How many conversations have you had regarding the outrageous lumber prices? We’ve all seen the memes going around about how ridiculous the costs are, but have you wondered exactly why there has been a significant shortage of lumber which has caused prices to skyrocket?
Well, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been experiencing shortages of medical materials, manufacturing products and different consumer goods like hand sanitizer. The latest crazy shortages are the electronic cards that are necessary to drive a new car off the lot.
The lumber shortage itself has impacted everything from commercial constructions to home building, renovation and several other lumber-based projects.
But what, you ask, is causing the lumber shortage? Well, let’s dig a little deeper.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a lot of sawmills were forced to shut down temporarily in order to take new safety measures. In fact, some mills had to cut production because workers, including drivers, either got Covid or feared getting sick which created some roadblocks in the lumber supply chain since the lack of transportation has made it difficult for mills to receive their logs and timbers as well as making it hard to to ship their milled lumber to the dealers. Higher fuel prices have also contributed to the chaos.
The disruption in the supply chain and distribution has resulted in the increase in lumber prices.
What’s interesting is that at the beginning of the pandemic demand for lumber was slightly down since people were locked up in their homes trying to avoid contact with the world following the new safety protocols. However, demand for lumber has increased since millions of people staying home and spending so much time in one place working or studying started rethinking their homes, looking for remodeling and improvement projects and purchasing or even building new homes far from crowded cities.
This huge increase in demand coupled with the decrease in supply, has resulted in the lumber prices to spike like never before! In fact, the price of lumber rocketed from around $400 per thousand board feet in February 2020 to an all-time high of over $1,600 in early May(1).
If you are wanting to improve your home or looking to just upgrade your flooring you should prepare the right budget. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) , the cost of lumber has soared more than 300% in the past year alone(2). So if you want to build a new single-family home you need to add upwards of $35k to your bottom line(3)
These higher lumber prices are making it difficult for so many people. Eventually the prices will come back down. But it’s hard to know when.
One solution is to consider reclaimed lumber for your project. Reclaimed lumber has been able to remain stable. It has not seen the same huge price increase and the supply is as strong as ever. GO HERE to request a quote for your project. You’ll be surprised to find our prices look better than what you imagined reclaimed wood could deliver.
After getting a quote, please don’t hesitate to send us any new memes about the ludicrous lumber situation. We can’t get enough of them.
(1) Ben Popken, ‘‘How the lumber industry misread Covid and ended up with a global shortage and sky-high prices’’, NBC News, June 28, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/
