An independent builders merchant in Nottingham since 1890

What we stock at Bobbers Mill

The yard is set up around the jobs Nottingham builders actually do: extensions, loft conversions, re-roofs, garden walls, drives and patios, kitchen and bathroom refits, and the steady run of repairs on the city's Victorian and 1930s housing stock. That shapes what we hold in depth.

Heavyside. Facing and engineering bricks, dense and lightweight concrete blocks, thermal blocks, sand, ballast, gravel and MOT Type 1 in bags and bulk bags, cement, lime, plasters and renders, lintels, wall ties and damp-proof course. Our bricks, blocks and aggregates guide covers strengths, quantities and coverage if you are pricing a job.

Timber and sheet. Regularised carcassing in C16 and C24, CLS for studwork, treated timber for fencing and decking, skirting and architrave, sheet materials in OSB, plywood, MDF and chipboard flooring, plus doors and engineered flooring. We cut to size on site; see the timber merchant page for lengths and services.

Roofing. Concrete and clay tiles, natural and fibre-cement slate, ridge and hip systems, battens, breathable membranes, lead and lead-free flashings, dry verge and flat roof coverings. Matching tiles on an older roof is a service in its own right, and we do it; details on the roofing supplies page.

Drainage and groundworks. 110mm underground drainage and fittings, inspection chambers, gullies, channel drains, land drain, soakaway crates, geotextile and ducting.

Fixings, sealants and adhesives, paint, tools and workwear. The stuff you run out of at 3pm. Screws, bolts, resin anchors, frame fixings, silicones, grab adhesives, expanding foam, trade paint, hand and power tools, PPE and workwear.

The full range is on our products section. If something is not listed, ask; a lot of what we sell is ordered in for specific jobs and never makes it onto a web page.

The trade counter: how the yard works

We open at 8:00am Monday to Friday and close at 5:00pm, and on Saturday we are open from 7:30am until 12:30pm. Sunday we are shut. If you need to be on site for eight with materials in the van, ring the day before and we will have the order picked and ready to load the moment the gate opens.

The counter is staffed by people who have spent years in the trade or on this yard. That matters more than it sounds. Ask for "something to fix a post to a concrete base" and you will get a through-bolt or a resin anchor depending on what you describe, not a shrug. Ask what fall you need on a 110mm drain run and you will get an answer with a number in it (1 in 40 for foul, if you were wondering; the drainage guide goes into it).

A few practical points about collecting:

• There is room to pull a van or a small flatbed into the yard, and we load heavy goods with the forklift.
• If you ring ahead, we will have your order picked and ready so you are in and out in minutes.
• Cutting is done while you wait for most sheet and timber orders; longer lists may be ready later the same day.
• We accept card and cash. Trade accounts are available for regular customers; ask at the counter.

If you are a homeowner rather than a tradesperson, do not be put off by the phrase "trade counter". A good share of the people through the door on a Saturday morning are working on their own house, and the questions are the same: what do I need, how much of it, and will it fit in the car.

Where we are and how to find us

The yard is at Whitemoor Lodge, 2 Nuthall Road, Bobbers Mill, Nottingham NG8 5AF. Nuthall Road is the A610, the main road out of the city centre towards Nuthall, Kimberley and junction 26 of the M1, so we are easy to reach from most of west and north Nottingham without going through the centre.

Coming from the city, follow Alfreton Road out through Radford and Hyson Green; it becomes Nuthall Road at the Bobbers Mill roundabout and the yard is just beyond it. From the M1, come in on the A610 through Nuthall and Cinderhill and we are on your left before you reach the ring road. From Bulwell, Basford and Aspley it is a few minutes along the ring road.

Because we are on an arterial road rather than a retail park, there is no queueing through a car park and you can get straight back onto a main route to site. Sat-nav on the postcode brings you to the gate.

If you are unsure whether we have what you need before you set off, the quickest thing is to ring or send an enquiry. Opening hours and a map are on the contact section of the homepage.

Delivery across Nottingham

Not everything fits in a van, and some things should not go in one. Bulk bags, packs of bricks and blocks, full-length timber and roof tiles by the pallet are delivered fast from the yard to addresses across Nottingham and the surrounding area. That covers Bulwell, Hucknall, Arnold, Sherwood, Beeston, Wollaton, West Bridgford, Nuthall, Kimberley and Eastwood as well as the city itself.

How it works: tell us what you need and where it is going, and we will quote the materials and delivery together and give you a day. On the day, the driver will put the goods where you ask, as close to the work as the vehicle and the ground safely allow. Kerbside is standard; onto a drive or into a rear garden depends on access, and we will ask the right questions when you book rather than find out on the doorstep.

