Where to buy your construction tools

The importance of buying your tools from a tool dealer.
Most construction companies are guilty of walking into the big box store and spending hundreds of dollars on a tool. We do this because it’s simple, everything is on display and the big box store has the cheapest price.
What you don’t realize is that you shouldn’t shop for your tools by price. Sure price is always a factor when you are buying tools, but it shouldn’t be the only factor.
A few things you should look for when buying tools;

• Warranty service or after warranty repairs. You want to buy your tools from a place that has the ability to fix your tool regardless if it’s under warranty or not. You should look for a place that has the ability to fix the tool in house or at least send it to someone locally. This will cut down on the amount of time that you are without your tool. Every day that you are without that tool, that’s a day the tool wasn’t able to make money for the company. If you buy a tool from a big box store and they send it to another part of the country to be fixed then you could be without the tool for months. You also want a place that will tell you if the tool is worth fixing or not. It might be cheaper to just buy a new tool instead of fixing an older broken one.

• Tool knowledge. The salesmen in the big box stores might sound like they know everything about the tool that they are selling you, but do they really? If you asked them what was the rate of return for warranty or after warranty repair was would they know? Probably not, they don’t work in that department. If you go to a tool dealer who wants your repeat business he will be able to give you advise on what tool brands will work for your needs and how the repairs are compared to the price you have to pay for it. It might be that buying the cheaper table saw will cost you money in the long run because it’s not built to survive a lot of abuse. So spending 50 dollars more on a table saw that is a better quality might allow you to own that tool repair free for a longer period of time.

• Bulk buying. If you buy a large amount of tools at once you should be able to get a better deal on the entire package from a tool dealer. If you go to a big box store, it wouldn’t matter how much money on tools you spend, the price will never change.

• Delivery. Most tool dealers will deliver large or oversized tools to you instead of you rounding up a couple of men and a truck just to pick it up. It’s all about repeat business; they want you happy and coming back for more tools.

• Tool dealers are usually able to get you almost any tool brand that you need. They don’t carry exclusive lines of tools, or exclusive models of tools that are only made for them like a lot of the big box stores. I have brought in a portable table saw that was purchased at a big box store to a CERTIFIED repair person for the big box store to get new brushes for the motor. This is a very simple thing, it’s a repair that most people can do themselves. Except I was told for that table saw (because it came from that big box store and it was all of 5 years old) that you couldn’t buy just brushes for it. You had to buy a whole new motor to get the brushes. It worked out that it was the same price to buy a new motor versus buying a whole new table saw. So I ended up throwing away a perfectly good table saw because I couldn’t get brushes for it.

• Look for a tool dealer that will do onsite delivery and pick up of tools. This will save you having to haul tools to them every time you need a repair.

• Most tool dealers will record the serial number of every large tool that they sell you. This is good for you because it allows them to access your account records for warranty. It also allows them to check to see if the tool that someone brought them for repair is stolen. I have known tool dealers to not give a tool back that came in for repair because it had been reported stolen by one of their other clients. It’s a great way to deter the underground economy in stolen construction equipment and might even allow you to get your stolen tools back.

When buying your tools in the future if you take a little time to look around for a tool dealer that you can build a relationship with it can save you money and time in the long run. Don’t just wander in to the big box store and think that you are getting a great deal. Remember you get you what you pay for!

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.