re: Crazy construction materials news I learned today

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probably more cement-based construction.

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Going back to brutalism? Would be appropriate considering the communist Govt we have currently

I have a project at a new boarding school being built. They have been waiting on sheetrock for 3 months now. Another project we are on is multiple months behind as well, all for materials.
My cousin is a residential contractor. He is paying 300% more for lumber now than this time last year, when he's lucky.

My information is location specific and I can't speak to other regions in the country. I am a manufacturer of building materials, fabricated glass and aluminum specifically, and I serve middle Tennessee, Southern Kentucky, and Northern Alabama. My market is red hot and has been for close to a decade now, which is why I can't speak to other locations.

Float glass prices went up 8-10ish% back in December, which corresponded to about a 12% increase on the final price of fabricated glass products, such as shower doors and insulating glass. Glass supply has generally been pretty good. There's been a couple hiccups, but nothing like we had a few years back when there was a worldwide glass shortage. I luckily have options since it's a global commodity. China, Europe, Israel/Turkey, and US can all get me glass. I prefer to buy "local," but I have been getting a little more imported because of domestic supply lead times and also decreasing domestic quality.

Aluminum is where it gets tricky. Storefront and curtainwall metals are getting longer and longer lead times. What used to be a week is now 4+ weeks. God help you if you have custom doors. The price has gone up about 7% or so in the past year, so not terrible. Our industry is used to getting aluminum orders a week after ordering, so that mentality is having to change. We had some push-back on longer lead times at first, but glass companies and GCs are finally starting to understand as they see this problem industry-wide.

In addition to manufacturing, I also do installation of both residential and commercial glass. I foresee no slowdown in residential work. Frankly, I can't keep up. If you would have asked me 18 months ago if I could get any busier, I'd have had laughed at you because I didn't think I could handle any more. Shows how wrong I was.

I am seeing a slowdown in commercial construction in late spring/early summer. In talking with people smarter than myself, it seems it will be a short slowdown due to architects and clients slowing down right at the start of covid. Just sort of a lull in plans getting produced and clients pulling the trigger.

On a personal anecdotal level, I bought a house five years ago. At the time I thought I was making a mistake because I couldn't see how our local housing market was sustainable. Fast forward to now and my house has gone from $250k to $400k in value and it shows no sign of letting off the gas. Houses are still going for sale and getting multiple cash bids over asking price on the same day. It's stupid. For better or worse, Nashville is hot. It's great for business, but I'm still undecided whether it's good for the city I used to know.

We recently did some structural steel modifications to one of our facilities to accommodate some new equipment. What should have been $20k and a month to complete has cost about $25k and taken a couple months because we had to wait on some steel. It's not terrible for us as we had the time and money, but it makes me empathize with the bigger projects coming out of the ground right now.

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what are new home construction costs estimated now? Just 2 years ago it was around $120/so

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Stick-frame commercial with decent appointments, excluding land and design, is running >$210/sf.
We're seeing steel fabricators validating quotes for ten days.
Insulated metal wall panels are anywhere from six to eight months after approved shops.
I've heard stories about volatility of pricing in the mid 70's, but with the exception of steel in the early 2000's during China's building boom, I have never see across the board volatility like this.

Don’t worry, President* Xiden will have that Chinese steel coming soon...as long as you profess your love for glorious China.

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Plastic houses.....the future.

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I realize that’s a joke - but it’s probably going to happen, isn’t it?

Modern houses will get even cheaper, build quality will get worse, they’ll be even more disposable - more soulless.

Concrete dome houses

Anyone ever see Dragonball Z when they were a kid? lol