Mention the word ‘building products’ to the man on the street and they’ll probably conjure up images of bricks and mortar, nuts and bolts, tubes of mastic and such like.

With small scale building work continuing to be a vibrant sector of the building industry, there is a wide variety of everyday building materials and DIY supplies such as decorators and paint products, self-assembly and ready-made kitchen units, basic plumbing and sanitary equipment, standard and bespoke joinery products such as windows and doors available from general builders’ merchants. In the majority of outlets, trades people, self builders and private individuals looking for DIY products can also find general cladding, plasterboard and drywall supplies, cement and masonry products.

More specialist merchants around the UK stock plumbing and heating supplies, roofing and rainwater goods, tiling materials, fencing, decking and other garden landscaping products. Not only are merchants in the business of selling traditional ‘tried and tested’ building products, they are involved to a greater or lesser extent in promoting the latest building products available to building contractors and the DIY market.

Some merchants choose to concentrate almost entirely on green building materials and sustainable materials for eco – friendly construction. As part of their business operations, some eco centres host in-house training programmes sponsored by product manufacturers. Aimed specifically at trades people, self builders and other keen DIY enthusiasts, these assist in the specification of any given building product and helps the user understand the installation process of new products and building techniques entering the market place.

Increased Internet activity has meant that anyone with access to a PC can shop via online building directories and related information websites.

Whilst it may be advantageous, especially in regard to considerable savings that can be made from auction sites and online outlets where you can buy left over and spare materials, there is always a downside of buying building products ‘as seen’ from photographic images; you only have to look inside any tradesmen’s garage or ‘lock up’ to find a plethora of building products and construction materials that were always going to be just what was required but then, turned out to be the wrong size, colour, shape etc!

Quite often building product manufacturers will have area sales people whose job is to come by appointment to a workplace, site or home with samples and other useful marketing literature. It is usually a great opportunity to talk through building plans and project requirements, view portfolios and purchase building products and related accessories there and then.

Exhibitions dotted around the UK at various times of the year are great places to source building products especially if you are interested in the very latest building products and technologies being introduced to the marketplace and you want to speak directly with the sales and marketing experts concerned.

You can usually find vibrant seminars and hands on workshops as well as demonstrations on the required tools for the job. Business cards are exchanged; networking is par for the course and new business opportunities commonplace – an all round opportunity to get a measure of the bigger picture for any building project

New building products and technologies are being introduced to the marketplace as a result of stricter building regulations and planning controls, an emphasis on sustainable construction and energy efficiency, the demand for speedier construction and to address skilled labour shortages.

Building and construction students now learn about eco building, eco friendly construction and environmental building as well as Modern Methods of Construction, the use of sustainable construction products such as precast concrete products for structural building envelope and roofing products like SIPS panels.

Noteworthy inventive solutions that can be found on Wholebuild.co.uk include Danilith’s Prefabricated Building Systems