With building materials generally accounting for around half the cost of a building project, it is absolutely essential that you get the most for your money you possibly can and also exactly the right amount you need.
In many cases you will also end up with surplus items after you have finished your project and quite often these are simply left lying around for years or, even worse, get discarded.
With this in mind, find out about the various resources available today for working out what quantities you need and also where to find cheap building materials.
Why are Building Materials so Expensive?
Over the last few years, due to many factors including the Covid 19 pandemic and Brexit here in the UK, this has been a bit of a perfect storm in terms of creating a massive hike in building material costs, some as great as up to and over 60%!
Coupled with the fact that fuel costs are also at an all time high and also that, as a nation, the UK imports a great deal of products including timber and many other building materials, this cost increase has been passed on to the consumer in the form of increased cost on such products.
A few other factors including increased demand due to a shortage of materials (for numerous reasons, Brexit being one of the main ones) and also that the exchange rate for the pound is at an all time low has meant that what limited materials are available, if they’ve been imported, you don’t get as much in terms of volume which again helps to drives prices up.
All of these factors have contributed to abnormal material costs, but in time this should stabilise and they should start to fall a little.
How to Work out Exactly What Materials you Need?
So that you can reduce the initial amount you have to spend out on materials and also ensure that you don’t have any or at least too much left over, you need to calculate as close to the exact amount that you need.
If you’re not a professional builder and you are fairly new to this area, it’s likely that you won’t have much of an idea on how this is done. Fortunately there are several ways:
- Builder: If you have already contracted a builder to carry out work for you, in order for him to produce a quote for the work he is doing he needs to work out exactly what materials are needed and in what volumes
- Quantity Surveyor: The job of a quantity surveyor is exactly this; calculating material volumes and costs. They will be able to calculate all the materials needed to complete a proposed job, but they will need a detailed set of plans in order to do so
- Price Doctor: Our very own pricing and project management software Price Doctor can also do this for you. Simply design from scratch or recreate your plans in the software and its very clever algorithms will produce an accurate price for you. Alternatively for a reasonable fee send us your plans and we wil do it for you.
Where to Source Cheap Building Materials
Due to the cost of materials today, to ensure a building project can realistically go ahead and stand a chance of being completed it’s essential that you shop around and get the very best deal that you can on any required materials. Aside from the standard go-to locations such as DIY stores and the likes, here are some others you might like to look at.
Buying Online
Cheap building materials are a very rare commodity in the DIY world. Professional builders are able to buy materials a fair bit cheaper because of discounts available when you buy in bulk. Traditionally, this facility is not available for a small amount when completing a project at home.
However in the age of the internet, this isn’t necessarily true any more as many online merchants that don’t have big costly yards and operate out of a single location and deliver through the vast network of couriers available can often offer goods at significant saving compared to their brick and mortar store counterparts.
Take advantage of getting a great deal on the materials you need from the comfort of your own home with many online companies supplying all the materials you will need whether it be fixing a split pipe of building an extension. As mentioned, many of these companies will also offer delivery right to your door!!
The one downside to this is that due to the volume of websites and products available on the web, you may need to set aside a significant amount of time to do the research and track these deals down.
However, despite the above there are plenty of advantages, some of these are as follows:
- Purchase smaller quantities of building materials usually sold in bulk
- Negotiate price and terms of sale
- Find products and supplies locally
- Enjoy speed and simplicity that a great many online sites now offer
- Enjoy anonymity of armchair surfing, examining materials, technical specifications and sizes before contacting the seller
Buying in Bulk
One of the advantages that builders and professional tradesmen have is that as they often undertake the same or similar work repeatedly, they are likely to use the same materials over and over again. Coupled with the fact that many builders have yards and storage so that they keep excess items until they need it, they often buy in bulk and due to this get a reduced rate per item.
For the average DIY’er, this isn’t always possible as although you may be able to buy 100m of 15mm PVC pipe, comparably cheaper than a single 1.8m length, the chances of ever using it are slim, so it sits there and eventually gets sold for a pittance or even worse, thrown away, wasting both the materials and the money used to buy them.
However, if you are involved in a self build project then bulk buying suddenly becomes a reality as buying bricks, timber and even labour in bulk then makes much more sense.
To sum up the advantages, these are as follows:
- Get an overall discount on any materials you’re likely to need in bulk such as bricks, blocks, timber etc.
- If you have left overs and you got them for a really good price, you may even be able to sell for what you paid or better
- By block-booking a tradesman for a set period, he may charge you slightly less per day/hour
Freecycle
Freecycle is a fantastic resource and in pretty much all cases there will be a group that covers your particular location, anywhere in the world as it operates globally.
When someone has an item they no longer want or need (quite often building materials), they can list it in one or more groups and anyone viewing can get in touch and agree to and take it away, free of charge!
As the entire platform is run and managed by volunteers, it’s totally free to post items for collection, but as stated above, in keeping with the ethos, any items listed must be offered free.
One disadvantage is that, due to the size of some groups, especially in large cities, there can be many hundreds of posts and to avoid missing anything you really need to look through each and and every post summary which can take some time.
Despite any slight downsides, Freecycle is a fantastic resource and one that you should certainly check out if you haven’t before.
- Post any unwanted/unneeded items for free
- Collect any items free of charge
- There can be huge volumes of building materials, products etc. available in large cities
- Reduce waste by offering excess materials from past projects for free
Facebook Market Place
As part of the sprawling mass that is Facebook, quite a few years ago they started their own market place where any user can buy and sell any item with no listing fees (unless you opt to pay for ads).
