Closed by Noon Saturday: Where St. Louis Buys Lumber, Trim and Brick
Revised October 20, 2026
Where’s the cheapest place to get lumber?
It depends on what the board has to do. For a stack of studs on a Sunday, a big-box store is hard to beat. For straight stock in volume, hardwood and trim that has to match, a lumberyard usually wins on the total job. For old wood, doors and profiles nobody mills anymore, salvage is cheapest because it may be the only place. Price the same written list everywhere.
Keep reading ↓12:15 on a Saturday. You’re standing outside a lumberyard on Tesshire Drive with a snapped piece of baseboard in your fist, and the yard closed fifteen minutes ago. Back home, the new trim you bought last week sits a sliver taller than the old trim it’s supposed to meet. You can feel the step with a thumbnail.
In a Kirkwood bungalow or a Florissant ranch, nobody else will ever notice. In a brick house with trim milled before your grandparents were born, you will see that seam every time you walk down the hall.
That seam is the real question behind where you buy building supplies in St. Louis. Price per board is the part everybody compares. The part that costs you is the second trip, the board that won’t lie flat, and the piece nobody makes anymore.
Here is the thing most weekend lists miss. The two places that solve an old St. Louis house best keep hours built for the trades, not for your Saturday. Norrenberns Lumber & Hardware, a lumberyard on Tesshire Drive in business since 1946, opens at 7:30am on weekdays and closes at noon on Saturday. Refab, the salvage warehouse at Gravois and California, is open Thursday through Saturday only, 10am-4pm, and closed the other four days.
And the brick? In this city even used brick is policed like a pawn shop. A licensed City of St. Louis brick dealer has to photograph every person who sells it brick and see a demolition permit before taking a single used one.
Plan the job around their clocks, not yours. The yard that can match your trim and the warehouse that has your 100-year-old door are both shut on a Sunday afternoon, the one time most of us finally have free.
Where’s the cheapest place to get lumber?
It depends on what the board has to do. For a stack of studs on a Sunday, a big-box store is hard to beat. For straight stock in volume, hardwood and trim that has to match, a lumberyard usually wins on the total job. For old wood, doors and profiles nobody mills anymore, salvage is cheapest because it may be the only place. Price the same written list everywhere.
Three counters, three different jobs
Stand at the end of a big-box lumber aisle and you know the routine. Pull a 2x4 off the stack, sight down the edge, set it back. Pull another. The pile smells of fresh-cut pine and the forklift beeps two aisles over. You do the sorting, and that is fine when you need eight studs at 6pm on a weeknight and a store open late. The big box wins on hours, small quantities and easy returns.
A lumberyard is a different room. It smells like cedar and sawdust and the counter has a pencil behind somebody’s ear. Norrenberns lists more than 100 moulding profiles in stock, plus hardwoods like walnut, white oak and cherry, and special-order profiles in almost any wood. That is the counter you take the broken piece of trim to. You hold it up, somebody turns it over in their hands, and you find out in a minute whether the house can be matched or has to be fudged.
Walk in, ask, bring the piece.
Salvage is the third room, and in St. Louis it is a big one. Refab calls its warehouse 140 years of St. Louis building history in a 37,000-square-foot re-use center. Doors with the old paint still in the panel grooves. Stacks of reclaimed lumber, hardwood flooring, barn wood, cabinets, light fixtures and brick. It is cold in winter and quiet except for somebody dragging a door across the concrete to see it in the light.
The rules are blunt and printed on their own page: they will hold a purchase for up to two weeks while you arrange transportation, and there are no returns or exchanges. Their sign-off is the best advice in this whole guide. Measure twice, buy once.
Reading a board before it reads you
Whichever counter you choose, learn to read the wood in your hands. Lift one end to eye level and sight down the long edge like a pool cue. A gentle bow along the edge is crown; framers set it up on a joist so the floor settles flat. A board that spirals like a propeller is twisted, and it will fight you on every nail. Look at the face for cup, where the board curls across its width like a shallow gutter.
Then run your hand down the corners. A missing corner with bark or a rounded edge is wane, and it leaves nothing for trim to sit on. Loose knots near the edge rattle when you tap them, and that is where a joist cracks under load. Your palm will tell you about wet wood before your eyes do: it feels cool and heavy, and it will shrink after it is nailed up.
At a big box you will put back three boards for every one you keep, and that is normal. At a yard, tell the counter what the piece is for and let them pull from the stack. Either way, reject the bad ones before they leave the lot. A twisted stud is free to refuse and expensive to install.
How do you know which one your job needs?
Walk the job before you walk any aisle. Stand where the new piece will go and ask one question: will this be seen next to something old?
If the answer is no, the job is commodity. Framing in a basement nobody sees, blocking, a shed floor. Buy where it is cheapest and most convenient, sort your own boards, keep the receipt.
If the answer is yes, the job is a match. Baseboard, casing, a stair tread, a door in a 100-year-old opening, a patch of brick on a front wall. That is where a yard with a moulding wall or a salvage floor saves the job, because the cheap board that doesn’t match costs you the whole room.
For a deeper side-by-side on board quality, see our guide on whether lumber yards really have better lumber than Home Depot.
