Save Money On Interior Trim

Buying Pro Paks at The Home Depot Saves Money

Whether you’re building an entire new home or just doing a renovation the material costs are enough to make any grown man cry! While our economy has been anything but inspiring, the cost of building materials has continued to climb without regard to our stagnant economy. Builders, carpenters and renovation contractors that find ways to cut costs building materials are likely to gain a competitive edge in the bid market resulting in more work.

Interior trim is an expensive line item in many of my bids due to both the high price of materials and the high labor prices required for detailed finish carpentry. One place to help cut some of those costs is on the trim material package. The Home Depot offers customers pre-bundled packages (Pro Paks) of interior trim at a great value. Some of the benefits include:

• Pro Paks lower Moulding costs up to 40%
• Pre-bundled job quantities
• Wide selection of profiles
• Availability varies by store and market, however the quantities can be verified online prior to visiting the store

Available profiles include an assortment of baseboard trim, casing, and crown mouldings. The selection includes finger-jointed pine, solid pine, and MDF (other selections may be available in your location). The selections include many of the popular profiles found in homes being built today including 5-1/4″ and 3-1/2″ base mouldings, several 2-1/2″ casings, and 3-5/8″ crown mouldings.

Bigger The Project, Bigger The Savings

Making money on construction projects is tough even in the best of circumstances. Not matter how well I keep track of materials and how careful I am at estimating materials it seems as though most projects always run over on material costs. So finding ways to keep those costs at a minimum has always been something I’m focused on in order to improve profitability.

Let’s assume a small renovation project requires several hundred feet of casing material. Let’s assume we’re installing 2-1/2″ primed colonial casing. The Home Depot sells 7′ long (84 inch) pieces for $6.65 each or $0.95 per lineal foot. They also sell the Pro Pak for the same profile (168 lineal feet in the pack) for $99.97 or $0.59 per lineal foot. This represents a savings of 38% or approximately $120 when purchasing 336 ft of trim. As you can see this can be a significant savings especially on larger jobs where the savings can be in the thousands of dollars!

Note: The prices above were prices here at our local Home Depot, prices may vary depending on the location.

Conveniently Packaged

In addition to the savings I like that these Pro Paks are packaged in easy to handle packages. The longer base mouldings are packaged with five pieces 16 ft long and casing material is packaged with 12 pieces 14 ft long. These are good size packages that can be moved easily from the truck to the jobsite. The total length of the package is clearly labeled so it’s easy to determine the number of packages required for the job.