I started my DIY journey with a compact car and slowly moved up to my current setup of a mid-size SUV and a full size pickup truck. You can DIY with any vehicle, but some projects will be more expensive as you’ll have to spring for delivery or rent a truck to deliver. Find out how to transport construction supplies with any size vehicle.
How to Transport Heavy Supplies
If you’re transporting smaller but heavy items (such as cinder blocks, bags of concrete, flooring, etc.) be mindful of the weight limit of your vehicle. Just because it fits doesn’t mean that your vehicle can handle it. You can either look it up online, or observe the back end of your vehicle as your are loading. Before you put any weight in, note the distance between the tire and the wheel well. As you add weight, make sure the back end doesn’t “squat” too much. Too much weight can damage your vehicle and make it unsafe to drive. Don’t worry, you can still transport construction supplies! You can either break it up into smaller loads and make multiple trips, or you can schedule delivery for the materials.
How to Transport Supplies in a Sedan
If you have a sedan, you can still transport some lumber and supplies yourself. Pop down your back seat and measure from one corner of your trunk up to the passenger dash. Also measure the width of your backseat. These are your limits for dimensional lumber. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to transport sheet goods in your sedan, but you can more than likely fit some one-by and two-by lumber.
How to Transport Supplies in a SUV
A SUV enables more possibilities for transporting lumber. If you have a larger compact SUV, midsize, or full size SUV you should easily be able to fit a few eight foot boards, and even some plywood if you can cut it down first! Pop down the back seats in your SUV. Then fully recline the front seat. Measure from the drivers side in the cargo area up to the dash in the passenger seat. In my 2013 Ford Edge, I can fit two four by eight foot sheets of plywood cut in half. Some stores have panel saws and can cut down plywood (my local Lowes does, Menards does not). Make sure you call ahead and ask before buying wood you can’t get home!
How to Transport Supplies in a Pickup Truck
A pickup is by far the easiest to transport construction supplies. An eight foot bed allows for sheet good transportation including shutting the tailgate. A shorter bed can still transport quite a bit of wood, but I would avoid moving 10 or 12 foot lumber off a shorter bed. I’m sure you could, I just don’t trust other drivers to pay attention enough. If you’re transporting goods that extend past the end of the truck, make sure you carefully secure it with ratchets or rope and tag the end with a red flag. The lumber store should have these flags available if you ask.
How to Transport Supplies with a Trailer
A trailer can be towed with a truck or SUV that has a hitch. If you don’t own a trailer, Uhaul rents them inexpensively (typically $15-20 for a day rental). Most trailers will fit sheet goods and eight foot lengths of lumber. Longer trailers can also fit ten or twelve foot lengths of lumber. Make sure you carefully secure anything on the trailer so it doesn’t come off during transport.
Delivery
Sometimes delivery is the best option. If you’re installing 1500 sq ft of vinyl flooring at once, that’s a pallet of material and can only be transported by very large pickup trucks, likely a one ton with an 8 foot bed. Likewise, if you’re drywalling a room, or installing subfloor in an entire room, you might be going over your vehicles weight capacity unless you’re able to do it in trips. If you have a big project coming up where you’ll need a lot of supplies (or if you have a sedan or small SUV and need to transport whole sheet goods). Call around to your lumber yards and find out how much delivery is. In my old town, the local yard only charged $15 for delivery of anything, whether it was a single sheet of plywood or a whole pallet of flooring, which was well worth it. I’ve noticed that big box stores have more expensive delivery options than local stores, so be sure to call and ask!
New to DIY? Make sure you check out my intro page, Can I DIY?
