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woodbutcher has been warning us about this for a long time.

We replaced the deck in our back yard about two years ago, and the wood cost about $20K. That was more than double the cost of everything (labor/sealer/stain/??? about 12 years before.

The same contractor, then replaced our small front deck and 4 steps and the wood cost was about $7k.

He suggested re the solid wood front door to have a professional door painter remove the old door, then remove paint/crud and refinish it. The total bid cost was just over 1K$.

My wife thought that was a bad deal until we priced solid wood doors at Home Depot. After that wake up event, She called up the painter and told him to coordinate with our contractor and we would pay him 1K$ and buy or make them lunches. It was a deal.

Our decking contractor got out of the decking business and into installing/replacing windows and doors. He could not make a valid bid anymore. We had several friends, who ended up with their old decks due to the costs. He is now doing the same re doors and windows re their actual cost.

This month some close friends had to replace their old yard deck which had become a hazard.

Their contractor said that one of them had to go to the lumber supply places with him to pay for the decking redwood before it was delivered or picked up. Their wood cost was $25K and their new deck was about half the size as the one we had installed about 2 years ago.

Also, we have a shortage of painters to seal and stain decks. They couldn’t find a painter to seal/stain their new deck.

Fortunately, our yard guy and his family can do that, and they did. Again our friends had to buy and bring those supplies home with them.