WTF is going on w/ lumber prices!?

[Bunchgrass]

I haven't been doing much building but recently fired the builder on a remodel and am now having to finish the job myself. Ugh. So I recently stopped at one of the big box stores and saw 7/16" OSB was over $16/sheet! What? I'm pretty sure last summer I saw it for half that price or less ($7). Anyone heard what's going on to warrant that much of an increase? Last time I recall that much of a jump was in the early 2000's when the US was "rebuilding Iraq".

 

[txvwnut]

I think there’s this thing going on world wide, a pandemic or something like that.

 

[Jeepster04]

The trees have been catching rona and having to quarantine.

 

[nadogail]

It’s called supply and demand, when the demand increased and supply remained constant you can expect a bidding war which will probably increase prices as the middlemen want to keep their profits at least level.

 

[LeeG]

This guy is apparently a buyer for a lumber yard. Between hurricanes, riots, and building boom in some areas, there isn’t much slack in the supply chain.

 

[Sawlog]

1/2 org is 22 bucks here. Mills have been shut down from the rona, that's what they told me. Siding products are starting to get scares too.

 

[rburke65]

Lumber is getting hard to find. Around here, your lucky to find PT lumber.

 

[karoc]

I'm with you,I haven't been to big box store in few yrs but when I started to price out my pole barn Ouch,but just like football stadiums people grip about prices but stadiums were still full. And so was HD,lumber heading out the doors. I guess its only me that feel the pain

 

[Benw455]

We had a new deck built for mom. 24x10 had to go to three places to get enough lumber.

 

[DieselNut88]

I have not seen 7/16 OSB for 7$ around here in probably 12 years. Last I bought it I paid 18$. My local lumber yard is completely out of treated lumber right now.

 

[GRivera]

Before the pandemic Lowe’s near me had OSB 7/16 for $8.**

 

[LXCam]

I needed two sheets of 1/4” ac exterior grade plywood for a floor repair last weekend. Don’t think I wasn’t floored to see they were $29 a sheet.

 

[kaymccampbell]

It's just greed. Sort of like war profiteers. Covid profiteers.

 

[Jimmyspeach]

I was told by menards that its covid related and they have unsteady supplies as they get lots of lumber from Canada funny I thought southern white pine came from the southern US

I paid 8.00 a sheet this winter

Also a money saving tip

Menards will honor any quote for 30 days even if the lumber price changes

Basically when I went to buy my osb it was $12 per sheet but my quote was $8 per sheet so they honored the $8

This saved be big time I purchased 40 sheets

Also I noticed yesterday that there was only .35 cent difference in a 12 foot 2x4 vs a 10 foot one

 

[MadMark]

The restaurants in NY City are all building outdoor seating decks for street service.
Its the only way they can survive, but its certainly upping the demand for lumber here.

I've never seen so much wood construction on the streets of Manhattan.

 

[Kev442]

Supply and demand. I went and bought 40-50 sheets of osb the winter before my build. I felt the $300 saved was worth moving it twice. Gave me something to do during the winter too. Did it with 2x also, probably saved another $100+.

My metro area has a need for 500+ homes. Number has been climbing every year, builders can't build fast enough. I thought 350 was a huge gap 3 years ago.

 

[Dustball]

Hurricane season certainly doesn't help either.

 

[finn]

Local lumber places in three counties are out of treated decking, including Menards, and won’t quote any material bills beyond the current day

Nobody has osb 5/8” roof sheeting, either, at any price.

 

[Jakemedic]

I also noticed the quality of lumber is deteriorating. Menards, whose lumber has always been suspect, took a turn downward as the prices went upward. I tried to buy 25 sheets of 3/4 plywood from them last week. After the first 4 sheets were junk, I walked away. Ended up spending 2.00 more per sheer at Home Depot and didn’t have to sort any sheets. Plus the plywood has very few voids thus far. The downside is that I had to go 120 miles round trip to get it. I would like to believe lumber prices will go down some this winter, but if I had a crystal ball, I would be a millionaire. Oh well!

 

[MattRMagnum]

I haven't been doing much building but recently fired the builder on a remodel and am now having to finish the job myself. Ugh. So I recently stopped at one of the big box stores and saw 7/16" OSB was over $16/sheet! What? I'm pretty sure last summer I saw it for half that price or less ($7). Anyone heard what's going on to warrant that much of an increase? Last time I recall that much of a jump was in the early 2000's when the US was "rebuilding Iraq".

A friend of mine works as the buyer for a lumberyard. A majority of their cedar supply comes from Canada. When Covid hit Canada, all logging shut down. It was shut down for over a month (I think he said three, but I forget). As a result, the supply of cedar dried up, and much of their inventory is simply unavailable. Apparently loggers went back into the woods sometime in July, but it can take a month or two (depending on the final product?) before the wood they cut gets into supply yards.

Extrapolating from his experience, I bet a lot of logging shut down globally. If everyone went back into the woods in July, you're probably looking at September or November before you start seeing prices stabilize, and drop.

I had several house renovation projects planned for this year, but my preferred builder apologetically told me that, with prices the way they are, I'd be looking at a 20-50% mark up, depending upon how quickly and accurately he can order the wood. I decided to simply shelve the whole topic, and re-assess next year.

 

[The Cobbler]

supply & demand. demand is higher and supply is lower. as previous poster said, much of the Canadian logging was shut down to control the spread . It has impacted us here too. PT lumber is very scarce

 

[1931S/X]

I just bought 4 sheets of 7/16 and was shocked that it was 27$ per sheet. but then I thought we'll i haven't bought plywood in years maybe this is normal.
The NYC dining, I am sur prided they are letting them use wood. That stuff is all probably going in the trash in a few months. What are they going to do in the winter?