Used brick in St. Louis is regulated like a pawn shop
Old red brick is the material this city is made of, and that makes it worth stealing. The City of St. Louis treats used brick accordingly. Under Ordinance 67392, a brick dealer gets its Brick Dealer Permit through the Director’s Office of the Department of Public Safety, and the dealer has to:
- Photograph each person selling or otherwise transferring bricks to them, and show the photos to police on request.
- Keep a register of all purchases and sales open to inspection.
- Require the seller to show a demolition permit and a valid City business license before accepting used brick.
Every permit expires October 15 of each year, and the rules sit on the city’s Brick Dealer Permit page, issued through the Department of Public Safety. So when a pallet of soft, rust-red brick turns up cheap from a stranger with a pickup, ask where it came from. A legitimate dealer can tell you, and has the paperwork to prove it.
Bring a whole brick from your wall when you shop, not a photo. Color shifts in daylight and size varies by era, and you want to hold the two side by side in your palm before you buy a pallet. Buy extra the same day. Salvage stock on the floor is the entire supply.
Decks, porches and anything that lives outdoors
Outdoor wood is where the wrong purchase hurts the slowest and the most. A deck that looked fine the summer you built it goes soft at the posts a few winters later, and you find out with your heel. When you buy treated lumber, ask whether it is rated for ground contact or above ground, and put that rating on your written list. Posts, anything buried and anything that sits wet against the ground need the ground-contact product.
Composite decking is a special order more often than people expect. Norrenberns, for one, says most colors of the Deckorators lines it carries are available to order within a week lead time. Ask about lead time the day you get the quote, not the day the crew shows up.
Salvage without regret
A salvage floor rewards patience and punishes impulse. Before you carry a door to the counter, check it for square by measuring both diagonals; if they disagree, the door will rub. Look at the hinge edge for old mortises and plan on filling them. Pull the reclaimed lumber into daylight and look for nails and screws left in it, because one hidden nail will chip a saw blade in a second.
Old paint deserves respect. Assume a painted door or piece of trim from an old building may carry lead paint, and test it before you sand. Strip it outdoors or hire it out if the test comes back positive.
And buy enough. If you find flooring or brick that matches, buy more than your takeoff the same day, because what is on the floor is the whole supply. There is no reorder at a salvage counter.
The trim you can match yourself. The leak behind the wall you’re about to close up is a job for a plumber.
Price the list, not the store
Write the spec, not the product. Species, grade, size, length, count, and for anything outdoors, whether it is rated for ground contact. Hand the identical list to every counter and ask for a line-by-line quote with any substitution flagged in writing. That one sheet of paper is your whole defense against a friendly upgrade.
Then compare the delivered and taxed total, not the shelf price. A cheaper board that needs two trips, a rented truck or a sorting session in a cold aisle is not cheaper. Ask what delivery costs to your street and what day they run your area, and whether the load lands at the curb or where you need it.
And if the project crosses the river, a yard in Belleville and one in Maryland Heights are both local to somebody and a long drive from each other. Ask about delivery zones before you fall for a price.
Before you leave the house
- Carry a sample: a piece of the old trim, a whole brick, a photo of the stamp on an existing board.
- Check the hours and call ahead. Norrenberns, (314) 843-0700: Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:30pm, Saturday 8:00am-Noon. Refab, 314-357-1392: Thursday-Saturday, 10am-4pm.
- Measure the opening, then measure it again. At a salvage floor there is no taking it back.
- Know who installs it. Some work needs a permit or a licensed trade; for small jobs, a trusted handyman may be the right call.
Still hunting for the yard that has your board? Browse building supplies across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then send the same written list to two of them and compare the quotes line by line.
If you run the yard, the salvage floor or the one-truck delivery outfit, the rehabber holding a broken piece of trim is searching for you right now. A Gold listing puts your stock, hours and photos where those customers look. Put your yard in front of more customers.
Frequently asked questions
Do lumber yards have better lumber than Home Depot?
Often the stock is more consistent, because a yard serving the trades carries more species, grades and lengths and someone else does the sorting. A big box can still have good boards; you just pick them yourself. For a full comparison, read our guide on lumber yards versus Home Depot.
Is lumber cheaper at a lumber yard?
Not automatically. Commodity studs are often close in price or cheaper at a big box. A yard tends to win on the total job: fewer rejects, delivery that saves trips, and trim or hardwood you cannot get on a big-box shelf. Price the same written list at both.
Is it cheaper to get lumber from a lumber yard?
Per board, sometimes not. Per project, often yes, once you count the boards you throw out, the extra trips and the time spent culling a pile. On a large or visible job, ask the yard for a quote before you decide.
Is Lowes or Home Depot better for lumber?
They carry similar grades, so the real difference is the individual store, how fast its pile turns over and how much sorting you have to do. For anything structural or in volume, a dedicated yard usually gives you more consistent stock.
Where can I legally buy used brick in St. Louis?
From a dealer holding a City of St. Louis Brick Dealer Permit. Ordinance 67392 requires those dealers to photograph sellers, keep a register of purchases and sales, and see a demolition permit and a valid City business license before accepting used brick. Permits expire October 15 each year, so ask to see it.
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Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.