I'm working on a playset for my kids, and have been comparison shopping for lumber. Dunn Lumber has a great website: www.dunnlum.com and you can browse and get prices for your lumber, etc. From my shopping list, I determined that I was going to be paying slightly more than Home Depot/Lowes, but a lot of that was because I had better wood to choose from at Dunn.
But what won me over was that Dunn has free delivery if your order is over $300 (and it's only a $25 charge otherwise). The other stores charge $50-60 delivery no matter what.
So I went to Dunn, and gave them my list. Man, they are so nice there! No wandering around for over ten minutes looking for help like is my usual Home Depot experience. You can give the Dunn folks your idea and they will walk you through your project if you want. They really know their stuff.
They took my big (for me) order, and gave me about a 5% discount on everything, so I really did end up doing a lot better than the other stores. They delivered my order the very next day, and the delivery guys gave the kids carpenter pencils which just thrilled them.
Oh, and I should add that the hardware that I needed was waaay cheaper at Dunn. I needed 100 3/8" lag bolts. They were $1.06 ea. at Home Depot, and at Dunn they were 50/$20. That is a HUGE difference!
Service was just wonderful, and it will keep me coming back.
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