You sound like the typical "big box" warrior. Do your buying at
the big box and be happy. Fellas that make their living doing
this stuff have already suggested making a good relationship with
a real lumber yard would probably be more beneficial in the long
run. If you're worried about taking back 2 extra 2x4's, don't
shop at the real lumber yard.

--
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"ls02" wrote in message
...
On Dec 13, 3:09 pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"ls02" wrote in message

...

In spring I am starting building big addition. I wonder how
HD\Lowes
stand in building materials (lumber, house wrap, subfloor
plywood, OSB
sheathing, roofing shingles, insulation, drywall and other)
vs.
independent custom specialized builders suppliers. I mean in
price,
availability of relatively large quantities needed to build
big
addition. I guess both HD and Lowes deliver.

Depends on your local stores.

I know of one instance where a fellow built a two story
commercial building.
He priced the material as HD and a local store. The local store
was $800
more but he figures he saved money. The difference was service.

HD wanted to make one big delivery. The local guy made a
delivery every few
days so there was less handling of material. He figures the
quality was
better so less waste and less time culling. The local place was
1/4 mile
away the big store was 20 miles so if you needed an item quick,
big time
savings.

There is much more to value than price alone. Shop wisely.

I do not have time to sift through every stud. I need apprximately
200
2 X 4, 40 sheets of subfloor plywood, yet to count # of
sheathing,
rools of insulation, etc. So I would like to order what I need in
bulk
and have it delivered to my house. How do I evaluate quality of
materials in bulk? I bought in past a lot of lumber at HD. They
have
both good studs and bad (twisted, broken, etc.) in a bunch and I
always sifted through to select good ones. But I never neeeded
realy a
lot of materials. And I always rented a HD trcuk to deliver it. HD
is
less then 2 miles from my house, Lowes is 4 miles. I am trying to
find
most practical and economical way to get building stuff I need.
Aslo
what's is very important I can always return to HD/Lowes extra
stuff
left.