Building Merchants

[daiking]

Thought there was a merchant's thread but couldn't find it.

 

As I didn't do much building myself, I haven't used them much but have a Tragic Pickings account as they are at the end of the road from the house. Got an email from them yesterday with a price list, never had that before. they trying to up their game?

 

Went to Selco a few times but had to use someone else's account. Could do with going again but seems hard to open a personal account there.

 

But what I wanted to ask is that the Travis 'menu' has Type 1 at £41 a bag. Is that a good price for small amounts? I need something to build up some big holes in my drive but I don't want shoot that's muckier than the mud that's already there.

[daiking]

Answer my own question, Wickes is cheaper

[Temp]

In my area Mick George currently has Mot Type 1 for £29+Vat = £35 (850kg bag) with free delivery if your order is over £100. MOT Type 1 can include a lot of dust so perhaps go see what you are getting before you buy.

 

https://www.mickgeorge.co.uk/residential/miniload/primary-aggregates/type-1-mot-granite/

 

MOT Type 3 has less dust and can be used for drainage/permeable surfaces but some places have never heard of it.

 

http://www.mainlandaggregates.co.uk/mot-type-3-sub-base.html

 

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Temp

[Temp]

Wickes charge £35-£100 for delivery unless spending over £300. I think TP still do free delivery for web orders? and £15 max on bulk bags in store? Not sure as it's been awhile. 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Temp

[daiking]

To be fair TP should be free delivery even if I have to blag it for being so close. 

 

Not doing this day in, day out, I've no idea locally who to get stuff like this off. 

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, daiking said:

I haven't used them much but have a Tragic Pickings account as they are at the end of the road from the house

Not for much longer maybe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37701427

[joe90]

Well my builder in Devon says the building market has gone mad and everyone is very busy well into 2017.

[MikeSharp01]

I have  Jewson self build account, in many ways its great they set me up quickly, gave us a high credit limit and a dedicated self build manager. BUT... I cannot see prices on line, I have an on-line account connected to my self build account but this is not good enough apparently as I get a message saying call branch for pricing. So have to get quotes from them every time I want something big ish or even small ish. Given that I have now found a local civils supplier who has very competitive pricing (prices are on-line), a local sand / gravel / type 1 supplier who is also competitive plus many others I am not sure what I need Jewson for other than those emergency / small stuff like peashingle and bags of cement. BUT.. they are part of Saint-Gobain so, in theroy, have access to all of their buying power and a lot of other building materials so you would think they would be competitive for this stuff, not sure they are yet only time will tell. Although for one thing, JJI-Joists their price was the best, by 10%, I could get. For everything else, see above and insulation, timber, Rebar, bricks, fastenings and more they are not competitive which given their size is a concern. One can only assume that they have grown a bit 'fat' and could do with being a little more lean and mean. I think the moral of the story is to seek out the smaller merchants and try to strike deals with them if you are happy to spend time saving money, if you are happy to spend money saving time then a bigger firm is probably the way to go.

 

PS the insulation supplier has warned me that there might be shortages of PU products in the next few months, anybody else heard this, should I buy now or is it a roose!

Edited November 5, 2016 by MikeSharp01

[jack]

It's all completely random in my experience.

We had accounts with the local branches of Trevis Perkins and Jewsons.  My wife was on really good terms with both of them - first name terms and a chat every time she called about pricing and stock.  Whenever we needed to buy something, she'd dutifully ring both, try and get their best prices and then compare the result.  Sometimes one would be 20-30% cheaper than the other on exactly the same type and brand of product, but there was absolutely no consistency about which would win out! 

 

We ended up liking the TP people a bit better, so tried to give them the business where we could, but a couple of times they turned down reasonably big orders because they couldn't or wouldn't get anywhere near Jewson's prices.

 

We had a Buildbase about 3 mins walk from where we were living at the time, but after a couple of ridiculous interactions with them early on (literally 50-60% more expensive than TP and/or Jewsons and refusing to budge), we gave up on even bothering with them, despite the convenience for small urgent items.

 

When we had time, we shopped around online.  We weren't always able to find it cheaper, especially once delivery was factored in, but it was pretty common.

[Ferdinand]

Locally for me Travis are better for small delivered orders as they charge a fiver, whereas Wickes charge 25 unless it is over 300 ukp.

 

I have accounts with Wickes (10% off at the till and regular emails) Travis and B&Q and some trade only. I like dealing with Wickes or sometimes Screwfix as they often have all sorts of other offers and nice familiar staff.

 

Incidentally Wickes seem to have 4 for 3 on most rock wool insulation - 100mm, 170mm, 200mm, and 200mm wrapped - until Christmas. Also recently on 50mm celotex, but they managed to lose my discount on 4 sheets of that.

 

Wickes aren't quite at the stage where I can expect 30% off my bill if I just wait a few weeks like Halfords, but they may get there.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Ferdinand