Two things speed everything up. First, be clear about access: on-street parking, width restrictions, low cables and soft ground all change which vehicle we send. Second, order the whole job if you can. One delivery of blocks, sand, cement and lintels together costs less than three separate trips and means the bricklayer is not standing around waiting.

There is a fuller explanation of areas, vehicles and how to prepare on the building supplies delivery page. Ready-mix concrete is a separate service with its own vehicles; see ready mix concrete in Nottingham.

Trade customers and DIY customers

We serve both, and they want slightly different things from a merchant.

Tradespeople want stock, speed and a price they can build into a quote. For regular customers we offer trade accounts with agreed terms, so you can send a labourer to collect against the account and settle at the end of the month. We will price a full materials list for a job, hold stock for a start date where we can, and phase deliveries so a site is not buried under materials it will not need for a fortnight. Roofers, groundworkers and landscapers in particular find that our brick and tile matching and our willingness to source odd items saves them time on older properties.

Homeowners and DIY customers generally want two things: to be told honestly what they need, and not to be sold more of it than that. Bring a sketch and measurements and we will work out quantities with you. If a job is beyond a weekend, we will say so. We also stock the small quantities a DIY job needs, so you are not buying a pack of 400 bricks to build a step, and we can point you to tool hire so you are not buying a breaker you will use once.

Landlords, letting agents and small property firms sit between the two; the pattern there is repeat orders for the same repairs across a portfolio, and a trade account with delivery is usually the sensible arrangement. Get in touch and we will set it up.

More than materials: concrete, skips, hire and cutting

A builders merchant that only sells materials leaves you arranging four other suppliers for one extension. We have added the services that customers kept asking for, and you can book them through the same counter and the same phone number.

• Ready-mix concrete delivered to site for footings, slabs, drives and post bases, in the mix and quantity the job needs. See the ready mix concrete page for how to work out volume.
• Skip hire for house clearances, renovations and site waste, arranged through us and delivered to your address. The skip hire page explains sizes, permits and what can go in.
• Tool hire on daily and weekly rates for breakers, mixers, compactor plates, cutters and other kit you need for a day rather than for life.
• Cutting of timber and sheet materials to your sizes.
• Brick and tile matching for extensions and repairs on older properties.
• Custom fabrication for one-off items; talk to us about what you need.

The full list is in the services section. The practical benefit is simple: one phone call on Monday can have concrete, a skip and the blockwork materials all arriving in the right order for the same job.

Calor Gas on the yard

We are an official Calor stockist, which surprises people who think of us purely as a builders merchant. In practice the two go together. Site heaters in winter run on propane. Roofers use propane torches for torch-on felt. Plumbers and caravanners need butane. Half of Nottingham's barbecues run on Patio Gas. Keeping a full range of cylinders in the yard means one stop for all of it.

We hold propane in 3.9kg, 6kg, 13kg, 19kg and 47kg, butane in 4.5kg, 7kg and 15kg, and Patio Gas in 5kg and 13kg, along with regulators, hoses, clips and fittings. Bring your empty in and swap it for a full one; if you have never had a Calor cylinder before, the counter will explain the cylinder agreement and get you set up in a couple of minutes. The Calor Gas stockist page covers all of this in more detail, and the bottle exchange page explains what to bring.

Not sure whether you need butane or propane? The short answer is propane for outdoors and anything used in cold weather, butane for indoor cabinet heaters and most caravans in summer. The long answer is on the propane and butane pages.

Why use an independent merchant (and when a national might suit you better)

Nottingham has branches of most of the national merchant chains, and we are not going to pretend they have no strengths. If you run a multi-site business and need to draw on one account at branches in three cities, a national's account network is genuinely useful. If you want to order at midnight from an app with a delivery slot the next morning, their online systems are ahead of ours. And for a few commodity lines their buying power shows in the price.

Where an independent yard wins is everything that involves a person making a decision. We can say yes to an odd request without asking a regional office. We can match a 1930s facing brick because the firm has been supplying Nottingham's housing stock since it was built and knows which manufacturers still make something close. We can hold stock for your start date, ring you when a delivery slips, and tell you honestly when a cheaper product will do. Prices are quoted for the job rather than read off a shelf label, and regular customers are treated like regular customers.

Most of our customers use both, and that is sensible. What we ask is that you give us the chance to quote a whole job. Materials, delivery, concrete and a skip priced together, by a yard that is five minutes from most of west Nottingham and has been here since 1890, tends to compare well.

The quickest way to find out is to send us a materials list or ring 0115 929 2350.