, and expensive to fix.

On top of this you have a new build extension to consider. The issue with extensions is usually access, and the connection to the existing building. How difficult is it to get materials to and waste from the site of the extension? Usually extensions are built to the rear of a building so can you get a mini-digger out there or do all the foundations need to be dug by hand?

Beyond the project, the next variable is, of course, you.

Direct layout building will take an inordinate amount of your time and energy. I am not familiar with your circumstances but you really would need to have a lot of spare time and energy available because at times your project will demand huge input from you and if you are not available or don’t have the expertise, your project will suffer. It may be that your project gets delayed and, at the beginning, this is just a delay to you so you can handle it. However, if say your project gets delayed at roofing, windows or external plastering stage, you may have scaffolding on hire per week and there is a genuine financial cost to this delay.

The issue arises when you start to look at more complex builds, when there is more to building than merely assembling all the necessary tradesmen and materials and coordinating them.

I am guessing that you have some time and energy to give this project and you feel you have a reasonably practical head. Maybe you even have a family member or friend in the trade (huge bonus) and you are tempted to give it a go (otherwise why else would you be asking me this question?). What I could suggest is that you get a small builder to price the shell of the extension. As this is a definable body of work, you might be able to strike a good deal. You could do the strip-out yourself perhaps with the help of an experienced labourer. You could appoint a plumber, electrician, window company, plasterer, and a carpenter or two. Once the extension is finished your trades could tie into the elements of the extension that need servicing and finishing. If anything very complex arises in the existing building maybe the extension builder could help for an extra price then you could coordinate the finishes (tiling, painting, kitchen fitting) yourself. If this feels right for you, this might be an option.

I am not sure if I am painting a bleak or a rosy picture of what it takes to run a renovation project. It really depends on you. I have rarely met someone who did a self build who would do it again and the few that I have, have actually gone into the business. Who knows, maybe that’s you.

• Kieran McCarthy is a Building Engineer with KMC Homes, serving Cork and Limerick. He is also co-presenter of the RTÉ property show Cheap Irish Homes.
• Tune in to Kieran’s new podcast, Built Around You being released tomorrow night at 8pm on Itunes and Spotify and on the Built around You Youtube channel.
• For more information or to take part in the podcast and share your home build story, follow Kieran on instagram @kierankmc