Money Saving on Renovations and Property Development - DIY

ormus

aye thats a good idea. buy items like a cement mixer/scaffold tower etc.. and sell it on when youve finally finished.
buy it SH and get the same money back!

selfbuild peeps do this all the time.
a mobile home/caravan/site hut is a good example too. esp at them prices?

HugoSP

When you start a large project open up some trade accounts if you can with a couple of bulders merchants. They don't cost anything to run, you just pay for what you buy, and you can get better prices and service as a result.

I use five main suppliers, 4 of which I have credit accounts with.

They are:

Travis Perkins. They do seem expensive on a lot of things but I get a reasonable discount. I hunt around for the best price anyway and get up to 45% off timber products and 50% off drainage products. Hence their OSMA range is not that much more expensive than the Flo Plas stuff I buy from Screwfix, and the quality is much better.

Local Merchant

They are generally a good supplier for most things, but, like most independents, they suffer a reduced product range. However their main business is in tannalised timber, which I buy a lot of. As I said earlier the final price is what counts not the percentage discount. These guys are one of the cheapest in the area before my account discount.

Hanson Aggregates

These are used purely for sand, aggregates and concrete products. The qually I use is one of te closest of all my suppliers. I buy 20mm to dust for aroud £12 a tonne loose as opposed to £35 a for min of 855KG from Travis Perkins in a bag that will be thrown out. There are times when a bag could be useful, but for me these are few and far between. Concrete blocks are up to 25% cheaper than the merchant prices. For prices you will deal with sales reps. When you buy the weighbridge staff won't know what you're paying per tonne, unless you pay cash.

B and Q

Yes, I have an account with these as well. The main purpose is to get free delivery. If I order £50 worth of stuff they will deliver FOC to me, 20 miles from their store. I currently buy cement by the pallet, so this is handy. In addition, a client is going to want a bath from B and Q, so it will be delivered FOC. They do charge for late payment though so watch out!

Screwfix Direct.

I use these for plumbing, electrical and general consumables. The website is great as I just plonk items in my basket as I start to run out of them, then when I need stuff I place an order with the items in there. Hence I don't end up running out so much or getting stuff in that I don't need. Their prices are often hard to beat. However they have stopped the scaling discounts, so I tend to limit my orders to around the £50 mark to get the free delivery, unless they are doing a promotional discount.

I use a number of other suppliers from time to time, including plumbers and builders merchants and DIY stores.

I strongly suggest you spend a little time to get to know your suppliers' strengths in terms of price and service, then you can target purchases to the best supplier.

Account payments by credit card are not usually possible without incurring their costs on the CC, if at all. However, one supplier does let me pay the account by CC without passing on the cost to me. Hence I gain 0.5% of the payment as a rebate, and I get an extra month to pay

Good planning helps as well. This way you can research prices, negotiate and buy in advance. When a job comes up at short notice this isn't always possible.

HugoSP

We have all but fitted our new (secondhand) spiral staircase. The old staircase is taking refuge on its side enjoying a well earned rest after providing some 25 years sterling service.

An inspection has revealed that there is no deterioration on it. It is as good as it was when it was new, with the excepton of a few screw holes and a bit of wear and tear.

This is why we have plans for it. It is to be used in another part of the development.

When we commissioned the architect to draw up some plans for us we asked him to look at the possibility of reusing the conventional staircase as opposed to specifying a new one.

We can do it, though we may have to remove one tread .

HugoSP

I've mentioned this in passing before but it's worth a mention in more detail.

I live in a rural area in amongst a number of farmers who seem to want infill for a number of purposes, ranging from levelling fields to building up bases for buildings.

So long as you separate your rubbish and keep other rubbish away from the rubble, so the waste handlers don't have to sort though it, skips in my area start at around £65 for a mini skip, which will take 4 tonnes. The price will double if you put in wood and other building waste.

If you have a large or ongoing need for rubble disposal, you may see te value of looking at this problem differently.

However, some farmers/landowners around you may offer the following.

1) Hire you a trailer that is much bigger/cheaper than a skip
2) Allow you access for a fee to a field or other area to dump stuff
3) Simply allow you to dump hardcore for a drink/or to help them out over a project.

So, how do you find these people?

1) Look under Yellow Pages for Farmers near you and phone them up. Explain who you are and what you are doing, and what (if any) transport you have.
2) Post an OFFERED post in your local Freecycle group.
3) Take out a free ad in your local Admart/Loot etc
4) Ask local builders/landscapers what they do. Often they have arrangements, which they may be reluctant to divulge, but you never know they may actually need some infill themselves.

In the past I have:

1) Helped to fill a sunken garden for a gent a few miles away. This involved both he and I transporting bags of hardcore to his place from mine.
2) Provided several tonnes of rubble and earth to another gent who was relandscaping his land. He needed different types of hardcore in different places. I am fortunate enough to have a trailer that facilitated this.
3) Managed to arrange collection of materials by people who needed it for small projects.

HugoSP

A post by someone here who's partner was unfortunate enough to get banned from the local tip has prompted me to think about this topic.

Like it or not, anyone in renovation or doing DIY is likely to need to stay on the good side of these people.

Broadly speaking these are run one of two ways:

1) LA managed. All the waste is disposed of in the usual way. Waste or items of any value is processed and sold by the LA to commercial buyers to support running costs.

2) Run under license granted by the LA. Again, all waste is managed according to LA rules. Items of value become the property of the operator once it is left (or even hits the ground) at the tip. He can sell them on or dispose of them has he sees fit, subject to certain rules. In the case of the tip near me the LA pay the operator a fee to run it. However this money alone does not cover the operators costs. Hence he claws a bit more back by sorting and selling scrap metal to the local scrapyards and recycling good items back to the general public.

