How materials work — your role, the builder's role, ours

You choose and order your materials. Your builder coordinates timing and on-site receipt. We give you access to partner suppliers and set up the materials tracker that you and your builder then run day-to-day.

Your role

You're in charge of choosing and ordering the things that go into your home. That's everything from tiles, taps, and paint through to bigger items like sanitaryware and lighting. You pay the supplier directly for these items, on the supplier's terms.

You can buy from any supplier you want. We don't restrict you to a list.

The builder's role

Your builder is the one on site. They coordinate the timing of deliveries against the build programme, take receipt of items, check them on arrival, and keep them safe until they're installed. If a delivery shows up damaged or with the wrong items, the builder is the first person to flag it.

For installation specifications — what fits where, what works with what, what's compatible with the structural reality of your home — the builder is the right person to ask. They'll often have an opinion about what works in practice that's worth taking seriously.

Our role

We do three things on the materials side.

Partner-supplier access. We have arrangements with a network of suppliers. If you choose to buy from one of our partner suppliers, you get access to their trade discount — their published prices come down. Suppliers pay us a commission when our customers buy from them, which is how the partner relationship works financially. You can buy from non-partner suppliers and most customers buy a mix.

Setting up the materials tracker. This is a shared spreadsheet listing every item on the project: what's been ordered, who placed each order, and when each delivery is expected. A Beams planner or designer kicks the tracker off from the admin side once your materials list is finalised, auto-populating it from your catalogue selections. From that point onwards, you and your builder run the tracker day-to-day. Beams isn't responsible for updates to the tracker, and isn't procuring items on your behalf. Your builder reviews the tracker before kick-off because they need to see the materials list to commit to a timeline. The article How the materials tracker works explains the day-to-day.

Optional support. If you want help with materials selection or a designer to draft an agreed look, our design team can step in. That's separate from the platform itself — it's a service you can opt into.

What this means for you in practice

Most of the materials decisions fall to you. That's the trade-off of the model: you're in control, which means you also have the work of choosing. The platform tools help you keep on top of it; the partner-supplier network gives you access to better prices when you want them; your designer (if you're using one) helps with the bigger choices.

If you'd prefer somebody else to make all the materials decisions for you, that's the optional Project Management Support add-on — a different shape of working with us.

Related articles

• Beams partner suppliers and trade discounts
• How the materials tracker works
• Sequencing materials with the build programme
• What to do if a delivery is missing or wrong
• What to do if a product I receive is faulty