Due to the huge volumes of users that Facebook attracts, there are often many hundreds of items for sale in a given area, many of them building materials and other hardware items.
Again, as it’s free to list items and there are no buyers fees, this is a great resource so if you’ve never used it, do, as you can pick up some real bargains, however as with all platforms such as this there are many scammers so be careful.
- Huge platform with many items for sale, including building materials and similar products
- List items free of charge
- No buyers fees
Local Builders Merchant
Your local builders merchants should be one of the first places you visit when shopping for cheap building materials. Although in many cases, smaller independent merchants don’t have the buying power of the large chain merchants so they may not be quite as competitive on price, however if you get chatting to them and commit to buying all of your materials through them, they can often cut you a fairly good deal.
Additionally as they are local, they will very often know many, if not all of the tradesmen in the area and if you are struggling to get a builder, plumber or other trade they will often know who to go for.
Likewise they will also generally know who not to go for so can save you a lot of hassle in terms of avoiding cowboys!
- If you commit to using them, they often cut very good deals
- Can recommend good tradesmen to use
- Can also advise on those to avoid
- May be able to get much cheaper prices on locally available materials
eBay/Amazon (Market Places)
Today, there are many different market place platforms available (aside form Facebook) that include eBay, Amazon, Snaffle Building Supplies (specific market place for building supplies), ManoMano (tools) the list goes on.
One of the great advantages with a market place, especially eBay and Amazon is that you get large national chains listing brand new items along side individuals selling second hand goods so you get a really good spread in terms of options and price.
As some are listed as auctions, if you have the time to keep an eye on them you can get a real bargain!
Again one of the downsides is that due to their size, it can take a huge amount of time to sift through all the goods and products on offer and find exactly what you’re looking for.
- Huge selection of products available
- Brand new and second hand goods listed together
- Easy to compare new and used prices
- Can get a real bargain on auction goods
- Some market places deal with specific products, making it easier to view them
Reclamation/Architectural Salvage Yard
Most towns and cities these days have a reclamation or architectural salvage yard close to them. These treasure troves often have a wide range of reclaimed building materials including doors, windows, bricks, paving slabs, fixtures and fittings and a whole host of other goodies.
Reclamation and salvage yards are particularly good if you are trying to match older or rare items such as wall tiles, roof tiles, certain types of bricks etc. that suit a certain time and other more mainstream outlets no longer supply such goods, so if you are looking for period items, be certain to check them out first.
The one downside is that, often such goods are considered to be antiques and thus fetch antique prices, especially if they are quite rare.
Despite this, architectural and reclamation yards do have a lot of plus sides:
- Source rare and hard to find items
- Vast selections of goods
- Can be used as sources of inspiration if you are looking to create a particular style
- Many are now online and deliver throughout the country
Enviromate
Although Enviromate is a market place where individuals and businesses can sell similar to the likes of eBay, Amazon etc. they only deal with building materials and due to this they are worth a mention on their own.
Like any other market place they allow the buying and selling of materials locally and nationally, ensuring that you can get a bargain and also that any surplus goods can be sold, putting money in your pocket and keeping unnecessary waste out of landfill.
As the site is national, for the right deal it can mean that you might have to travel, sometimes a great distance, but if the savings are enough this can certainly make sense.
- Easily source cheap building materials
- Reduce landfill waste
- Put money back in your pocket for items you don’t use
- Help a good cause to grow and raise awareness
Comparison Sites
In the similar way that you may shop for your car or home insurance, broadband or latest mobile phone deal by using one of the many price comparison sites on the web, the same can also be done when shopping for building materials.
The great advantage of the price comparison site is that you can search for a given item and the particular platform you are using will list all the same or similar products together so that you can easily compare prices and features.
In respect to prices this is probably the most valuable feature, certainly when you are working to a budget and need to source building materials as cheap as possible.
The one major disadvantage with most sites of this nature is that suppliers have to opt in to feature on their platform (but not always), so this can drastically limit the range of suppliers/merchants you are able to compare prices with and due to this the likelihood that you miss an even bigger bargain is quite high.
Despite this there are some very good advantages:
- Easily compare a range of goods and their prices from different suppliers
- Get alternate ideas for similar products
- Easily compare a range of a given product features
- Can be done easily from the comfort of your home
- If many suppliers and merchants are onboard you get a great deal of choice
Reducing Waste
Don’t skip it, Recycle it!!
Because of an increasing shortage of Landfill space (and the obvious damage this does to the environment), and indeed a restriction on the supply of some materials post Covid and Brexit the building industry is under increasing pressure from the Government to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner and adopt recycling waste procedures.
As we have discussed, although some materials simply cannot be recycled due to what they’re made of, how old they are etc. many can and considering the huge pressure the environment is under, it’s really now an obligation.
The construction industry has outlined that 20% of wastage on a site can be either saved or reused. If the top 2,000 contractors sold one half of their reusable waste, the DTI estimates this would generate a figure in excess of £100 million.
With this in mind, it’s absolutely essential that you reduce waste by ordering exactly what you need and help to keep wastage to a minimum and where it can’t be used, sell or recycle it!
If you have a building or DIY project planned and you are working to quite a tight budget, to ensure that it’s seen through to the end, it’s essential that you shop around for cheap building materials and today, this can easily be done using one of the many services listed above.