Buying Building Materials

Many self-builders are keen to take on at least part of the management of their project, and shouldering the responsibility of buying materials is well worth considering. Mark Brinkley explains what it takes to be successful in this role.

How best to buy materials for your self-build? If you have appointed a main contractor on a fixed price, the onus falls entirely upon the builder to supply and to fix, though you may be involved in the specification. However, most selfbuilders manage at least some of the project themselves and end up with a lengthy shopping list to work their way through. To do it well requires a certain amount of discipline and organisation.

One question to resolve at the outset is whether you are going to rely solely on deliveries or whether you will do much of the fetching and carrying yourself. If the latter, it may well make sense to get a van or pick-up. As builders’ merchants deliver for free, running around in a van may look like a mug’s game, but sometimes deliveries are not as reliable as you might hope for and certain DIY stores, notably Wickes, don’t do deliveries. A pick-up can also be useful when it comes to disposing of waste. There are pros and cons with both routes and it’s a decision that is sometimes hard to call.

If you know that you are going to be responsible for purchasing a large quantity of materials, you need to start by making an accurate shopping list. Conventionally, this work is done by quantity surveyors in a process known as ‘taking off plans’: it’s fiddly but not particularly difficult if you can handle a ruler and a spreadsheet. There are professional services which will carry out this work for you for a small fee. It’s also a service that builders’ merchants carry out, though they also tend to charge a fee of around £100. The advantage of using a builders’ merchant is that the quantities that come back are priced up, which is great for comparison shopping. The disadvantage is that the quantities provided are often not particularly accurate.

However, obtaining several prices for the major elements is critical to negotiating better prices. One very good tip here is to introduce yourself to the local builders’ merchants and let them have plans of what you are intending to build. Set up trading accounts, as this makes purchasing much simpler and gives you valuable credit facilities as well. You will need to provide bank references but, as a self-builder, the merchants don’t expect you to provide trade references as well — many merchants even have self-build advisors.

Generally, most self-builders enter into a brief period of negotiating prices between the different merchants, comparing one with another and asking them to match the best prices. Having shaved the prices a little, they then tend to put most of their business through one merchant. By and large, this ensures that careful self-builders are able to buy on terms similar to builders, and enjoy discounts on bulk purchases. BuildStore’s Trade Card offers pre-arranged discounts at a number of builders’ merchants, including Jewson, Magnet and the Wolseley group (Build Center, Plumb Center).

Finally, you must also take on board the bookkeeping aspects of the buying role. New build is zero rated for VAT, and HM Revenue & Customs have a facility for non-VAT-registered self-builders to make a reclaim on any VAT paid out on material purchases. They will want to see all the relevant invoices you have. Managing the VAT reclaim process is quite complex, as there are rules about which costs are and which aren’t allowable. Go to the HMRC website (www.hmrc.gov.uk) and type ‘Notice 719’ into the search field.