/diy/ - Do It Yourself

ill start out by offering a guide of how to obtain better pricing on building materials just through visual and verbal signals. of course this is providied its a lumber yard that has an open book that allows salespeople to change prices any way they wish.

>roll up in a truck or cargo van
if you dont, i immediately assume home owner. which means im going to keep my margins up to make more money off you.
>dont wear nice clothing
i dont mean look dirty or like a hobo, but if you come in wearing a polo or anything but work boots, you are going in the home owner category. flannel is always good. so are winter hats, carhartts, and other durable and functionable items depending on the time of year. hell, come in with no shirt on in the middle of summer. contractors frequently do this.
>if i ask can i help you find anything, say yes and give me your list
contractors want to get in and out as soon as possible. if you act annoyed, or say no ill find it, you have time to waste and you are a home owner.
>when you pay, always pay in cash.
if they dont have a store charge account, most contractors pay in cash. this helps with my next step.
>ask for a PO on your receipt
when a contracting business expands, they issue every employee a PO to keep track of their spending. if you are asked for a job number, give a street address. the job numbers further organize the employee's expenditures.
>set up a cash account if needed
my lumber yard cannot attach POs and job numbers to bills without an active account. we can set up cash accounts in about 30 seconds. they are just a name to track sales and run the sales under enabling the addition or POs and job numbers.

continued.

>>82595

>when you come back in the future, when you get to the counter say this is under [insert name of your cash account].
to have a believable contractor name, select 2-3 letters than add contracting at the end. DR Contracting. CJB Contracting. SL Contracting. etc. most people use their initials. as soon as you say you have an 'account' even though its a cash account, it makes me believe you are a contractor.

essentially, the key to getting better pricing at a lumber yard is to make me believe or have a reasonable suspicion you are a contractor.

anyways, ask away.

How does one make a 40x40' hangar for on the cheap? Where can pennies be pinched?

>>82598

What's the price difference for contractors? I work at Lowes, and we don't offer any kind of markdown for contractors or commercial sales. Well, unless you get a Lowes business credit account. You get 10% then.

>>82590
You sound like the horrible douchebag that lost all my business in Miami. Sorry I drive a Porsche and have nice clothes. Doesn't mean what you think. It means I like Porsches and nice clothing. And I've worked hard enough to afford them.

What kind of wood would suggest for a very rich post-stain color? Both light and dark, 'cause I'm trying to make a chessboard.

>>82603

a hangar for what? please give me more details.

>>82605

it all depends. i have complete control over what i charge my customers. 10% is about ballpark for our piece-meal contractors. our every day, getting large delivery contractors get more than that. one of our large purchasing contractors gets materials anywhere from a 15-25% markup depending on the item and the market. a low buying contractor is 20-30% markup and a homeowner is 25-35%.

this is for lumber and other major materials like sheathings, drywall, etc. nails and screws are at like a 35/45/60. all the accessories get marked way the hell up.

the only people we really hook up are those contractors that we see every day buying materials and are building homes and additions. other contractors get market pricing and home owners get raped.

>>82620
An airplane.

So there can't be any support beams in the middle.

10' clearance minimum for the ceiling.

>>82614

a dark wood for a dark stain, and a light wood to take the light stain. the only thing i have in stock that would be darker would be a clear cherry, and in a lighter wood would be a pine or poplar. anything else we could special order for you.

now out of my work persona, i cant really make calls like that for you. im not a builder so i cant speak first hand for alot of the materials i sell. i tell people this. i can tell you about the materials we do sell, but when it gets down to preference like this, i dont even try to make suggestions because if they dont like it, they will only blame me.

im primarily a salesmen. im not the end all be all of all things construction.

nothing against this poster, its a perfectly valid question, but you have to realize that myself or any contractor out there has no better preference than yourself.

>>82625

a simple pole barn would be the cheapest ive run into. if you arent worried about any overhead storage, you essentially erect some 6x6 posts into the ground then add on wall purlins and trusses. or stick frame the roof if you want.

metal roof sheathing is probably your best bet as far as roof/wall sheathing goes for durability and cost ratio. the basic ribbed metal sheathing comes in 3' wide panels and runs anywhere from $2.35-2.50 a linear foot. if youre paying anymore than this, youre paying too much.

again, it comes down to preference and what exactly youre looking for.

>>82639
Yeah, I was planning on corrugated steel for roofing.

The potential plan was 6x6 posts with angle-steel chicken cage trusses, then 2x6 purlins.

>>82646

i dont know what you mean by angle steel chicken cage trusses. but steel roofing/siding, 6x6s, and 2x6 purlins are most common for out buildings. but nothing is written is stone.

anyways, im drunk and need to be up in the morning. if this thread is still around, ill reply to anything then.

>>82666
>this

>>82669

i know im supposed to be in bed, but ah ok, its like a scissor truss. those are also pretty common for pole barns.

you could get a quote from most lumber yards but the best way to save money is to have an experienced builder that knows how to cut down on materials needed without compromising structural integrand.

Which is the most flexible wood for, say, a bow?

>>82590

Sounds like you work at 84 Lumber, especially "co-manager" and 9 employees handling one yard. Meaning you're the bitch, that's in charge of a few other bitches. I was an MT for about 4 months, realized sales and the stress of trying to give a shit about contractors being pissy wasn't worth the shitty pay for a company that's probably going under in the next couple years as Pro-Built takes over their markets. Joe Hardy can suck my balls.

>>82666
>>82590
>starts a "ask a faggot anything" thread and leaves an hour later...

>>84397
>Which is the most flexible wood for, say, a bow?

the wood from a well-seasoned fiberglass tree?

>>84397
Ha, I've wanted to do that for so long. I asked my teacher during woodshop back in HS, this is what I remember.

Pretty much any hardwood (with some exceptions). Stay the fuck away from pine-trees. Oak and maple are good. Yew is supposed to be good for longbows(English made theirs from yew)

Also, don't buy wood from a lumber-yard. Go out and find a young tree thats a little wider than you want your bow at it's widest point. Maybe at a plant/tree nursery if you don't feel like hunting for it.

I'm no expert, so go dig up some more information.

>>82605
I'm a contractor, not a timber yard employee - but the difference for these guys between a homeowner and a contractor is that a homeowner will visit the yard perhaps once or twice a year, and buy very little, meaning he gets raped on the price in order to maximise profits. On the other hand, I'm there week in, week out, spending $100's at a time - as a) they make a lot more off me in the long term, and b) if I decide I don't like their prices, and go somewhere else, it's not just one sale they loose, it's potentially 30 - 40 years worth of business down the pan just for trying to push the mark up on one sale.

>>84397
Flexibility is not the quality you need. Any wood is flexible if thin enough, and strong enough if it is wide enough.
It is a wivestale that lumber will not make a good bow. I have made hundreds. The best lumberyard woods for bows are
Oak, ash, hard maple, hickory, walnut, cherry, birch and a whole lot of exotics, too.

>>85069

Yew is one of the best woods for making bows. It is strong, durable, and has high tensile strength.

You can also eat the berries. The rest of the tree is poisonous.

>>84397

You don't want it flexible. You want it to have high tensile strength and to be stiff, with just enough flex to string the bow.

A composite of a yew core with ash or maple layering makes for a great beginners bow.

> how thin can you plane your sheets?

>>82595
>>82598
So, OP is basically saying he gives discounts to contractors in order to entice them to return to his store the next time they buy lumber. But there's no reason to entice home owners to return to his store because home owners only ever buy lumber once in their entire lifetime, and therefore could never become repeat customers.

so i guess you're used to handling big, hard, wood, OP?