Building Supplies You Can't Get At Home Depot?
Hey folks:
I'm rehabbing a unit in a small commercial building I own and there are some items I need to replace that your average home center doesn't stock (and seem to be highly confused about trying to order for me). I'm feeling like I'm missing some important bit of info about where contractors go to get their supplies.
Some examples:
- Some of the walls had offset 2x4s in them with ~1" thick insulation sheets wound between them for acoustical isolation. Home centers only carry insulation 3.5" thick or higher (which is just too thick and expensive for this purpose).
- 20" x 4' recessed fluorescent light fixtures for drywall ceilings. Most places just have 2'x4' (which is too wide) and mostly for suspended ceilings, not drywall.
- Foil-backed ceiling insulation (R13 or better). Pretty much everyone has the paper-backed stuff but no one has foil. Someone told me that foil is the old way it was done (the building is about 40 years old) but I have seen new examples of this material in recent installations (unfortunately no one was around to ask where they got it).
Is there some contractors supply type place I am missing? Searching on the Internet for this stuff hasn't gotten me very far in general except that I see that there are company's the sell this stuff but don't seem to have anywhere local or online I can buy from....
As you can tell I am not a contractor but I am someone who is comfortable rehabbing these sorts of items if I can get my hands on them.
Thanks!
-M
I've actually bought that foil backed insulation at Home Depot before, like last year. They had big pallets of the stuff just sitting around. It may be that since then they've quit carrying it. As much as it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to suggest it them, have you tried Lowe's? If you've been doing this type stuff for awhile, surely you've made some acquaintances amongst the contractors in the area? They LIKE to tell me how much better of a deal they can get than me, and so tell me different stores to go to for different things.
Most of them are small, local stores, so I don't think it'd help to tell you their names...
Google the type material you want, and I've had very good luck finding it in the past that way. Usually, I'll call a store, and they'll either tell me I'm crazy, and no such thing exists, depending on their attitudes, or they'll tell me who might have it, and who too call.
Thanks for the input.
Most of them are small, local stores, so I don't think it'd help to tell you their names...
Yes, tried Lowes as well (and some other smaller regional places) but they carry exactly the same kind of selection as HD. I've certainly talked with a bunch of contractors but I've always worried that the message that would come across would be "could you tell me where you get your supplies so I can cut you out of the loop?" Obviously wouldn't say it that way but these guys know you are trying to save $$$.
Thanks,
-M
Quote:
On 2004-09-17 10:20, jam200 wrote:
I've actually bought that foil backed insulation at Home Depot before, like last year. They had big pallets of the stuff just sitting around. It may be that since then they've quit carrying it. As much as it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to suggest it them, have you tried Lowe's? If you've been doing this type stuff for awhile, surely you've made some acquaintances amongst the contractors in the area? They LIKE to tell me how much better of a deal they can get than me, and so tell me different stores to go to for different things.
Google the type material you want, and I've had very good luck finding it in the past that way. Usually, I'll call a store, and they'll either tell me I'm crazy, and no such thing exists, depending on their attitudes, or they'll tell me who might have it, and who too call.
You have to understand that there exists about a Trillion square feet worth of stuff for construction and only about a million square feet of space for keeping it locally in places like HD.
Sometimes you have to order things. Sometimes you can do it at the special order house at HD or Lowes, or your local smaller lumber yards. Sometimes you will have to order it through the supply houses that the specific trades order through. Electrical stuff sometimes can only be gotten through an electrical supply house that supplies the electrical contractors.
You are going to have to do a lot of snooping around and make a lot of phone calls. Contacting the manufacturer is a good start. Find out who their local retailers are, if the retailer carries their product but doesn't have exactly the item you want they will be able to get it for you.
Get a local
Business to Business yellow page
telephone directory
The contractors are not protecting their location of where they buy the materials, just the relationship. It takes time for a contractor to build a good relationship with will call and pro desk staff to make that task a 3 minute phone call. No one really wants to throw a wild card in to it.
You can find all of those materials at the pro desk of any lumber / building materials store or electrical supply store from the yellow pages. Some will be stock, some special order.
You have to understand though (and this is not personal) no contractor is going to tell you exactly because he doesn't want to call up his rep and say "I'm sending you a guy who needs a very small order, he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he'll probably never buy from you again so can you spend a few hours with him ordering what he needs". Their just protecting their relationship. It's one of the intangible costs you wonder about when trying to decide whether to hire a contractor or do it yourself.
Right, thanks for the advice. I don't think I ever said they were protecting anything. As I said in a previous post, I haven't honestly asked a contractor directly because I didn't want to insult them by saying I want to know where you would get this stuff so I can get it myself instead.
Really what I wanted to know is if there is some more contractor-focused outlet for building materials that tended to stock (or was more set up to order) the materials I needed. It sounds like there isn't such a place but rather I need to start looking through the B2B phonebook for distributors of what I need.
I did try the Pro desk at my local HD and let's just say they were pretty hopeless when I asked about my acoustical insulation material. They said they would call their suppliers the next day and call me with what they found. I have yet to hear anything from them. Maybe just a bad example but it has been my experience that most places set up for consumer repairs just aren't well set up for contractors except perhaps to get them larger quantities of things they already carry.
Thanks,
-M
Quote:
On 2004-09-18 07:26, gacanuck wrote:
The contractors are not protecting their location of where they buy the materials, just the relationship. It takes time for a contractor to build a good relationship with will call and pro desk staff to make that task a 3 minute phone call. No one really wants to throw a wild card in to it.
You can find all of those materials at the pro desk of any lumber / building materials store or electrical supply store from the yellow pages. Some will be stock, some special order.
You have to understand though (and this is not personal) no contractor is going to tell you exactly because he doesn't want to call up his rep and say "I'm sending you a guy who needs a very small order, he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he'll probably never buy from you again so can you spend a few hours with him ordering what he needs". Their just protecting their relationship. It's one of the intangible costs you wonder about when trying to decide whether to hire a contractor or do it yourself.
Quote:
I did try the Pro desk at my local HD and let's just say they were pretty hopeless when I asked about my acoustical insulation material. They said they would call their suppliers the next day and call me with what they found. I have yet to hear anything from them. Maybe just a bad example but it has been my experience that most places set up for consumer repairs just aren't well set up for contractors except perhaps to get them larger quantities of things they already carry.
You are going to have more success if you do part of the work for them. To ask them to look into acoustical insulation material may get you the results you got, to ask them if they work with John Mansfield Insulation company and if they do to see if they will call their rep and see if they can get John Mansfield Type 2A4308802 type insulation is going to give you a better result.
I'll just pass along some good advice I got about this...go to your other lumber yards, as they do have a larger variety of building materials than HD & Lowes.
An article I read pointed out that the Big Boxes have lots of relatively few items, whereas the private lumber yards and hardware stores have a few of lots of items.
Just the other day I was looking for a certain drill bit and finding none at the BBs, tried a private Tool Store, and sure enough they had every kind of drill bit and I got what I wanted.