purchasing paving bricks / sand
 

looking to pave the backyard. I've got the contractor but he is requesting me to source the materials.

Aside from Rona/Lowes/Home Depot. do you guys have any recommendations for a warehouse or shop that sells bricks and paving sand for a reasonable price?

He doesn't have any recommendations of where to look?

If you buy the materials and he does the installation, then after installation the finished backyard looks like shit and he says "well, you bought cheap materials" Are you going to be ok with that excuse?


FeelsBadMan

Rona was a jacking joke for paving stones. Had to make an 8 stone path to my side yard, dug out the grass in the perfect outline of the stones, leveled them with sand and tapped them in place. Looking now with light use two of the 8 are already cracked :/

Bought all our stuff from bc brick

Burnco Landscape but I'd find a contractor who sources their own materials. They usually get discounted product.

do they pass on the discount to you or mark it up to store cost though...

Really depends on the contractor. Even a contractor registered with Home Depot/Lowes/etc gets 5-10% off. So if you know one buy the materials through them.

Usually going with non box stores you can find better prices.

We got ours from Burnco a couple years back, I found that a dedicated place had much better selection than a generic home improvement store.

<--- is a landscaper


home depot actually isnt too bad and their prices are pretty good for a walk in customer, not a wholesale account holder at a major supplier.

home depot and rona actually sell the same products that building suppliers like Burnco or in kelowna, OK Builders has. abbotsford concrete and cci industries are 2 of the main producers.

Sand needs to be a specific kind of sand made for laying pavers, you cant just use pit run sand (regular sand)

Burnco in my experience is out to lunch on their materials prices.

In general, I resell products to customers at the price they would walk in and pay themselves. So if I pay $1 for a product, you could get it for $1.50 from a supplier with a little work, or you could pay $2 from a big box store. I would sell you the product for $1.50. Some contractors may even charge above that price, and most won't give you a better price than what you'd pay on your own unless they're really trying to get the job.

So you could save some money by sourcing the materials yourself.


All that being said, I would be a little suspect on a contractor that makes the home owner source materials. Most contractors have preferred materials, and would like the opportunity to make some money on the materials as well.

In all their stores? The Kelowna Rona and Home Depot had sweet crap all for selection when I was looking.

they dont carry all the products but durring the summer, home depot has a decent selection and i think access to full catalogs. rona is shit tho

rona is the main provider to many large scale landscaping companies.

As RRxtar said, they resell abbotsford concrete products. just go in and talk to someone, everytime i've walked through the "outdoors area" of a rona you see the abbotsford product flyers out in the open. do some homework, find what you want and go ask for it. they aren't going to have every product in stock and out in the open for you to look at.

there's also the landscaping place off united boulevard in coquitlam and the one over the pitt river bridge

I've used Burnco, had good product and a competitive price.

You probably mean Landscape Centre Landscape Centre, Your Landscape Supply Store I just put a good sized water feature on my property and I got nearly all my stuff from them. The price is +/- 10% of large box stores. It is easier to pick up things from them if you have a Sprinter type van or a truck vs big box stores since they have fork lift etc.

Their showroom is not on United though.. it is on the south east corner of Brunette and Lougheed, in a small strip mall across from the ICBC estimate centre.

To the OP: Are you paying your contractor with cash? Perhaps the contractor doesn't want a paper trail. or you might live a bit too far for him to be worth while to bring supplies in? Factor in the transportation cost.