Thompson Building Materials

WOW, watch out for this place if you don’t send a knowledgeable contractor to buy your material. We had our gardener install some Arizona flagstone in place of our lawn in the back, and so we took our own measurements and went into this place. We’re pretty sure that our square footage calculations were correct. From our square footage they told us to buy way more rock than we needed, resulting in not only restocking fees, but also another delivery charge to have it returned. We still have some left over as you can’t return partial pallets!
Bottom line, DO NOT trust these guys to calculate how much material you need. I think they deliberately miscalculate.

I would give them zero stars if it was possible. This place is the biggest rip off in the South Bay. I am a General Contractor since 1992. I buy building supplies all over Southern CA. This place is terrible. 5 gallons of #3 Topcast at Thompsons is $ 260.00. Same 5 gallons at R Js is $ 150.00. Chapin Red Can Sprayer at Thompsons is $ 160+. RJ s $ 115.00. R J s is in the old Defords building. Mike and Tony are super cool and helpful. Take your business there. 4505 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Lawndale (310) 973‑2018. If you need gravel or base or any type of rock or soil. Contact Eric at
. He will crush Thompsons pricing and deliver with a smile… next day.
Jeff Lewis Jeffrey W Lewis General Contractor

I just rebuilt my backyard and I started to at Thompsons to look at supplies because they have a decent amount of products on display. Finding someone to help and ask questions is not going to happen unless you speak Spanish because the guys working inside that speak English don’t want to get dirty and walk outside. I wanted to get samples of some pavers and some stone so I had to order them which took about a week and when they arrived some colors didn’t come in even though I paid for the samples. The samples of the pavers were just of one piece which only showed a shade of color because Belgard Mega Arbel paver comes in swirl of color so it was hard to see or picture what the pattern would look like. Once I figured out which color and paver I wanted to order I gave the measurement to the guys at the counter to figure out how many pallets that I needed for my patio. They said I needed 6 pallets and that I couldn’t return them if I didn’t use them all. I ended up only using 5 pallets and I called Thompsons and told them that I have one pallet still wrapped up and its full. I asked if they would take them back because that’s about $ 460 wasted and they eventually said yes but they were going to charge me another $ 90 for a pickup fee. I said never mind I’ll sell them on Craigslist. So a few weeks went by and I received another few pallets of wall caps that are made by Valori Precast (later found out that it’s a Thompsons company) as I layed out the wall caps I realized that about 12 pieces were a different color from what I ordered. So I called Thompsons and they took about a week to get back to me saying that they will have to pick up all of the pieces and send them back and I have to wait another 4 – 6 weeks for new wall caps. So now my backyard is at a stand still. Good thing this was my backyard and not a customers. So since they had to pick up the wall caps I asked them to pick up the pallet of pavers too so that I didn’t have to pay for the pick up fee. They were able to accomidate me by doing that. Within a 4 week period I had to keep calling Thompsons to figure out what was going to happen with my wall caps and when was I going to have them delivered to my house so I didn’t have to pick them up at the yard to save another $ 90 delivery fee. About a week later my wall caps showed up at my house and 8 pieces were chipped. I wasn’t going to wait another 6 weeks for new caps to be made so I told them to refund me my money or I’ll take my business somewhere else. They refunded me my money and I made the caps work. Everything was a headache. I used the silica sand for filling in the joints because it sounded like a good idea to have a sand that doesn’t wash away, keeps weeds from coming through and it joins the pavers together but once I put in the sand down and swept it off of the pavers I lightly watered it so that it could harden up. After a couple of days I washed down my new patio and once the sand got wet again it became soft and gooie. I also noticed that now the pavers had a milky color to it and I later found out that it’s the chemical in the sand that acts like a glue which was causing the milky haze on the pavers. So I had to scrub the pavers and then seal them so that the glue in the sand wouldn’t ruin the pavers. It would have been nice if someone told me that I needed to seal everything after the sand got hard. It just seemed like Thompsons pick whatever price they want to give you, they don’t tell you the important information about their products, they aren’t quick in fixing their problems and they charge for every little thing they can such as, $ 12 pallet fee and then you get $ 6 back if you return it and you have to have the receipt, delivery fee, pick up fee, and samples fee. Sorry this was so long. Just do a lot of research on the product you want to buy before you get it from Thompsons.

Jerk of a driver parked his giant truck in the driveway of our apartment complex at 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon and left it unattended so he could do work in the building next door. Then gave me attitude and took his sweet time moving it out of the way so I could go to work. You did not have permission to park there, do not give me attitude because you are in the wrong.

I came in to order thousands of dollars of stack stone, so I ordered a sample of what we were looking for. (Which they charged me for!) I had to call them twice to find out the status of the sample and they eventually told me that «someone must have thrown it (the order) away». Of course they did. You wrote it on the back of a piece of scrap paper. (True story).
Totally unprofessional way to treat someone that was willing to spend a huge chunk of money at your business.

no customer service, no inventory, apparently they dont need my $$$$$$$

I’d never been in Thompson’s building supply before. I was amazed at the variety of materials I could see from the parking lot and at the tools in the shop in the office area. I needed some simple cinder blocks to serve as plant risers. The woman at the desk was not as helpful as she might have been, she asked what size (I had visited the website earlier to see what my choices were, there was no information) and I had no idea, she named a couple sizes, I could not visualize and she did not produce a measure or offer to have someone show me, as I dithered she looked irritable, I gestured (about like this?) and she wrote up the order. She told me to drive to the «top» of the yard (and where would that be?). The «top» of the yard was blocked by big trucks, the guys in the yard waved me around to the side (I think that is what they meant, arms waving in a circular manner), dodging fork lifts busily loading and moving materials around the yard. Parked in the yard I see building blocks in an amazing variety of colors, shapes and sizes. If there was a possibility of seeing this selection before purchasing, I did not know the magic words to attain that. I asked the guy who came to help me about sizes and colors, there were, it seems, a few. Do they come in that color? Yes but they are more expensive. How much more expensive? More expensive (knowing nodding). Workers were stopped around us watching, clearly I was blocking the way and I needed to get loaded and get out…
He brings the blocks, they are a lot larger than my hand measurement to miss-don’t-bother-me-with-a-small-order. They will not all fit in the car. I take half the order and decide to not block the driveway while I walk back the less than helpful office staff (through the busy fork lifts and big trucks) or pull out, drive around the block and pull back in for the small refund.
I should have asked to see the blocks, brought my own measuring tape, asked to see the colors, asked about the prices of the various colors… but it never occurred to me to have to be so proactive. I suppose I am used to Home Depot where you walk up and see the materials and decide. Thompson’s does not look like it is set up for customers to wander around and view the materials.
The blocks I purchased worked well enough, though one of them came with a big aggressive black spider. I have other projects in mind and will look for a supplier who will help me with my choices as I move on to the more expensive and extensive materials.

This site is the brick and block place for Thompson’s, which sells natural stone down the road a bit. If you are building or paving with brick or concrete blocks, or are looking for bulk sand, gravel or cement, this should be your first and only stop. This is like the building materials section of Home Depot or Lowe’s pumped up on steroids — everything they have, plus much more — and they deliver at a most reasonable price. (I had some 20 tons dropped off in my driveway for $ 50).
This place can get pretty busy in the mornings as the contractors load up for the day. For the individual homeowner, better late morning or early afternoon if you want to avoid the crowds and get some service.