What materials, tools or fixings do you still buy in UK?

[Chancer]

I want to start this so people can respond and hopefully others can then say "actually you can buy them at...." or "they are much cheaper at...." etc.

To set the ball rolling I buy:

14" diamond cutting discs, they are much more expensive in my area and only available from fournisseurs that give me a measly discount.

Professional gun grade foam and cleaner, as above but not a lot cheaper in UK and with Screwfix a different make each time of variable quality.

General fixings in bulk, screws, nails, rawlplugs, hammer drive fixings, collated drywall screws

Firfix galvanised wall ties and rail packs, never seen them here.

Danish oil.

Any service parts for the car, seems to be a total lack of motor factors around here, or again hardly any discount.

Flat pack kitchen units, kitchen draw slides & fittings etc, worktop mitre clamps and router jig, they seem to stick with the horrible ali strips.

To balance it out last year I converted some outbuildings into a flat in the UK and took 90% of the materials and fittings from France, especially bathroom and plumbing and fencing.

 

 

[Dick Smith]

Claw hammers.

Chisels.

[shimble]

branston pickle and mango chutney...... sorry couldnt resist

got a friend that swears by english wheelbarrows (apparantly the balance is better) and drain covers

dont get back that often so i get french but it pays to shop about

[Coco]

If you want responses along the lines of "you can get it here instead" then flat pack kitchen units..... We got ours from Leroy Merlin, solid oak doors, much cheaper than we remember then being available in the UK.  Now that statement alone could mean we are incorrect, as we don't go back that often now.  However, we had B&B guests last year who are renovating a barn and bring EVERYTHING from the UK, and I mean EVERTHING, including their landscape gardner and carpenters! They took one look at our kitchen, priced it up in the UK and agreed that Leroy Merlin were much, MUCH cheaper than the UK for a self-assembly kitchen of that quality.

To add to your list, we have recently had to get bog-standard white plastic pendant light fittings from UK as they seem to be unavailable in France unless they have a b***y great 8 inch bulb hanging from the ceiling!

[hastobe]

Light fittings seem very expensive in France - and with a naff selection - unless you like decorative leaves trailing from everything...

Then there are the ubiquitous paints...  We also buy all our soft furnishing fabrics in the UK.

Kathie

[Chancer]

Re kitchen units.

The ones I used on the conversion in the UK were from B & Q & were about the same price as Brico-depot & Leroy merlin so it was better to buy local to the work.

I have found very good value assembled carcasses in the UK but of course too large to transport, the replacement door market is more advanced & hence more choice & better value.

However nothing can beat my Brico-Depot Cuisine Meublé on promo for 800 euros with a halogen hob and all other electromanegerie for value, teamed up with a beech worktop (again 1/2 UK price).

Only this evening over apero's I showed a french property developer the screwfix catalogue, he nearly died when he saw the UK price for identical kitchen & bathroom taps, shower enclosures and bathroom sink/mirror units.

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Because it's only a maison secondaire I buy most of my stuff in UK and bring it down when needed. If I have a small project lined up it's so much more convenient to buy the bits in UK as and when I can and then hit the ground running in France. That means MDF, cut timber, screws, paint, sand paper, glue, filler etc. Otherwise, after the one hour time difference, we lose the morning opening of the shops on the first day and find ourselves there around 3pm. After getting back around 5pm who wants to start work? That's a whole day lost out of maybe 5 or 6.

However, I bought a 7.5m high scaffold in France last year on promo in Mr Bricolage in Saintes. From memory I paid around €375 compared with £500+ in England.

After trouble (not really trouble, just slow drilling in hard masonry) with my UK sourced battery powered hammer drill I treated myself on Sunday to a new 750w mains hammer drill from Aldi in UK for £9.95. This one will now live in France - I can't imagine picking one up anywhere in France for €15 !

[zeb]

I think it would only be holiday home owners and, perhaps, folks who live in Northern France, who would bring anything over from the UK. I can understand why folks have to "hit the ground running" when they get here rather than trailing around unfamiliar towns or shops for items that they can collect from B&Q on a weekly basis between holidays.

We have on the odd occasion had paint and teabags brought over but everything else is bought in France as it would be very expensive to drive all the way back for a few items which are a bit cheaper in the UK. However, we are seriously considering looking for a replacement secondhand gearbox for our tranny on our next trip (car parts really are expensive here)!!

