Menards as lumber/truss supplier?

[Innovate1]

I have heard from a few people don't use Menards as a lumber supplier. I think that was mainly in reference to lower quality lumber, more culls, etc. I am just looking at a quote for trusses for house and shop. Lowest I got from several places was just over $9k. Menards is just under $7k. That's significant. Anyone got experience dealing with them? For those not familiar, Menard's is a store sort of like Home Depot or Lowes but has more lumber and construction stuff. They are only in the midwest.

 

[colt zantop]

I use to work at menards. I will tell you one thing, make sure you go and pick out your lumber yourself. Do not, I repeat....do not rely on loads being pulled and delivered. They will throw in any old piece just to get the load pulled. You will end up returning half your load. I watched it first hand every day for years. Not sure if they still have general trusses in stock or not, they use to when I worked there, so you can at least go and check for cracks, etc, before ordering.

 

[Jazzman442]

When I built my Home I used a local building supply for a lot of things. I did use the local company for Trusses as the Truss plant uses different lumber for trusses. My trusses where perfect. I went between the local supply and Home depot and Lowes so I could get quality 2 x 4's . They would both take anything back. Where do Menard's ge their Trusses from?

 

[Innovate1]

These are custom trusses. It appears they have their own truss plant.

 

[terabitdan]

Our gambrel garage was built using Menards trusses. I have no complaints about the quality or assembly. Easy to get specs off the website. The manufacturer is Midwest Manufacturing, they do sell direct as well.

My son drilled through a couple trusses for wiring before I caught it. Getting an engineer to review and provide a stamped remediation plan was easy. Fortunately nothing was required.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Showkey]

These are custom trusses. It appears they have their own truss plant.

That’s how they got their start in Eau Claire Wi.........over 50 years ago, making trusses and pole buildings. ( worked there 44 years ago, summer college work)

 

[Stuart in MN]

I use to work at menards. I will tell you one thing, make sure you go and pick out your lumber yourself. Do not, I repeat....do not rely on loads being pulled and delivered. They will throw in any old piece just to get the load pulled. You will end up returning half your load. I watched it first hand every day for years.

To be fair, for lumber orders from most any yard you'll probably need to figure in a certain amount of extra for culls that will either get returned, or cut into short sections for blocking.

 

[finn]

Our gambrel garage was built using Menards trusses. I have no complaints about the quality or assembly. Easy to get specs off the website. The manufacturer is Midwest Manufacturing, they do sell direct as well.

My son drilled through a couple trusses for wiring before I caught it. Getting an engineer to review and provide a stamped remediation plan was easy. Fortunately nothing was required.


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

Pretty sure Midwest Manufacuring is a Menards owned company. They sell fasteners and steel siding, among other items under that brand name

 

[58Yeoman]

I ordered a 28x28 garage package from Menard's in '99. When they dropped the load, one truss cracked a 2x4. They gave me another 2x4 and nail plate to fix it. Everything else was top notch. My then BIL said to stand back when I cut the banding, as the boards would fly everywhere. They didn't, didn't even move a bit.

I don't work for Menard's, and never did. This is not a paid participant commercial.

 

[cj7jeep81]

I'm sure a lot of it depends on your local Menard's. I have a Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menard's within about 45 minutes of me. By far, Menard's has the best lumber, and usually the best price. Also, they are the only one to stock longer boards, which is helpful.

 

[spudley]

Trusses from Menards are OK, lumber not so much. Now if you have lots of time and are willing to sort through piles of restacked rejects, go for it.

My local lumber yard delivers for $10 and is very competitive with better quality so I use them for lumber but buy supplies (screws,nails,etc.) from Menards.

 

[wasfuzz]

Our gambrel garage was built using Menards trusses. I have no complaints about the quality or assembly. Easy to get specs off the website. The manufacturer is Midwest Manufacturing, they do sell direct as well.

Midwest Manufacturing is owned by Menards!

 

[Dustball]

I ordered custom trusses for my porch from Menards- no problems with them.

 

[Showkey]

Theses are special orders waiting to picked up at my local Menards.......they look very good.....

 

[speed bump]

I have never had a complaint about lumber from Menards. I wish they would make it further west because after shopping one for years it takes some getting used to how bad the selection at Lowes and Home Depot is.

 

[MFolks]

Have two(2) recently opened Menard's in Springfield Mo.one on the East side and on the West side of town.

 

[scottydosnntkno]

I have heard from a few people don't use Menards as a lumber supplier. I think that was mainly in reference to lower quality lumber, more culls, etc. I am just looking at a quote for trusses for house and shop. Lowest I got from several places was just over $9k. Menards is just under $7k. That's significant. Anyone got experience dealing with them? For those not familiar, Menard's is a store sort of like Home Depot or Lowes but has more lumber and construction stuff. They are only in the midwest.

