04/12/2021
We get asked why all the time and do our best to explain all the variables. We chose this article to share because it touched on a little more than lumber. Material cost across the board has been drasticly impacted and material/supply is often hard to locate. We spend a lot of time and money chasing materials these days and often stretching timelines waiting on orders. All across the world climate change has led to species of beetles and others that are also wiping forests out and global warming yet still exasperated by the logging itself; this will become an even larger issue as time rolls on in both counts. In addition, the manufacturing process and lumber mills etc. have had the same struggles with Covid impacting their employees, regulation for safety requirements has a cost and does slow down the process. I also want to remind those who have forgotten, prices began to change much earlier than Covid due to the Tariffs which are still in place. Situations like the Texas Freeze and hurricanes annually tax the system also impacting supply and demand. Good or bad, the variables all equate to a heck of a storm that we should expect to see more often. In addition, I believe we have yet to feel any adjustments from the blockage of the Suez Canal, it will leave its mark too, if not on our materials, on retail goods. Here in Indy, a 2x4x8 is about $8, not $5 like mentioned in this article, to give you an idea of the rapid pace of change in material pricing. Prices are still rising and no one knows if and when a correction or stabilization will happen. For us, we are planning on 18 months or longer but some forecasters are saying years to get back to pre-covid prices, if ever.
*none of this content is meant to be political, let’s call it an opinion to be safe and if you have some political spin or conspiracy, please keep it in your mouth for another time, this is not the forum for it - thank you.*
People in the industry cite disruptions from COVID-19, a shortage of truckers to glue plants that froze this winter in Texas and Louisiana.