Working On Projects at Home? These Retailers Deliver Building Materials

Home delivery of building materials could be a convenient and cost-effective option for your current projects. Start by scouting price, then factor in the benefit of what you’ll save in your time and labor. For example, if you don’t have a large enough vehicle to haul what you need, or you do and would rather avoid the hassle of loading and unloading, even high delivery costs may be worth it to you. Here’s a starting point to help you navigate your options for getting building materials delivered.

(Please note: This information is current upon publication but may change due to retailer or local/federal governmental action. Check with your local stores before ordering.)

Tips for Pickup and Delivery

• Note that curbside or sidewalk delivery means they won’t bring it into your home for you. You’ll need to get it from the sidewalk to wherever you need it.
• If you do end up going to the store, try ordering online and going directly to the yard. You might be able to drive straight to the yard without going inside the store first. You’ll likely need to reference the order number to get into the yard. Some may still require you to go inside from the yard to get an order ticket to leave the yard. But it’ll still save you that initial trek inside the store, then to the lumber desk, then back out to your vehicle and then to the yard.

The Home Depot

The Home Depot has two categories for delivery options: Ship to Home or Express Delivery. Ship to Home is for smaller items like boxes of screws, gate hardware or paintbrushes. Express Delivery is for larger building materials like lumber or drywall sheets.

The Home Depot’s Ship to Home option offers free two-day shipping on orders of $45 or more. (Note that it’s two days after processing, so it might be more than two days total.)

The Home Depot’s Express Delivery is currently estimated on its website at a $79 for smaller-quantity orders, like up to 10 sheets of drywall. The estimated cost to ship 20 sheets of drywall jumps a little, to $89. You’ll have to do the cost-benefit analysis for your situation, of course. But especially for larger orders, it’s a valuable service at a reasonable cost.

It’s also worth noting that The Home Depot also offers free standard shipping on appliance purchases of $396 or more.

Lowe’s

Lowe’s also has two categories for delivery options: Ship to Home or Truck Delivery. Again, Ship to Home is for smaller items such as picture hangers, tools, or boxed products like ceiling fans. And Truck Delivery is for larger building materials, such as dimensional lumber or sheets of plywood.

Lowe’s Ship to Home is free on orders of $45 or more. Eligible items weigh less than 150 pounds (or 70 pounds for P.O. boxes) and meet standard weight or cube requirements. For example, you can get a ceiling fan in a box shipped, but not an 8-ft. 2×4. Processing commonly takes one business day, and delivery may take an additional one to three business days.

The website estimate for Lowe’s Truck Delivery is $79 to send a truck for from one to 100 8-ft. 2x4s, for example. One 4 ft x 8 ft sheet of OSB runs $79. Twenty sheets of OSB? Still $79. Lowe’s Truck Delivery also requires a store with your items in stock be within 75 miles of where you are.

Delivery may be disproportionately expensive for an $80 order, doubling your cost. But if you have a larger order, or even if you just consider the cost of gas, time and loading/unloading work, this could end up being a good deal.

Bonus: We broke down the differences between Lowe’s and The Home Depot if you’re having trouble choosing between the two.

Ace Hardware

Ace Hardware tends to sell products on the smaller end of the building materials spectrum. Think less construction lumber, and more trim boards, tools or shelf standards. But they do have a competitive shipping policy that’ll help if they stock what you’re looking for. And they offer free shipping for Ace Rewards members on orders over $50. For accurate Ship to Home information, select your local store when searching the Ace Hardware website.

Menards

Look to regional retailers such as Menards, which only operates in the Midwest. As with Ace Hardware, smaller-sized items will likely be the your best bet. Since Menards lacks the large-item delivery supply chain power of The Home Depot or Lowe’s, delivering large building materials such as 8 ft. boards or 4 ft. x 8 ft. sheets can get expensive if custom shipped. For two comparable orders of materials to build about 10 sections of privacy fence, we’ve seen firsthand a $601 Menards shipping quote vs. $89 at The Home Depot.

Your Local Lumber Supply Yard

Dedicated lumber supply stores may be better set up for dealing with builder-sized quantities than a retail store. But many are happy to sell to any customer, so you might as well give them a call. In some areas there aren’t many options available, so it can’t hurt to get one more price quote. You’re also likely to find a higher-quality lumber product. And they’re experts at this, so you may also come out with some good advice to boot.

Note that you may run into sky-high custom shipping costs compared to some of the big retail stores. If so, chalk it up to the reality of retail vs. wholesale supply-chain costs, be gracious and move on.

Amazon.com

Amazon holds up its reputation for carrying everything in the small to middle range of the building materials scale, with excellent shipping performance. It offers free two-day shipping for many products on orders over $25, or no-minimum free shipping for Prime members, and even one-day free shipping for some items and locales.

Right now, Amazon is temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand products, which may mean delays depending on what you’re ordering. (Get the latest Amazon.com shipping info.) They typically sell just about every type of hardware or tool you can think of, and even a range of small and custom boards for smaller or fine woodworking projects.

For 8-ft. or longer boards, 4 ft. x 8 ft. sheets of building materials or other large items, we’d recommend looking elsewhere. You can technically find some dimensional lumber or other large building materials here, but they’re prohibitively expensive compared to the other widely available sources we’ve mentioned here.