Cheap timber for DIY

Ali195 · 30 Mar 2016 at 06:05

Over the coming weeks I plan on making a giant indoor play house, multiplatform 'castle' for our cats. I'll be making it out of wood. I also plan on making several large wooden boxes to store items in.

In the past I just got wood from B&Q but I see that being particularly expensive place considering how much I'll need, and so I wondered if anyone has a well priced source for timber boards, planks online or otherwise . eg uk-timber.co.uk

teenwolf · 30 Mar 2016 at 06:31

Wickes

Akagi · 30 Mar 2016 at 07:10

We've got our name on it.

robj20 · 30 Mar 2016 at 07:22

Your nearest timber merchant, even Wickes is expensive for timber. Travis Perkins isnt bad.

GinG · 30 Mar 2016 at 08:49

As rob says, local timber merchant would be cheapest option. After that I would say Jewsons but once you start going to the larger retailers the quality of timber does start to go down a few grades.

DXP55 · 30 Mar 2016 at 09:08

No such thing as cheap timber anymore. :rolleyes:

Millwall.FC · 30 Mar 2016 at 10:46

travis perkins owns wickes so wouldent imagine a massive difference

t-rex · 30 Mar 2016 at 12:07

have a look at champion timber

Bickaxe · 30 Mar 2016 at 12:17

I'd go to your local industrial estate and get a few pallets (Check first as some places don't give them up, you won't get any of the blue GKN pallets)

Break them up and sand them down.

Lopéz · 30 Mar 2016 at 14:06

My local timber merchant are generally pennies cheaper than Wickes/B&Q if I'm lucky. When you get to multi buys they often aren't even close unless you are ordering a full pallet of something.

Ali195 · 30 Mar 2016 at 18:07

Thanks everyone for the suggestions & price experiences, I'll investigae locally on them

WillyNelson · 30 Mar 2016 at 21:28

A proper timber merchant will be superior quality to Wickes or your DIY sheds. The wood will be stored properly so less chance of things being banana shaped.

But as someone already said, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as cheap timber any more. I just bought 2 sheets of 12mm ply which cost me £60. Though they did cut them into about a dozen different sized pieces to the exact dimensions I need for what I'm building.

Wizzfizz · 1 Apr 2016 at 01:51

Local merchant is where I'd start looking

Ronty · 2 Apr 2016 at 10:19

Selco are good if you've one near you, need to sign up though.

Jez · 2 Apr 2016 at 10:23

I find the local wood specific merchant (wood yard) way cheaper than the builders merchants, who in turn are a bit cheaper than the sheds.

A wood yard is definitely where you should be buying wood, if it isn't a lot lot cheaper than the sheds then you need to keep looking for another one as they must be the type who dont discount to the public.

Mr Joshua · 2 Apr 2016 at 13:46

Lopéz said:
My local timber merchant are generally pennies cheaper than Wickes/B&Q if I'm lucky. When you get to multi buys they often aren't even close unless you are ordering a full pallet of something.

That's my experience too.

It depends what you are looking for, plywood in wickes seems to be about the best you can get from one of the bigger stores and at a reasonable price, the same goes for mdf too.

I tried ringing around for good quality birch ply and it was going to cost around £30 not including delivery, twice the price of wickes but the quality would have been better. In the end I wound up going into maxwells DIY in Birtley (Google them), cheaper sheet materials and a free cutting service which was very handy as they cut the sheets almost all to the sizes I needed for the shelves I put up in my sliding wardrobes. They are about the cheapest for other timber too.

You probably wouldn't make fine furniture from their stock but it's good enough for most uses and you can pick the best bits.