Material Suggestions

Green Home Material Suppliers

For the materials that you will use in your green home you will need to find a place to purchase them.  I will give you a list of potential suppliers that you can use their estimating department the same way a contractor would.  Simply call the supplier, schedule an appointment, then show up and bring your plan we created in the previous chapters.

          Be ready with a pen and paper to take notes.  You will be undertaking this same process with several companies.  By the time you get to the second or third company you may have other questions for your sales associate from a previous stop.

          My recommendation is that you quote your project with at least 5 different companies.  Currently 84 Lumber has the best online estimating software that you can use in privacy to gain some confidence.  This way you could go through a trial run online before you set your first appointment.  The link is:

www.84lumber.com/RequestQuote.aspx

After you receive your first quote online I would recommend visiting at least 3-5 other suppliers.  The more proposals you have the better you can see what the going rate for materials and labor is in your area.  Also if one store has an item that is on sale or at a lower cost it would be possible to buy that item from them and the other items from another supplier.

Some of the companies that I would start with in regards to pricing your materials for your green home would be:

Lowes

Home Depot

84 Lumber

Menards

Local Hardware

Lumber Yards

Builder’s Supply

Also take a note of which companies you see delivering products to the local jobsites in your area.  You want to spread your reach as far as possible at this point.  Don’t forget to ask about what installation services are available while meeting about your materials.