Debt Free

There are always places to get building materials for extremely cheap prices, maybe even free, if the exact type of material doesn’t really matter (and in this case, it shouldn’t) One secret here – on large, custom home building projects, there is always extra stuff left over. It is usually extremely nice.  If you have a pretty small project, you can often get enough to do it from these leftovers for almost nothing. That’s because they a re just going to throw these leftovers away! That’s right, they’ll throw the expensive building materials straight into the dumpster. 

Why? The homeowner has already paid the contractor for them, the job is done, and most of these contractors don’t have the facilities to store the leftovers. The left over materials aren’t enough to do one of the large custom jobs these contractors specialize in, and the materials need to match. Materials such as stone pavers and tile for floors, baths and kitchens won’t match and high end custom home clients want their materials to match. Hence they are worth nothing to the contractor.

I had a flooring contractor tell me they had 17 pallet loads of left over materials the last time they moved their shop. It cost a fortune to move it, so he wasn’t about to get stuck in that position again. That allowed me to get a nice selection of travertine marble tile to redo our bathroom. How much did it cost? Nada. This type of thing is repeated hundreds of times a day throughout the country. I saw another person haul away a very large lot of beautiful marble tile for nothing. He’d also been able to re-side his house with cast off siding scavenged from high-end custom home projects. Again, he paid nothing for the privilege. I’ve gotten brand new stainless sinks as well.

Other bounty can be had for very little money from remodeling projects. Kitchen appliances may not fit in to the new kitchen plan and be cast off. I’ve seen people receive Wolf gas ranges from such arrangements. It’s often cheaper for the contractor to give things away than to arrange for them to be hauled away. Another acquaintance was able to get nearly new Whirlpool washer and dryer sets from an apartment – condo conversion project. That netted him a handsome Craigslist  profit after he took a set for himself.

The caveat for these great deals is that you usually need to know someone involved with the project to make these deals happen. If you are involved, keep your eyes open. It pays to be there at the right time. Often these deals are available only at the exact time the stuff is either torn out or that portion of the project is finished. This can allow you to get some nice materials, increase the equity in your home, and pay nothing but a bit of sweat.