Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Lazy question for tradesmen type..plywood sources
  • bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Where’s the cheapest place for a single piece of 12mm ply that’s large enough to cut down to a single 1835 x 835 piece?

    It’s been a long day and I cba googling, so I’ll just be going to b&q in the morning and probably getting shafted, unless anyone knows someone much cheaper?

    Leeds, if it helps. Ta.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    For a single sheet you are likely to get stung at wood merchant or builders depot anyway so might as well go to b&q and they’ll cut it on their big saw for free.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I buy HW faced 15mm Ply for £24+VAT a sheet (8’x4′) at the local builder’s merchant.

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    nickjb
    Free Member

    I buy HW faced 15mm Ply for £24+VAT a sheet (8’x4′) at the local builder’s merchant.

    8×4 18mm hardwood ply is £29 inc vat in b&q, similar

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    Right. That’ll do then – like you say, big saw appeals. Thanks (and sorry for pointless thread!)

    footflaps
    Full Member

    8×4 18mm hardwood ply is £29 inc vat in b&q, similar

    Pretty cheap!

    The scary thing is my price is with a 49% trade discount, so you’d be paying twice that without it. I suspect you get a bigger discount if you buy en-masse, most I’ve bought in one go is 4 sheets IIRC. Did buy 16x 18mm sheet for the Workshop floor but it was a few years back and I can’t recall the price on that.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    The scary thing is my price is with a 49% trade discount

    that’s the reason I don’t use the trade counters. They just make the list prices and discounts up a la sports direct.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    The day I buy ply from b and q is the day I’m desperate! Go anywhere forearmed with a price and they’ll usually match. Roll in and say can I have a ? and expect to be ridden by any builders merchant…

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    For one sheet the saving you’d make shopping around anywhere else isn’t worth the time and trouble. You’re not going to get a trade supplier to roll over and give discounts if you’re only getting one bit of wood.

    B&Q is expensive for a lot of stuff – but sheet ply/MDF/Chipboard they’re not far off the best prices you could get at trade. You should get a sheet of 12mm for about £20 – £25 (they’ll usually have both hardwood and spruce in stock) and they’ll cut it for free (and a timber yard or builders yard will seldom have the facilities to cut panels at all). Only the larger branches of B&Q have full sheets and cutting facilities though.

    geoffj
    Full Member

    B&Q may cut it for you for free too.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    You don’t have to shop around. Just ring up any merchant and say can you do x item at y price and see. The market is that tight now that most will budge.

    jonahtonto
    Free Member

    i have discovered that places like b+q and wickes price match +10% any local merchant.

    the days of the diy superstores being more expensive than the builders merchants is long gone. plus they have a website listing all their stock and the prices. plus they are open till 8pm and all weekend. the only thing the merchants are for any more is credit accounts but for £10% extra you might as well just use a credit card.

    andyl
    Free Member

    does it need to be decent quality? Spent ages going through ply at wickes for a work bench as most of them had big splits or missing bits where there had been knots.

    A decent wood yard might be better stuff.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    You get good and bad at both. At least at the sheds you can choose your own rather than getting lumbered with whatever they pull out for you (pun intended)

    integerspin
    Free Member

    does it need to be decent quality? Spent ages going through ply at wickes for a work bench as most of them had big splits or missing bits where there had been knots.

    A decent wood yard might be better stuff.

    I have made a few casting patterns, getting quality ply isn’t easy. I went through the whole thing going to several old established yards and looking at stacks of ply and it was all crap with loads of voids. Eventually I found someone who had a stash of birch ply and it was perfect, it was the stuff you used to get when you bought ply.

    If your after a free/cheap sheet of 12mm ask about the ply that pallets of ply come wrapped in. One of the local builders yards asked if the pallet wrapping ply[well whatever you call it ] was any good to me as they were burning it! Let me take what I wanted for free.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    B&Q may cut it for you for free too.

    So will any decent builder’s merchant as well as deliver for free (if you have an account).

    At least at the sheds you can choose your own rather than getting lumbered with whatever they pull out for you (pun intended)

    No different to a builder’s merchant, you select / pick the stuff yourself in their wood yard, load the van and then get a billet for what you’ve taken and pay for it before you leave.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    So will any decent builder’s merchant as well as deliver for free (if you have an account).

    Its not really that common for merchants to offer cutting services for boards – I get supplies from MGM, Meyers, Walker Woodstock, Jewsons (bastards), Timbmet, Timbercenter, Thornbridge, Rowan…. non of them (in the branches I use at least) have facilities for cutting sheet material (other than some trestles and a hand saw). On my travels I’ve found few that do, but its the exception rather than the rule

    I went through the whole thing going to several old established yards and looking at stacks of ply and it was all crap with loads of voids. Eventually I found someone who had a stash of birch ply and it was perfect, it was the stuff you used to get when you bought ply.

    I find that most timber yards have a stock thats quite heavily skewed to the bulk purchasers nearest to that branch – so if most of the material going out the door is to builders then structurally sound boards, rather than visually tidy boards is what they’ll sell. If you happen to have busy furniture / exhibition / shop fitters close by them maybe they’ll hold some finer-finish stock but generally good stuff like birch is going to spoil on the shelf (either get damaged to turn black) if the stock isn’t turning over fast enough. If stuff like low voids or ‘A’ faces are important then ask the yard to get it in for you -it’ll be sitting in the wholesalers and usually only takes a few days to get in, but most places won’t hold that kind of stock all the time.

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    2400 x 1200 – 18mm ply was £22 in B& in the end (which was cheaper than I was expecting!).

    Cheers all.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Its not really that common for merchants to offer cutting services for boards

    Must be spoilt, all the Ridgeons branches that I’ve been to have sheet cutters and cut to size for free.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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