Wood lengths, compost, gate bolts, solar lights

[Lone]

Good job I acquired 20 x 6’ lengths of wood, dozen bags of compost and padbolts to repair Gates, before lockdown hit. They were meant to be for summer jobs spread over a few weeks, but wood and bolts already been utilised for repairs and new projects. Compost stacked ready for plants for garden and greenhouse...added a few new solar lights and solar sensor light.

Wish I had topped up all tree bark areas, plus having spare bags, before this happened.

Can’t prep for everything in time I guess, when you don’t know what’s coming, or finances aren’t readily available to go ahead

Pleased to be ready enough to tackle some problems during lockdown

[jansman]

You cannot conceivably prepare for everything. I am an old hand at prepping/ making do. When I was furloughed, I made sure I made the time count, and did all those repair jobs etc. Whilst my yard looks like a builders merchant most of the time, I quickly ran out of materials. My neighbour, who is building two bungalows in his garden offered me as much topsoil as I wanted. Great! I took him up on that. I was in need of sand, cement and ballast. Couldn’t get it anywhere. I traded three x 1/2 days , digging drains and footings , basically for what I needed!

There’s always a way.

[grenfell]

Self employed handyman here and yes the shortage of materials has affected me. Decking boards for instance have been difficult to get around here as is a lot of treated wood. A building developer i work for has told me of other shortages such as plaster currently. I have a fair bit of stuff stored up , especially small stuff like ironmongery but it's really not practical , both finacially or physically , to store loads of stuff on the off chance that i may have a job in the future that requires it.

[Rusty74]

You cannot conceivably prepare for everything. I am an old hand at prepping/ making do. When I was furloughed, I made sure I made the time count, and did all those repair jobs etc. Whilst my yard looks like a builders merchant most of the time, I quickly ran out of materials. My neighbour, who is building two bungalows in his garden offered me as much topsoil as I wanted. Great! I took him up on that. I was in need of sand, cement and ballast. Couldn’t get it anywhere. I traded three x 1/2 days , digging drains and footings , basically for what I needed!

There’s always a way.

im the same the far end of our garden(out of the wifes sight)is the same i keep loads of stuff,might come in handy one day even if it never gets used lol,my taid was exactly the same whom my wife blames for me holding onto stuff but do like to prove her wrong on the rare times she has said "oh my friend needs such and such where can she get it from",we got one here darling lol,and a big fan of doing job for job helps both parties only costs abit of labour,helps learn a new skill you may have never tried and dosent cost you money lol

[Bosworth]

Plaster is very hard to get hold of in North London at the moment. Apparently it has quite a short shelf life and the supply chain has yet to pick up.

Garden centres are fine. Lots of dead plants but managed to pick up a full car load of compost, manure, and spacers for the veg units that are inbound.

[Arwen Thebard]

Wyvales, Dobbins and Notcutts garden centres in Suffolk have very limited quantities of multi purpose compost, Wickes has some but not huge amounts. I make enough for our yearly use but had to supplement that this year.

[jansman]

Wyvales, Dobbins and Notcutts garden centres in Suffolk have very limited quantities of multi purpose compost, Wickes has some but not huge amounts. I make enough for our yearly use but had to supplement that this year.

I tend to buy sufficient seed compost in the Autumn,ready for Spring.I am glad I did.I was going to buy seeds just before lockdown ( of the varieties I dont save seed for). That was a mistake!

On a positive note though,materials-wise,my builder- neighbour just dropped off 6 x 12' lengths of 4" x4" timber and about a dozen lengths of 2" x2".Result! He is under the impression that I burn them ( a lot I do), but a lot of it is too good for that.

We have need for sheets of marine ply at work.We have a major timber merchant nearby,with whom we have an account. No chance.They said it's as rare as rocking horse shi...droppings! Strange times.