Do you have a local truss company to your area? You may have never heard of them before, but they are out there.

On one house we built, Carter’s and John’s (local) and Menards all quoted around 30-32k for the truss package(5000ft house). Michigan timber and truss (local wholesale truss company) did the trusses AND like thirty large LVLs for 17,500.

 

[JamesW84]

Have two(2) recently opened Menard's in Springfield Mo.one on the East side and on the West side of town.

I quoted mine through several local places, Lowes, and Menards. Menards was less expensive. I have 18' walls. I found that 20' was cheaper than 18' at the time, so that's what I bought. Gotta cut them all down anyway since they weren't exactly 18'. Buy some extra (but I would do that anyway). If you have a trailer, you can return the lumber you don't use. My MCA treated 6x6's for my lean-to sat outside for 9 months uncovered and were still straight.

I called and got my quote within a day I think. With the local places, I was struggling to get my quote within a week (this was a $17,000 order originally of lumber, trusses, metal, etc. I ended up getting my trusses from a local truss company, and my metal from local supply that sells Central States metal.

 

[unisawone]

I had good luck with custom trusses from Menards 6 yrs ago, not sure if anything had changed but I would definitely use them again. I used a truss builder another time and had a better experience with Menards. Good luck

 

[Innovate1]

Menards has the best pricing I have found and they tell me that I can get additional 11% discount by buying during their sales (although the discount details states only in stock items so perhaps not). Just talked to a local supplier here that wants to supply everything and said to let them know if they were out of line on some things and they would try to adjust their pricing. I would like to support local businesses but am hesitant to do that because it may end up being a lot of time and fiddling if it happens repeatedly. On the other hand I don't want to waste their time if they can't beat it. I don't have any pricing from them yet.

What do others do in this situation?

 

[cj7jeep81]

Menard's has their 11% off sale just about every month any more (used to be less often). Only thing to keep in mind is the 11% off is a mail in rebate for in-store credit. Not a big deal if you shop there normally, but something to keep in mind.

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend a ton of time trying to shop back and forth. I like to support our local place as well, but on some things, its just not feasible (electrical stuff tends to be 2-3x more expensive). I would just get a material list, and ask them to quote you the best price they can. You can then compare that to Menards cut price, and deduct 11% to see where they land.

 

[tstaude]

Their trusses always look nice in the yard, generally speaking their lumber is ok if you pick it yourself.

11% is as good as cash for me!

 

[Innovate1]

Looked good. Then I had them update the quote to do a few things they missed - raised heel, longer eve... And they didn't include tax when most of the other quotes did. Most of the quotes included delivery but Menards didn't - they quoted two trips at a little over $500 each. It wasn't clear if that was for the trusses or trusses and floor joists as it is for a house and detached garage. But even with the 11% rebate they were just about equal with the low bid by the time I added everything to make a valid comparison. And the low bid was recommended by someone I am working with. So it looks like I am not going with Menards after all.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If you shop Menard's and have a BIG card, you'll earn an extra 2% back in rebate like the 11% rebate.

While it may not seem like much, it does add up as well.

I haven't bought a ton of lumber from them but haven't had any issue with what I have bought, same goes with the CMU and metal siding that I have bought.

Their concrete mix is made and packaged by Quikrete, atleast around here it is.

 

[andyvh1959]

Back in 1998 a framing carpenter friend said avoid buying the **** lumber from Menards. He then said buy lumber from Home Depot. That has certainly changed over the years. For my 2020 garage project I bought everything at Menards and had no issues. I bought it all on the Menard's Big Card, which I applied for at the local Menards while waiting on the invoice. That card got me an additional 2% savings, and at the time time they had the 11% rebate discount. That got me an eventual near $1000 account from which I bought most all the electrical stuff I needed. I paid the Menard's card immediately after getting the charge account records.

 

[nadogail]

Like any other supplier, you have to find a balance between price and quality.

 

[rburke65]

They just put up a Menards here in this area and it seems that they do have a larger selection than the other big box stores.

 

[Mike Folks]

My local Menards, has a nice selection of smaller pieces of woods, many species, into hobby sized.

 

[Tman]

I used a Menards package when I built my addition. Having done carpentry most of my life I feel I am a fair judge. I would rate them a 7 or 8 out of 10. Not perfect. Had trouble getting a couple of them OC due to warpage but serviceable. With their 11% off I saved enough to buy a new dishwasher and oven for the kitchen remodel as well.

Menards has their own MFG plants. They actually buy some raw materials from my parent company. Around here alot of our stuff comes from Mackenzi ND or Wisco

 

[toyotadriver]

I priced trusses at Menards and at a local truss place. The truss place beat Menards price by a WIDE margin.