With the current legislation regarding waste disposal these guys have a hard enough time keeping waste types separate and making sure that members of the public don't abuse the facilities. Unless they know you they may question large loads and be concerned that you're not dumping hazardous materials (EG asbestos) without following procedures.

Some of my top tips to gain the co operation of these guys.

1) Make sure you are aware of the maximum loads you're supposed to dump at any one time. They have rules to adhere to. They don't make the rules but their livelihoods may depend on adhering to them - no matter how stupid they may seem. Once you know the limits, you may be able to 'play the game' with them on your side, but don't push it too far.

2) Make sure all your rubbish is sorted. It is no trouble to organise the rubbish into type when you're loading it into your car/trailer but it is very difficult to sort it at the tip, especially as there will be a queue of cars behind you who also want to tip.

3) If you are taking any items that you tink may be able to be recyled or sold on by the tip operators, why not offer it to them? They'll have an area where items like this will be placed.

4) Be curteous to the operators and other members of the public. This may sound obvious but believe me there are some real foul mannered people out there who wouldn't know how to behave in front of a Nun. Little subtleties like not chucking rubbish around other people go a long way.

5) Because your rubbish is sorted, you'll have no trouble making sure it goes in the right pile. Cardboard, for example, will be separate from garden refuse.

6) IMO there is no harm in quicly dusting the car or trailer out to get rid of the dirt accumulated during the trip to the tip. However please don't decide to give your car a spring clean when there is a queue bulding up behind you. If the car has got so filthy that you need to do that there, then a few dust sheets inside may have been a good idea before you even load it!

7) Have a look at the items they may have for sale, if they sell anything. One tip I know offers free firewood - wood that other people have thrown away. I have done well via our local tip. My most recent purchase was a Tub Trug (£4.50 in B and Q) for 50p

8) But most importantly, use your common sense, and don't assume that others are doing the same. Health and Safety is a real issue here. Tips are dangerous places. Make sure pets and children are properly supervised and in the car.

nomorec

i'm a great fan of screwfix, building a house at the moment just bought approx £800 of plumbing and drainage then thro my letterbox popped the toolstation catalouge wish i'd had it a week earlier could have saved around £100 moral of the story is obvious check them all out.

HugoSP

Most of it is freely given, in abundance and in good faith.

Some is good and well founded. Some is without any foundation whatsoever.

Some will save you loads of cash - some will cost you a fortune that you could have saved if you didn't act on it.

I am talking about two things. The first is a free commodity, and the second is an indulgence of other peoples' ignorence at your expence.

I am talking about both good and bad advice.

Good advice is sought from those who know and are prepared to offer it in good faith. Bad advice is often offered in good faith but is from sources that think they have the answers to your problem - but don't.

HugoSP

So you've just bought 10 boxes of tiles to carry out a retile, as my client had done today.

2 boxes contained broken tiles (app equivilent to a box worth between them, and the job looked like it could have been held up as a result, as I was on the last box of 100% good tiles.

So I phoned the store where they were bought and proposed that they let me use the broken ones for cutting and offer some payback for this.

They offered the price of one box, or a free box, whichever we choose.

Hence the broken ones were used for edges where the broken edge is cut away anyway.

ictmad

HugoSP wrote: »

Builders merchants are flexible on price. If you're into a lot of DIY it's worth opening accounts to get yourself known to your branch. Then you can negotiate better discounts. These discounts tend to be at the discretion of the branch manager. Some BMs are better than others. I can get up to 50% on some items. But remember it's the final price that is important - not the % discount.

I pay around £14 a tonne for loose 20mm to dust (ballast), as opposed to some £35 for a large dumpy bag that can contain as little as 855KG at most builders merchants.
Bagged materials. How many of you have seen split bags of sand in DIY stores with 50p knocked off? What a joke that is! It never ceases to amaze me that people actually buy a split bag of cement for £2.39 when a clean bag is there for £2.89. I am also asonished that people would even contemplate buying split bags of plaster - it takes very little in the way of contamination to render a bag of plaster unusable.

My favourite type of split bag is a split dumpy bag of sand from a builders merchant. They sometimes come accross them in the yard where a forklift truck has collided with them and they are split. Again, if you are prepared to shovel the contents into a trailer the yard forman may encourage the branch manager to give it to you or sell it to you for a huge discount. I have had 3 tonnes of aggregate FOC in this way, though my trailer is large enough for them to load it straight on:D

we always give regualr customers discounts, encourages them to come back rather than go to the city 30 miles away

our bulk bags are about £35,but if u buy a few we give discount also to regulars
we had a couple of bulk bags burst so our yardsman shovelled them into ruubble sacks and were sellnig them at £5 a bag,its the equivelant to at least 4 bags of sand so a big saving
so bargains are there if you ask and look aronud,sometiems better using a local bm rather than bq as they dont care about giving discounts

ictmad

HugoSP wrote: »

Travis Perkins. They do seem expensive on a lot of things but I get a reasonable discount. I hunt around for the best price anyway and get up to 45% off timber products and 50% off drainage products. Hence their OSMA range is not that much more expensive than the Flo Plas stuff I buy from Screwfix, and the quality is much better.

Local Merchant

.

i work for keyline,who are owned by travis perkins,we give regulars massive discount on listed prices,most plumbers/regular builders get 65-70% discount on the osma range and same on timber,but its upto the individual serving,the manager doesnt mind us giving discounts,as long as we make a certain percentage on everything he,s happy