Cheap Green Building in NYC: Do it Yourself Discounts on Cheap Renovation Supplies

Queens Discount Building Supplies at Great Savings for Weekend Warrier Home Improvement

There is a great resource in Long Island City for creative home and apartment improvements, Build It Green NYC. If you’ve got a good eye for creative use of items from the ordinary to the unusual, and a limited budget for your vision, this very rustic store is the place for you.

Even better, this store is Green. Very Green. It is rescue and recycling at it’s finest. The materials and items that are here for purchase have either been recovered before demolition, or donated by companies that for one reason or the other could not use the merchandise. Build It Green! is New York City’s only non-profit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials; it is co-sponsored by Habitat-NYC and the Community Environmental Center (CEC).

So this means a very eclectic mix of items from a brand new sink that was the wrong size, to an old brass light fixture recovered from a building before the wrecking ball hit. The prices are amazing, and the staff is very friendly and helpful.

However, you will have to be visionary, because the display of the merchandise is not. The items are in a dingy warehouse on a one-way street in Long Island City. Simply put, no money is wasted on ambiance in Build It Green, but the upside is you aren’t paying for ambiance, and the prices really reflect this. I spotted a new, white door there for $40 that was going for $150 at home depot. Sometimes they get so much of an item; they give it away for free. They had fluorescent light fixtures a while ago that were free! They had new gallons of paint for $5.

Wear jeans and closed shoes for this adventure. Take measurements with you and bring a tape measure, a pad, and an open mind. Then the adventure begins. This is a big warehouse, which will be undergoing a re-haul by volunteers, this spring, but it is still a warehouse.

Merchandise varies at BIG NYC on every visit you make. If you see it, and you want it, buy it when you find it, since it might not be there next time. They have lots and lots of lumber odds and ends- what looked to me like a lot of molding and wood you would use for trim.