Lumber "shortage"

[1918ColonialRevival]

Looks like I'll be putting off my porch project I was hoping to do this spring for a while. I went to a couple of lumber yards this week and prices have gone from insane to just plain ludicrous. All because of a supposed shortage related to Covid and an increase in home projects. To give some idea, an ordinary 2x4x10 was almost $18 USD. Ridiculous.

In every economics course I took, I was taught that price was directly proportional to supply and demand. Both lumber yards were well stocked with overpriced lumber, so there doesn't seem to be a supply issue. And with prices through the roof, I'd say demand is declining if not plummeting. I'm hoping things start to normalize soon. Otherwise, I don't see how a lot of the construction industry will survive.

Anyway, rant over. Has anyone seen signs of prices starting to go back down?

[PaulJohnson]

I think I will be chiming in on your rant very soon. We have a large back porch project planned for later this month. My shopping list includes about 40 PT 2x10x12's. I am bracing myself for serious sticker shock!

[phil]

I still have a 2x4 I'm thinking of putting it on ebay

yesterday I bought some brass rod , 6 feet of 1/2" and 6 feet of 3/8ths
$137.41 Canadian. I almost fell over.

It seems the lumber industry is in competition with pellet makers who are using whole logs, albeit little ones, but still, Its kind of sad.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.5979498

[Lily left the valley]

We were hoping to build a few trellis in the garden, as well as expanding the compost into 3 bays. The lumber price insanity has hit here as well, so now the plans have shifted to using whatever scrap lumber we have already gathered or can get our hands on and doing what we can. We're thinking of picking up some of the local free (heat treated) pallets a few shops have around here to temporarily expand the compost.

Fortunately we have enough posts to do the blackberry trellis (also reusing what used to be a dog run wire cable that was left eyebolted into a tree as the training/support line), but the black raspberry might have to wait another year unless we get lucky with someone's leftovers. Beyond that, we'll see what we can do, depending on how many pallets can be had.

[phil]

watch as it goes metric and a 2x4 wont be 2" x 4" anymore

[Manalto]

watch as it goes metric and a 2x4 wont be 2" x 4" anymore

You mean it won't be 1.5" X 3.5" anymore.

[Lily left the valley]

watch as it goes metric and a 2x4 wont be 2" x 4" anymore

You mean it won't be 1.5" X 3.5" anymore.

Beat me to it.

[phil]

yes sarcasm intended as life goes on the lumber and the chocolate bars seem to keep getting smaller and the new razors have one more blade.. I envision being old and skinny and trying to operate a new Gillette razor with 20 blades

[1918ColonialRevival]

...I envision being old and skinny and trying to operate a new Gillette razor with 20 blades

Eh, just do what I do and don't shave!

If the razor companies were depending on my revenue, they would have gone broke a long time ago!

[Lily left the valley]

Another shortage related discovery recently...our neighbor to the east's wood stockade fence is in bad shape. She had a cousin come twice to try to shore it up, but it's become evident that it's rotted in all the wrong places (and it is old and was never treated even when the former homeowner was there). She let us know that she's planning to replace it, but can't just yet due to funds. Then she mentioned she was thinking the plastic kind, which I thought about more later wondering if it was a budget issue. (Which is likely. She is retired and had a bad roof leak she had to get repaired not that long ago that involved cleanup and attic/ceiling work plus insulation changeover.) I also wondered, if we offered to help cover the difference, maybe I could convince her to get a nicer wood style instead of the cheapest solid panel plastic she'd likely get. The current fence actually is not a very long stretch of the property because of the front slope of our yards, rules the city has about sight lines for driveways near the street, as well as where our garage is located and the fence stops there.

Knowing the soaring prices for wood, I went online to get an idea of what even a basic wood fence might cost and was planning to compare it to some upgraded options in case the price ding hadn't reached that level yet. Guess what? Good luck finding a place near us that has enough or in some cases any wood fencing in--even stockade at some-- to make even the smaller length fence I'm talking about. Additionally, there's not even a hint as to when they expect more in stock (This includes a few places that came up in the search in the Greater Boston Area where some sites always assume we are even though we aren't). Many sites (even Home Depot) also have "This item is not available for delivery" posted on the listings. That blew my mind because at some stores fencing is ONLY available delivered, you can't do pickup even if they have the panels sitting right there in front of you at the store.

I did find some wood fencing that's shorter in height, but I know she wants the privacy because of bedroom/bath windows on that side of the house. There's also some of the really crazy expensive stuff that when you look at it you wonder what makes it so expensive in some cases, but a nice cedar or redwood even with the additional cost of trellis on top? Not really--they had 2 whole panels available of one plain but nice looking cedar variant at the closest HD, and a few others too much of a bother to drive to get at multiple other locations if you were trying to piece together enough panels for a fence. Granted, we have a short outdoor work season here, so maybe in a month or so that may change because now that the frost has passed all the crafts have started after the long wait...but wow. I'm amazed that there really are some wood products one can't simply just go even to a big box store and play inflated prices right now around here.

FWIW, if the property line wasn't so tight between her home and our driveway, I would have even thought to suggest doing an evergreen hedgerow or the tall skinny landscape evergreens types, again with the offer to share cost overage, but there simply isn't the room for such.