It really makes me laugh though, the threads where people offer to bring over and sell us tonnes of plaster/Kingspan, or what have you, as they think we who live here can't find or get on with French equivalents.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Nearly Retired"]

I treated myself on Sunday to a new 750w mains hammer drill from Aldi in UK for £9.95. This one will now live in France - I can't imagine picking one up anywhere in France for €15 !

[/quote]

 

You mean like the one I bought in Aldi here for 8.99 Euros?

When I took back fence panels and posts, seriously overloading my trailer and roof rack I also took (on another trip) bags of ready to mix concrete (like postfix) France promo price £2.50 for 40kg, UK builders merchant price £5 for 25kg, - my cement mixer is in France.

[Gastines]

I used to buy virtually everything in UK as I could get full trade discounts and have fully renovated 3 houses with everything from studwork/insulation/timber/velux's/paints and all fixings/kitchens and complete bathroom suites. However,over the last few years I have noticed that many items from the larger Brico's have become much more competitively priced, mainly I think because even the French now seem to be into DIY and realize the value of their property. The big drawback of bringing things over now and doing the work yourself, is that should you sell, you get no tax relief for your efforts. The only necessity in the way of building supplies that I bring back now are TEA BAGS.

Regards.

[Ford Anglia]

Drill bits: the "drill anything" type from Screwfix.

Screws, especially stainless ones, in bulk.

A flooring nailer and it's nails.

 

[Simon]

22mm Hep2O and fittings, paint obviously, copper pipe and fittings, LAN equipment, lights, I did get my kitchen from the UK, but the french equivelents at the time were dearer, 2 shower units, though those were bought via eBay and came from Germany, oak wood flooring which was much cheaper via the web in the UK and I despise laminate.

The other way has gone an entire bathroom suite, a set of french doors, a new back door, and a heated towel rail.

Regards

Simon

[Nick Trollope]

Paint (not so obviously, 'cos we retail it here), long SDS drill bits, more paint, food (for the same reasons), Gripfill. Germolene, Anadin Ultra, E45 (for me newly-aquired workmans hands)... The list was a lot longer, but once one gets used to the "French way", it is usually cheaper.

Perhaps we should list things that we won't buy in the UK;

Anything plumbing - generally not compatible

Anything electrical - generally not legal?

Anything gas - lilkewise.

etc etc

 

[mint]

nick

what about a bbq that uses a gas cylinder?  will the "fittings" fit?  we have our delivery van here next week and i am considering nipping down to b & q to pick one up.  we are going to have a challenge cooking as we are likely to have to wait (how long?) for a cooker that needs a special vent for the extractor hood and i thought a bbq would be a good short-term solution?

[Dick Smith]

Firstly a gas barbecue is likely to be a lot cheaper if you buy it in France (in my experience) and you will have no compatibility issues to deal with.

The gas bottle will require a 'detendeur' to regulate gas flow. This needs to match both the gas and the bottle, so again, a French purchase. You will also need a tube (French norms apply) to fit, which you will need to buy in France.

So in answer to your question, even if you buy a B&Q barbecue you will have to buy a French detendeur and tube to fit a French gas bottle. As to whether or not a French tube will fit a B&Q spigot, I would be surprised if it didn't.

[Alane]

 Lime putty - not found it in France but maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

Oak timber framing pegs.

Steel and aluminium manhole covers - cheaper in Wickes.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Firstly a gas barbecue is likely to be a lot

cheaper if you buy it in France (in my experience) and you will have no

compatibility issues to deal with.

The gas bottle will require a

'detendeur' to regulate gas flow. This needs to match both the gas and

the bottle, so again, a French purchase. You will also need a tube

(French norms apply) to fit, which you will need to buy in France.

So

in answer to your question, even if you buy a B&Q barbecue you will

have to buy a French detendeur and tube to fit a French gas bottle. As

to whether or not a French tube will fit a B&Q spigot, I would be

surprised if it didn't.

[/quote]

The rubber hose is usually crimped to both the burner and the

regulator, so the only option would be to cut it off at the regulator

and fit a french detendeur to it, and hope there's enough space for the

different height gas bottle.

