Anyone have an account at Tarmac/Buxton lime, Derby?

[LKSF]

A bit of a long shot, but if you do and would like to help me out with an easy deal let me know.
I need a full pallet (40 bags, one ton) of lime to fix my house and am prepared to pick up from their depot and pay for it however. Cash, blood, not doing sexual favours though.
Prices are now obscene, 3 times as much as cement. I used to be in the trade, but got out a while ago and finding it hard to get back in and set up trade accounts again.

 

[Lancs Lad]

@Giles might be able to help?

 

[pettsy]

Giles is nearer than me, not sure if they’ll let you collect one pallet. I could possibly help if it was Longcliffe llime.

 

[Giles]

I’ve been getting it through markovitz but got two farms to lime render so I need to speak to Buxton lime but I bet through Percy at Mycocks I could sort something

 

[DaveDCB]

Guarantee they won’t let you in to collect it yourself, it’s been expensive to buy for a few years now(pre covid)

 

[LKSF]

They gave me a delivered price and also one picked up from the depot, it didn't seem to be an issue. If I had an account...
I don't have the figures in front of me, but it was going to be something like £150 to deliver and they warned me it was coming on an articulated 18 wheeler or something. It's asking for trouble trying to get one of those along the road to us and it certainly wouldn't fit down the 1/4 mile track to the house so I would have opted for picking it up. A 4hr round trip would have been not so bad. I just want to pay a reasonable amount, for a bulk order and an easy deal.

I believe gas is what is driving the prices:

Gas Info | Tarmac Buxton Lime

GAS INFOGas prices Average price for the month Pence per therm For use during month of Apr 2023 102.19 May 2023 Mar 2023 111.19 Apr 2023 Feb 2023 135.76 Mar 2023 Jan 2023 156.30 Feb 2023 Dec 2022 310.33 Jan 2023 Nov 2022 111.64 December 2022 Oct 2022 111.02 Nov 2022 Sep 2022 274.36 Oct 2022 Aug...

tarmacbuxtonlime.com

I priced up the materials I need a year ago when it was low, I then got a shock when the energy surcharge had tripled when checking March/April, but now I see it's dropped back massively again. I can't pass the cost onto a customer because i'm the end user!
Cement is circa 5 - £6 per bag inc VAT, lime is currently £24 from merchants. I'm thinking this is because they stocked up at last months price and this months is much less. A ton is now £115+VAT more than one quoted me a month ago.

Buxton initially advised using a merchant, but they're either too expensive or just ( hello Travesty Perkins) not even interested in giving me a price at all. I have a cash account with them so asked. 4 times I rung back and got excuses every time, I gave up in the end and decided to tackle Tarmac. I'm assuming as the building trade is very busy they just can't be arsed with enquiries.

I'm a bit stuck really as I need to crack on with the house now the weather is better to get it waterproofed for Winter, but am worried I'll spunk all the money on obscene material prices, only to find in a few months everything changes. Maybe prices will drop back to normal levels or we'll go into recession and that may help drive them down too.

A simple bulk order should attract a discount, but it seems it's not that easy.

 

[DaveDCB]

I’d be surprised if you got much of a discount on a single pallet, bulk is full wagon loads with my merchant, they give me no extra discount on cement if it’s single bag or multiple pallets they just don’t need to I guess

 

[LKSF]

I'm assuming they (Tarmac) were quoting me merchant prices. It was well worth doing, even factoring in driving down and picking it up.
It's even more favourable now as the merchants are selling at last months inflated prices and they've now dropped.

 

[diggerjones]

Whats the difference between the lime you spread on the field and bagged lime

 

[V8Druid]

Whats the difference between the lime you spread on the field and bagged lime

price per tonne I'd guess Dylan

 

[diggerjones]

price per tonne I'd guess Dylan

£30 a tonne spread

 

[Shovelhands]

Whats the difference between the lime you spread on the field and bagged lime

Quality, and fineness of grinding.

 

[Canal Navvy]

Quality, and fineness of grinding.

And heat , really quite a lot of heat with the odd chemical changes

Cement is also pretty similar in that respect

 

[LKSF]

It depends what you spread on a field, If it's hydrated lime you would not use it on a building.
There are a few different types of lime as they are all created differently.
Quicklime is quite dangerous as it reacts and boils very violently with water, you can put it on soil and it also makes a very good wall building and pointing material, it's what they used back in the day.
When we went through the first lime revival about 20yrs ago (when we realised what a mistake OPC was on some old buildings) they gave us NHL which is Naturally Hydraulic Lime. It mixes like cement and is usually ok for re-pointing, but not always. It is good for render. You can get it in 3 different strengths.
It's a HUGE topic, but they are the basics.

 

[Giles]

It depends what you spread on a field, If it's hydrated lime you would not use it on a building.
There are a few different types of lime as they are all created differently.
Quicklime is quite dangerous as it reacts and boils very violently with water, you can put it on soil and it also makes a very good wall building and pointing material, it's what they used back in the day.
When we went through the first lime revival about 20yrs ago (when we realised what a mistake OPC was on some old buildings) they gave us NHL which is Naturally Hydraulic Lime. It mixes like cement and is usually ok for re-pointing, but not always. It is good for render. You can get it in 3 different strengths.
It's a HUGE topic, but they are the basics.

We do a fair bit of lime work we use pfa as a potsan to aid setting times and strength, special grit sand, nhl 3.5 and a 3-5mm grit