Buy doors myself of via builder

mickman

Hi Guys

Was wondering is it cheaper to buy internal doors via my builder (will he get vat off ?) or is it better to buy myself and try and get a cut off the price for buying a lot ?

mykillokneel

Yourself, vat back is to reduce builders tax bill not his bill to you. Also you might negotiate a deal yourself builder will only pass whatever it's costs him onto you (or more for time to look organise etc and risk of buying materials and not being paid)

mickman

mykillokneel wrote: »

Yourself, vat back is to reduce builders tax bill not his bill to you. Also you might negotiate a deal yourself builder will only pass whatever it's costs him onto you (or more for time to look organise etc and risk of buying materials and not being paid)

Ok thanks

Chisler2

mykillokneel wrote: »

Yourself, vat back is to reduce builders tax bill not his bill to you. Also you might negotiate a deal yourself builder will only pass whatever it's costs him onto you (or more for time to look organise etc and risk of buying materials and not being paid)

Is it best for owner to source materials and fittings themselves - tiles, bathroom furniture, roof-tiles? My property is a very old one and I favour salvage wherever appropriate. Do I need to clear quantities, sizes etc. with builder before sourcing?

mykillokneel

Chisler2 wrote: »

Is it best for owner to source materials and fittings themselves - tiles, bathroom furniture, roof-tiles? My property is a very old one and I favour salvage wherever appropriate. Do I need to clear quantities, sizes etc. with builder before sourcing?

Usually imo all items that are personal choices should be left up to homeowner to buy, tiles, flooring kitchen etc etc. I've had no problems with suppliers arranging delivery, help unloading on site etc. As with floor finishes etc I would provide quantities(they normally ask for measurements anyway)
Unless your very hands on roof tiles and materials such can be arranged by builder as they are pretty standard mostly
If salvage then you'd need to do that yourself, I doubt if your builder want to go through yards looking for stuff unless he's being paid to do so and in the case of old fitting like sinks for example, his taste probably won't be yours.

Chisler2

Thanks for that - probably most clients do not know the score. I did not want to "cramp his style" and as the original poster commented, most clients assume the builder gets the stuff "VAT free". I am happy to do the footwork myself.

db

I think it comes down to what type of doors you want and what is included in the contract. My internal doors are standard pre-finished red deal which were included in the contract so we let the builder source them along with the other standard materials. For the external doors and windows, those specified in the contract were basic white PVC double-glazed so we selected what we wanted ourselves during the build and paid for them directly and the builder subtracted what he had quoted for from the total price.

mickman

db wrote: »

I think it comes down to what type of doors you want and what is included in the contract. My internal doors are standard pre-finished red deal which were included in the contract so we let the builder source them along with the other standard materials. For the external doors and windows, those specified in the contract were basic white PVC double-glazed so we selected what we wanted ourselves during the build and paid for them directly and the builder subtracted what he had quoted for from the total price.

yeah thats fair enough.