I look at the stores boarded up and think how much of that plywood i could actually use.

 

[ccgeedy]

Alot of the mills and pressure treating facilities in the southeast shut down due to the virus.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Not only did supply shrink when the mills shutdown or slowed....but demand skyrocketed with tens of millions of people at home with nothing better to do and nowhere to go and a stimulus check in hand.

Swimming pools, decks, kayaks, mountain bikes...there has been a huge demand for all kinds of projects and toys and not enough supply.

 

[Doug B]

At our local yard the other day, guy at the next register buys 3 -2x12x10' PT. Just shy of $100.

 

[ezover]

i think my deck project will wait til spring, I'll price the wood over winter and pre buy for spring.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Wood doesn't grow on trees, ya know...

Tommy

 

[JamesW84]

I
Also I noticed yesterday that there was only .35 cent difference in a 12 foot 2x4 vs a 10 foot one

I needed 2x6x18 for my shop. I checked pricing at Menareds online for 18' and 20' and 20' was cheaper. All I can figure is they probably take 20' and cut it down to make the 18'. Maybe the same thing for 10' vs 12'.

I paid like $12 for my 2x6x20...maybe less a year and a half ago. I looked and now they're $20.

I agree: Supply and Demand. Same thing for disposible gloves.

 

[GTO]

It's amazing how many people don't get the basic workings of "supply and demand"....smh

 

[jetnow1]

I just built a 12 by 20 deck for a customer. 6 lumberyards to find enough pressure treated
to frame it. I was lucky, her son deliverers to Home Depot, he bought enough pressure treated 2 by 6's to deck it before unloading it.

 

[yeldogt]

There has also been increased tariffs on some wood products -- even last year good western cedar from Canada was up 25%.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

Likely it was in May, stopped in to my local Menards, as I came around the corner, in shock I said to myself " Looks like Black Friday ". Parking lot NEAR full.. never see that except one time a year. Keeping in mind, this was in the middle of the lock down.

My Menards ( as well as most ??? ) must give **** away on Black Friday, because they will fill the parking lot and cars will be parked in the outer drive.

So Im in the store, employee asks me how Im doing, I comment on how busy they are and he mumbles something about Black Friday too,,.. . Guessing the rona checks had just hit the mail boxes

I recently finished a 40' long wheel chair ramp, built out AC2, while was able to get everything I needed, the lumber was ****, as in picked over.

Found out last week, Kubota as well as other brands are near sold out of tractors, I had to go on an 8hr expedition, to the edges of civilization to find a new machine. Did not see that one coming,....cant buy the attachments I want for it as well, but they will be here if I can wait 8 weeks...

 

[jhamblett]

Im building a 28x34 garage in southern new hampshire right now. I went into lowes last week and the 2x6x12's were roughly $8.50. This week $11.50. Luckily i noticed home depot has not gone up yet so i ran over and snagged everything i needed.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

Lumber is getting hard to find. Around here, your lucky to find PT lumber.

PT is pretty scarce here too.

 

[softailgarage]

During the shutdown, thanks to the insurance check issued days before, I started rebuilding the patio awning and fence that came down in heavy winds. The patio lumber was readily available and priced fairly at Lowes and HD, but the fence pickets were nowhere to be found. Your everyday 6' high, 5.5" wide pickets took almost 3 months before I saw Lowes had 150 @ $2.87 a piece 3 years ago they cost $1.05 ea. As painful as it was, I ran down and bought 98, pretty much the last of it. It took month for them to get another small lot in

 

[Bigblockyeti]

I've started framing my 16' x 22' and prices, especially OSB have been going nuts. I sourced most of my studs and headers from builders first source and from the original quote I got 6/9 until requoted 7/24 much of it had gone up 20% and I think another 20% from then until now. Lowe's shot up pretty good too but HD was a bit behind so that's where I got all my joists and rafters, the good part is getting to pick through everything, the bad part is having to push nearly a ton of lumber on a cart up front then into the parking lot because of all the jackasses buying a tube of caulk and parking in the loading area. I've got my fingers crossed that shingles still haven't been effected and fiber cement siding hasn't gone nuts.

 

[jbwilkins]

It’s called supply and demand, when the demand increased and supply remained constant you can expect a bidding war which will probably increase prices as the middlemen want to keep their profits at least level.

New home sales are also off the charts putting huge pressure on lumber supplies.

 

[nitroracer20]

I was at HD this weekend just to get a few 5/4 treated boards for a friends deck repair. They had NO treated lumber period!

 

[ransil]

I was at HD this weekend just to get a few 5/4 treated boards for a friends deck repair. They had NO treated lumber period!

I fixed the neighbors trailer and he was gonna re-deck it, went to 3 lumber yards not a treated 2x6 to be found. Good thing I was lazy and did not burn the old boards yet.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Home Depot finally caught up with Lowe's price increases. Lowes currently has 4' x 8' x 7/16" OSB for $19.55/sheet and Home Depot is $21.55/sheet. I bought ~dozen sheets at Lowe's in 3/19 for $7.95 each, I get supply & demand coupled with inflation and a pandemic but this easily shoots past the 10% overage threshold for gouging qualification. Since everyone is doing it and no one is being penalized, I'm sure there's a loophole allowing it.

I'm fully aware that 1.5 years is going to result in some change, a more recent example would be the 23/32" OSB (item # 12218) I bought at Lowe's on 7/17/20 was $21.18/sheet, today it's $27.28/sheet!

Who would be ok with ordering a car for $21,180 and when it came in a month later you had to pay $27,280?