re: Lumber prices anyone building new Const

Rarely post but mostly lurk. I'm in the truss industry. Lumber is still rising. My lumber prices have nearly tripled, and that's if you can even find it to buy. When I find a load, I have to buy it no matter the cost, it will be gone within hours, someone else will snatch it up. It makes quoting extremely difficult when you don't know what you'll be paying for materials.

Here's how we got here. When Covid happened, mills either shut down completely or went to 50%. At the same time people that were sitting at home started building decks, remodeling, etc.. Contractors and suppliers like me never slowed down, we were still using as much lumber as we ever were. At the same time, when restrictions were lifted and mills started calling their workers back, they were now making more sitting at home than working. Until they get the mills staffed at 100%, the shortage will continue. Prices will not drop until there is unsold lumber sitting on the yard at the mills. There's no shortage of logs to process, there's a shortage of manpower to process them.

It's a scary time all the way around, people that are in the middle of a build, contractors, and suppliers like me. One of my customers at a lumber yard was quoting materials to a contractor about a week ago. The contractor asked him how long the quote is good for. He told him it's good until we hang up the phone.