saving money on building materials

tik33

hello all,

I have just discoverd this fantastic site and the forum and thought that I would sound off about my favourite high street rip-off - building materials. Basically this is one area where it REALLY pays to shop around - the difference in price can be up to 400%. 2 recent examples:

1. The communal front door had to have its locks changed - so we had to get 25 keys copied for all 3 flats. I went to 3 shops and here is the difference:
shop 1 (dry cleaner's): £4 per key - total cost = £100
shop 2 (different dry cleaner's): £2.50 per key - total cost = £62.50
shop 3 (local hardware shop): £1.00 per key - total cost = £25.00

(guess which one I went for).

2. The lock for said front door:
Travis Perkins = £40
https://www.screwfix.com (who also now have an actual branch in London - but also do an excellent delivery service) = £15
Local hardware shop = £20

I have found screwfix to be the cheapest (on average) by a long way for pretty much everything I have ever bought. Of course I understand that local hardware shops have their place for convenience, for people that can advise and for instant purchases - but my big tip is: Buy everything you possibly can from screwfix and then go to the B&Q's and Wickes (forget Homebase - it's overpriced and staff would be better if their brains were replaced with mastic).

The difficulty I have (and this applies to all purchases in general) and would love to have your thoughts is:
How do you do your price comparison research in small shops? My girlfriend hates it when I walk into a shop, ask the price of something and walk out again (vis a vis Mr Mann from Little Britain). That's why I love screwfix and B&Q - they have a catalogue and the displayed prices while you walk around - price transparency - you can't beat it for saving money!

Gus

pealy

I tend to phone rather than visiting in person- much quicker & also less personal.

alanobrien

Its true that mostly Screwfix prices are very good
However since they were bought by BandQ their service has deteriorated considerably.

I recently bought a lot of plumbing stuff from them including Rads for Saturday delivery - paid extra for that and my order did not arrive until the following friday.

If you look at the forums on the screwfix site you will see a lot of references to late deliveries.
To say the least i was none to pleased but the customer service team was pretty good at keeping me informed so they deserve credit for that.
I also received some compensation for the late delivery so i shall continue to use them.

Wickes prices are generally close to screwfix as are plumb centre prices with a little negotiation.

Also there are some newish startup companies apprearing online to compete with screwfix. Cant recall the URL's i will look later from home and post them if i can locate them.

I guess the answer as always is to shop around.

thehairybuilder

When we recently re-wired our house I found B & Q were the undisputed `kings` . Telephoned a newly opened brach with extensive list which salesperson diligently priced item by item before giving me a total price .Then he offered to have it all looked out for me and to be laying in wait for me in trolley at end of aisle number 8 for collection by 8pm !
Sounded far too good to be true but when I sent in Wifey to collect it , it was all there , in carrier bags in trolley ready for collection .
Price was good too !

theGrinch

i use and continue to use screwfix as i think despite their problems they put customer first regarding returns.

the problems they had last year stemmed from closing south west warehouse and some people being disgruntled by redundancies