Are lumber prices up everywhere? I just bought a board from a local miller for $1400 and not long ago I think it would have been $1000.
Posted by Curt Stenz (Member # 82) on :
"a board for $1400". I got'a ask, what type of wood? Obviously something exotic, clear hart redwood perhaps?
Certainly not treated lumber I hope. Here a 8' treated 4 x 4 is around $40.
Posted by John Arnott (Member # 215) on :
HDU just went from $330 a sheet to $409.I just paid $41 for 3 - 8' 2x4s construction grade!
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
I can't help but think, why? Where is that extra costs going to? Higher wages?
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
Alicia, my supplier actually blames it on Covid.
A few days ago I bought a sheet of "cheap" 3/4" plywood. The last one I bought last fall was $21. This one cost $52.
Posted by Brian Dish (Member # 10782) on :
it's lack of workers and companies trying to make up what they lost last year!
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
I still dont get it. Just because you're up and running again doesn't make sense to raise prices. Unless the government has come up with new regulations on how you run your business that would cost you more money therefore passing it on to the customer. I have read that wood that contains high amounts of formaldehyde were banned in 2018.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
The board I bough is second growth redwood. A slab 3 feet wide and 13 feet long. Clear. 3" thick.
Posted by stein Saether (Member # 430) on :
Bugs in the Woods have harmed and killed trees. Covid-related production and transport problems. Higer demand because during lockdown and travelrestrictions "everybody" is doing work on their houses. Maximising profit.
World-wide
[ June 13, 2021, 01:33 AM: Message edited by: stein Saether ]
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
This past year and a half has been unlike anything we have experienced previously in every way imaginable. Here in Canada we have gone through a large drop in our specialized business through COVID while the prices of materials and labour have soared. So many factors have contributed to the situation and all are out of our control. It has been the perfect storm.
But like all the ups and downs of this wild roller coaster we have ridden through the last fifty years we'll make it through in style with the help of family, friends and so many wonderful customers.
We have a mantra which we often recite at our house and this year we are repeating it fervently once again, truly believing it to be true. 'Next year will be better!'
-dan
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
Or is it a matter of Supply and Demand? When a product gets used a lot, price goes up. You want that lumber, so do home builders. Just look at how vinyl has gone up in the past years. You want that car/truck/van wrap? It's gonna cost more now. Pinstriping tape is running about $13 to $15 dollars a roll. Eventually we get used to the prices. For us old timers, we remember what supplies used to cost. But for the much younger ones, it's normal. I remember a 8oz can of 1-Shot to be about $5, now it's $17. That's more than triple.
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
It is all relative. My first part time job I made $1 per hour and was happy to get it. A Coke and chocolate bar was 25 cents back then. Gas was 35 cents a gallon. I bought a good used car for $200 and paid cash after saving all summer. I sold a 4x8 sign when I started for a $150 and made real good money.
Now things certainly cost a whole lot more but we also charge out our shop rate at $1,500 per day. Our lowest paid employee makes $20 an hour to mow the grass and sweep the shop. Minimum wage is $14 in our part of the world.
It is all relative - except if you are at the bottom end of the scale.
-gramma dan
[ June 15, 2021, 02:32 AM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
Posted by Ron Percell (Member # 399) on :
We live very close to a mill and they have been producing non stop.
The US lost 30 or more mills to Fires last couple of years.
A couple of days ago the 300% increase, began to drop 40%.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Ron nailed it. The US has lost a lot of lumber mills, Covid has caused a lot of absent workers, truck drivers, and demand is at an all time high. Prices have risen to the point that people are backing off and as Ron just said, recent lumber futures were down 40%. Mills are getting some workers back but with all the missing mills it might be years before prices completely stabilize. Funny though, at those ridiculous prices, I never saw empty bins in the lumber aisles at Home Depot or Lowe's.
I'm just happy I found plywood for my shop walls at $17 a sheet and 2x4's for $3.58 just before prices really went crazy. I've been half tempted to sell the plywood and replace it with sheet rock for a hefty profit. If it wasn't for the fact that I thoroughly dislike taping sheet rock, I might have gone for it.
Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :
Hey Dave, the mud for sheetrock has gone up as much or more than lumber. Suppliers here won't let regular customers buy more than 4 buckets at a time. They tell me that a factory in Texas is the only place in the country that makes one of the ingredients to make it, and they are shut down for now.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Our youngest son is a carpenter/builder. he says the suppliersd are not taking orders for housing timer, or roof truss supplies for delivery before next Easter. They are SO flat-out with orders, and sourcing and supplying is very difficult.
The drought and appalling bushfires here are a factor, as are the greenies who move in and suddenly do not want a big dirty sawmill in their neighbourhood - never mind that it has been there for decades... so they push it out.
Even second hand timber demand has soared, and to find quality seasoned old stuff is terribly difficult.
Decent wide hardwood stress-graded planks that used to be easily got for $10-$15 per lineal mater are now being asked at $100 a metre... ordinary stuff for house stairs, $50 a metre in length, when they used to be $20 each and we thought that was expensive!
We had some house stumps renewed in steel - a length of 3" square galvanised steel $210 for 8 metres. I remember when $75 was expensive! World steel prices seemed to have blossomed... or blown up.
