Thompson Building Materials

I had a yard project that started with planters in front and back yard, new porch and a couple of small walkways. I hired a masonry guy who suggested I go to Thompson in Orange for ideas and to buy.
I made several trips as the options are mind boggling. They have such a great selection of ledgestone, flagstone, capstones, brick, brick facia. I was like a kid in a candy store.
Each visit, I was always approached and asked if I had questions or needed assistance. I prefer to browse on my own and then ask questions on items I like. This was no problem for the staff.
Having read many of the «complaints» here, I saw people at Thompson’s Design Center who wanted staff to build their entire dream project from the ground up. There are other people who need assistance, so be patient. Have a staff person get you started and then check out on your own. As a suggestion for the folks at Thompson, I might suggest changing the name of the Design Center to Showroom. That way, shoppers don’t get the wrong impression of what you do.
When I had narrowed down my choices, I was helped by Lori who was very nice, professional, attentive and knowledgeable. She even steered me away from a very expensive paver which was great because I got something similar at a competitor at a really great price.
The guys at their other place a couple of blocks away, where you pay for your materials and get your deliveries scheduled, were awesome. I especially want to thank Aurelio who helped me get everything done via phone and email. He was most helpful, super nice and a man of his word. And when I had to go back again, twice, to get more product, Johnny helped me and he was super. Great customer service! Even the guys in their pickup yard and their delivery guy were great. The one thing I really appreciated from Lori, Johnny and the guys in the pick up yard was they remembered me! I’m sure they see hundreds of faces a day, but it was nice for them to remember me!
I have recommended Thompson to several neighbors already and I hope they have the same great overall experience I did. I plan to reface my fireplace with something more contemporary, so I will be a continued customer and fan of Thompson.

Great selection and service.

Great experience buying products from Thompson and even more getting it delivered, the driver was amazing ! He was super helpful.
The only thing is that I bought way more than I needed of everything, next time I am not going to use their guidance in how much to buy for a project as I ended up with way more than needed and there is no returns.

This service was redeemed. The next time we visited we got better service and was actually taken care of and given quit the attention and patience on us making our decisions. The product knowledge was much better this time, and the customer service was much better in communicating.

Beautiful design center but not zoned to conduct sales do you have to go back to other site make purchase then return design center to load.

Helpful service with better prices than Sepulv

The prices and the quality of product is a (5), there customer service is a (2). The easy to purchase is a (1)… You have to go back and forth to various buildings (not in walking distance) to look & then order, then drive to another building to pay and then drive back to the first building to pick-​up.
Most of the Staff in the design center are not friendly. The staff who loads your stuff is great. We have purchased thousands of dollars of product and while I’m sure that’s not a ton of money for them– it was for us and having to determine our look for the house and redoing of our yard landscape alone was disappointing.
Don’t come here for design help. Come here for supplies and don’t have high expectations for great or stellar service.

The supply that they have is pretty good and I like how they have the pavers outside and set to view in the sunlight. I like the indoor display of the paver borders and different materials that they have on display. Very easy to see and to visualize whether something would work or not. That is where the good stuff stops.
With a bevy of employees behind the counter how in the world can everyone that has taken THREE of our orders mess up? All three times we called and they had no record of the order being placed or they messed it up some how. Really? It’s ridiculous. The employees are totally incompetent if a sales order can’t be properly placed and if I were the owner I’d fire everyone and start fresh. What’s the point of having an decent inventory only to have your employees screw up taking the orders? Sir, do you realize how much you’ve lost in sales?
Never will I go there. NEVER. Okay if I have a ton of time to waste then maybe I would. Otherwise, forget it.

We only gave one star wishing Unilocal HAD WAY NEGATIVE to choose from… AS with most of the Unilocalers reviewed on this place, the customer service is ROTTEN !!
Trying to complete our project & beat the rains coming this weekend I called Thompsons to set up delivery service first thing Saturday morning.
Johnathon answered the phone, checked inventory and PROMISED delivery would be done if we came in tomorrow morning @ 5:30 to prepay.
As professionals and being Men of our word we did just that. When we got there this morning @ 5:30 we met Johnathon face to face, introduced ourselves and tried to confirm the order.
In doing so with his ROTTEN customer service, he denied the first thing delivery time and rudely said he woudnt deliver until closing time on Saturday, stated if we did’nt like it to go elsewhere, what an idiot this guy is. After being disrespected and a loud argurment we walked out and are NEVER GOING BACK TO THIS PLACE.
We went over to Resource building materials, got treated well like the good paying customers we are, placed the order, got the delivery time & materials needed and got a much better price than Thompsons saving us a $ 100.00 !!!

The have awesome product and are helpful during the order process but they have the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Everyone there is rushed and doesn’t seem to have the time to even consider answering a question. They assume the customer is wrong before they take the time to investigate to find the answer. We always try to take our business elsewhere if we can.

Good selection, rude employees. It always speaks loudly when employees are unhappy at work. It clearly shows a top down management problem. Two different locations (purchase and pickup) and the attitude still sucks. I purchased a small bags and the service sucked. Why would I now want to buy a large qty to complete the project. You tell me.

MATERIALS for THOMPSON to BUILD with
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, in the middle of our street
(Something tells you that you’ve got to get away from it)
Our house, in the middle of our
I LOVE that song! My house is in a cul-​de-​sac and is ACTUALLY right in the middle of the street. If you own a home or are thinking about owning one PLEASE KNOW you WILL ALWYS fall into one of 2 categories when it comes to home ownership. You either HAVE TO get something fixed or WANT TO fix something up.
The HAVE TO is like the roof is leaking, plumbing, electrical, termites eating you out of house and home or they decided to stop holding hands and holding up that rickety fence and it falls apart, etc. Those thing happen when you least expect them too and you HAVE TO get them fixed. Then there are the WANT TO list. Those are usually called remodels. You WANT TO remodel the kitchen, bathrooms, landscape, paint, put in a new toilet or fixtures, or upgrade the lighting, etc. I’m in the process of landscaping my backyard. So when I saw this place I nearly cried with JOY!
Being that my house is older and I live in the middle of the street in a cul-​de-​sac I actually have a backyard unlike most new homes today that are all house and almost NO YARD. It’s LONG and at first glance just looks like nice yard UNTIL you decided to mow the D*MN thing and you realize just how big it is! Thus the reason I have a gardener! Well that and I wasn’t paying attention once after mowing my lawn and got 3^rd degree burns on my hand while cleaning off the mower.
So I am in the process of doing things in stages. I got some concrete laid down earlier this year and put up a GI-​NORMOUS iron gazebo (LOVE IT)! I’ve bought all the furniture for most of the yard like table chairs, sofa, and chairs with tables, puffs for parties, etc. Next is laying stone and making a seating wall along the back and this is where this place comes in handy! I need more GI-​NORMOUS pot for plants and color and for the water fountain area and this is my place!
They have EVERYTHING you could possible want and they DELIVER for a reasonable price! I’m planning an outdoor kitchen and need stone and they have a HUGE selection to pick from. I nearly lost my mind trying to look at everything and still did NOT see the ENTIRE yard!
I went inside to ask question and everyone was UBER FRIENDLY and NICE! They are SUPER HELPFUL and PROFESSIONAL to boot! They don’t just have pavement stones but also have fake rocks in all shapes and sizes, huge pots for plants, stones for create water falls, rock wall stones, some décor as well and even outdoor trashcans that are not an eyesore! I might snag some of those as well too.
I going back with my gardener/​landscaper to pick out what I want and get some ideas. SUPER GLAD I ran into this place! OH and the PRICES are UBER REASONABLE… that is a MUST!
YOU ROCK… no pun intended!

They don’t treat you seriously at least with me not helpful at all your on your own no what you want because you ain’t getting no help if you don’t look wealthy little they no I bought 4500 of stone I settled with them because I loved the color of the stone that was displayed there service sucks there was a white older man that was rude seemed like he didn’t like his job. Poor service

I had a discrepancy on an order, but Mary came to the rescue and reconciled it. I originally started my gripe with Sales Mgmt, who were very prompt in getting back to me and directing the problem to the right person. I would give a better rating but they should have got it right the first time. They have a great selection and the show room staff is very helpful.

Thompsons is a one stop shop for me as a landscape designer. On many projects I get everything I need aside from plant material, soil and fertilizer. Have used them on numerous projects for base gravel, dg, pea gravel, compost, decorative pebbles, boulders, stacked stone, top soil etc. They offer a flat rate on delivery, regardless of how much material, as long as it fits on one truck and believe me you can fit LOTS of material in one delivery. Delivery cost is dependent on the city but in most cases everything I need from Thompsons cost less including delivery than from a place that may be right down the street from a particular job site. This review is specific to the Orange yard & The Design Center down the street, as I’ve not always had as much ‘luck’ at the Lomita location. The delivery drivers usually are very willing to work with me as far as placement of loose materials which can greatly add to my efficiency and save my client money, and these guys for the most part are highly skilled at maneuvering the skip loaders to unload materials on site. To say the least, Thompsons makes my life a little easier.
Nicklaus Paulo of xeristyle | exterior | design Fullerton, CA

This review is for the Thompson on Case street and Taft as well. Everyone there was really nice and very helpful. I had originally gone to a different stone supply company but the people there were so incredibly rude that I didn’t buy from them. I wound up going to Thompson and the stones I wanted were actually several hundred dollars less than I had expected. Really happy with my experience so far.

Ah, once again the simple lost art of customer service.
Went to the design center on a Saturday morning with the wife carrying measuring tape, a picture of the stone siding we were trying to match, and a notepad. One would think these are obvious signs of people at least moderately interested in either designing a project or purchasing building materials.
I’m not one to play the race card, but I definitely got the feeling that if you’re not Caucasian then somehow you’re not given the time of day. No one from the sales team bothered greeting, asking, or inquiring with us. Two of them just stood by the cash register playing with their smartphone. The same two salesmen greeted other customers who were already working with a sales person.
I’m not expecting to be groveled to, but at least have a decent amount of respect for customers that enter through the door. This is the 21^st century and the whole «white is right» attitude needs to go.

I’ve been a customer of Thompson Building Materials for about 15 years.
It’s a great place to buy and compare prices on professional, contractor grade items.
The Orange location has two parts — the «Design Center» and for lack of a better term the «yard style location». Even though the address of the design center faces Case St. — it’s on the corner of Taft — about a block separates the two — at times you’ll need to stop into both places to complete your transaction.
The design center is homeowner/​customer oriented; customer service people ask if they could help you. The yard location has a counter and is more of a contractor «pro shop» — no one is gonna ask if they can help you until you «step up» to the counter and say hello.
Design center is a great place to view displays of stone and brick veneer. It is where you get prices and place your order. They have several items in stock — there is a «yard» out back to load your truck.
The «yard» has more outdoor displays, including real and fake boulders, fountains, statues, BBQ islands, and a small indoor store with tools and supplies. They have block, rock, gravel, sand etc. with delivery available. It’s a good place to get professional quality sealers, etc. in large quantities.
Another good resource for your home improvement needs!

Dream come true if you are re-​doing your Outdoors!

So I asked a question on Unilocal for help with recommendations on where in OC to buy rock/​gravel, sand, flagstone, etc. The lower IQ’ed but highly skilled comics in Unilocal-​land provided the «profound» suggestions as to where I should «get» these material. Note I asked where to «buy», not «gather or steal». Thus the answers back were:
– «dude, at a forest»
– «at the beach»
LOL, it was good for a laugh.
Seriously, I received several good recommendations from non-​Yelpers unfortunately. The best place I visited was Thompson Bldg Material. They have an awesome design center at this location (they have several locations but this is the only design center). And the prices were very reasonable (based on comparison). Turns out Thompson supplies many of the other local building material businesses. As an example, their delivery price is $ 40. Most places charge from $ 75-​$ 250 «because of the folklift».
The staff was super knowledgeable. Going to Thompson’s is more like a good event to attend rather than the work of shopping. It was actually fun to look at all the different material which were set as if they would be at your house, not just loose piles of… well, rock.