[mint]

thank you, Dick and Paul

that's decided it; a french one it is then.  one fewer item on the "to-do" list.

[hastobe]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Firstly a gas barbecue is likely to be a lot cheaper if you buy it in France (in my experience) and you will have no compatibility issues to deal with.

The gas bottle will require a 'detendeur' to regulate gas flow. This needs to match both the gas and the bottle, so again, a French purchase. You will also need a tube (French norms apply) to fit, which you will need to buy in France.

So in answer to your question, even if you buy a B&Q barbecue you will have to buy a French detendeur and tube to fit a French gas bottle. As to whether or not a French tube will fit a B&Q spigot, I would be surprised if it didn't.

[/quote]

We bought a big Aussie 5 burner gas BBQ from JTF for just over a hundred quid.  Cost to convert the gas fitting was minimal - so, for us, it was definitely worth transporting to France.

Kathie

[mint]

hastobe

that's a great deal.  5 burners sound about what i'd like if i were to have one.  excuse me, what firm is jtf?  are they in south wales?

[hastobe]

JTF is a trade warehouse (http://www.jtf-wholesale.co.uk/)  and I think we fell lucky as it was an end of range / display model.  We had to dismantle it in the store - and it took OH two journeys to get it back home (i.e. home in the UK) with me and son and heir standing on sentry duty in the middle of the car park with the second half until he returned - but well worth the effort!  And the trailer came back to the UK full...of some very nice reds....

Kathie

[Chancer]

[quote user="Gastines"]

 The big drawback of bringing things over now and doing the work yourself, is that should you sell, you get no tax relief for your efforts. [/quote]

 

I hope that you realise (I didn't and it was a shock for me) that the taxation regime changed in 2004, you cannot any more offset, or as before multiply by three and offset, the cost of materials used in a renovation/improvement.

Only factures from TVA registered artisans are acceptable.

So for me at least there is no loss on the things that I continue to bring from the UK, which tend to be tools and consumables anyway.

Ironically the vast majority of materials have gone in the other direction for a rental property so I will be losing out, but at the prices paid still worth it.

Sub-question:

How many others have used French ballon de chauds in England?

I still laugh when I recall a well oiled friend boasting and showing off his newly renovated UK property some 7 years ago, "look I have this fantastic pressurised hot water system, it cost £2000 (the show off moment) but I have a fantastic powerfull shower with balanced pressures"

"What you have" I replied "is an £80 french hot water cylinder!"

Even now my friend, who runs a plumbing trade supply company, sells a kit of a ballon, trepied, group de securite, and expansion vase for £800 + VAT net trade price, i,e no further discount.

[hastobe]

[quote user="J.R."] 

I hope that you realise (I didn't and it was a shock for me) that the taxation regime changed in 2004, you cannot any more offset, or as before multiply by three and offset, the cost of materials used in a renovation/improvement.

[/quote]

TBH - when you see the prices quoted by registered artisans for things like painting (per other recent thread!) I reckon I'm still quids in buying my Farrow & Ball in the UK.  In anycase, as most of us paying PV (i.e. second home owners) will also be paying CGT (at a far higher rate) in the UK the point about (non) deductibility of own materials etc is irrelevant.  You can still offset material costs (if you keep receipts) against your UK tax liabilities. 

I would be more cocerned about the quality of work, completion date and value for money when deciding how and who does work.

Kathie

[Misty1]

We bring paint (never found a paint I liked in France yet), tile adhesive (only because we coudln't understand the technical language on the side of the bags) wood filler and sheet glass (incredibly difficult to find where we are) also cheap kitchen equipment from Wilkinson's like pans, casserole dishes and cutlery.  Also brought bed linen from Ikea (but could have got in France I know).

Things we have taken back include bathroom vanity unit set from Brico (unbelievably cheap compared with UK prices), floor tiles and general plumbing items, and food/wine (UK can't hold a candle to French food).

Very interested to read posts about kitchen units B&Q v Leroy Merlin - we are in this dilemma at the moment - to take or not to take and we are in the very far South (66).

 

[Kieran]

I was planning to take some 22mm and 15mm copper pipe and speedfit fittings to put in a new bathroom and refit kitchen. Do you suggest that the plumming is not compatable with this?  Is it as cheap and safer to buy in frnace. Cheers