Pain-free planning for your building project.

If you’re thinking of building your own home, community space or other self-build structure, it pays to be prepared. This course covers how to create a project plan, a budget, and a health and safety plan, as well as the basics of planning permissions, building inspections and site management.

Key information

• Duration: two days
• Upcoming Dates
  • Saturday 12th – Sunday 13th April 2025
• Start and finish times: starts at 10am and ends at 4pm on the last day
• Fees: £300
• Includes: lunch, tuition, all materials
• Full board accommodation is available for this course: £97 for a single person bedroom. (This option will become available once you click “Available” or “Book Now” below)
• What to bring: Note pad and pen.
• Terms and Conditions:
  • you must be 18 years or over to attend our courses.
  • For full list of terms and conditions click here

What you will learn

Join self-build expert Geoff Stow for a practical guide to managing your project.

Find out how to create a project plan for your build, which key elements you should include, when key tasks should happen and how long they are likely to take. You’ll also learn key dependencies between tasks so you can establish a critical path and calculate the total time for your build.

We’ll examine the impacts of not doing particular things in time and workarounds you might implement to get time back.

UK planning and approval processes as well as the building regulations and control inspections will be explained and we’ll help you understand how to set up and manage your budget and claim back VAT.

Also included will be how to estimate costs and get quotes for some key items, and how to choose and work with suppliers. We’ll work through the health and safety requirements depending on who’s doing the work and what it means to be a principal contractor.

You’ll leave with a check list to prepare your site and manage your site waste.

The whole course will be wrapped within the ethos of sustainable and ethical building principles and we’ll make sure you know where to get help if you need it.

Over the weekend you will create a draft project plan, budget and health and safety plan, which you can develop further for your own project.

Meet your tutor

Geoff Stow is a tutor on our Timber Frame Self Build and Self-Build Project Management courses.

Geoff built his own home on a self build scheme in London many years ago, and went on to site-manage other self build schemes in London and Brighton. He runs training courses and offers advice for self builders through his consultancy BIY.

He was worked as development worker for the Walter Segal Self Build Trust, and was a committee member of The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB).