[snopercod]

I bought some things for a project at the lumber store today and am still in shock. Since this article was written, plywood prices have jumped 20% in less than a week.

[Joe 6-pack]

Another happy byproduct of the environmental / ecoterror movements.

[snopercod]

bump

[BossLady]

Gosh...between lumber, gas and milk prices....we are in for a fun summer!

[BJungNan]

Have you bought any steel lately. Yikes! Waaaaaaaaay UP!

[DB]

We have the misfortune of beginning to build our new home now...

We expect to break ground next week.

The estimate for plywood and dimensional lumber was over $95k for the project and that was a week or so ago...

We've been working and saving for 11 years to build on our property and now the prices are souring out of control. I don't know what's going to happen. I expect many sleepless nights...

[antaresequity]

I just called my supplier...here are his latest quotes on CDX and OSB

1/2 8' OSB 1689.60 per unit / 51.80 sheet / 1.60 sq ft
1/2 8' CDX 1584.00 per unit / 48.00 sheet / 1.50 sq ft

All I can say is thats absurd.

Quotes are from Golden State Lumber, San Rafael, and subject to change.

[Veloxherc]

I am glad I will be building with concrete. By the time wood finishes going up in price, concrete will be cheaper.

[John Thornton]

According to Random Lengths, a trade publication, 1,000 square feet of -inch OSB sells for $503 in the north-central United States; this time last year, the same amount cost $170. Half-inch four-ply southern pine plywood is up to $523 for 1,000 square feet, from $240 a year ago.

Yes, but a year ago, the plywood business was in a slump---prices were way down and wood processing plants were shut down---putting a lot of people out of work.

What was the price of plywood in 2000 or 2001?

I know this is hard for the media to understand, but in a market economy, prices go up and down based on demand. I'm sure John Kerry feels that if he is elected, he will be able to order prices very low with no impact on production---after all, his favorite era was the Nixon administration.

[Rome2000]

Use CMU instead.

[Freesofar]

Ther are litterally MILLIONS of good prime lumber pine trees standing dead right now in the forests of Southern California.Victims of drought, inviting bark beetle infestations due to overgrowth, too many trees per acre competing for moisture. But offers for their sale and removal will not be touched by lumber companies due to all the environmental restrictions placed within the contracts. The BLM even offered a lumber mill free for the taking but no takers.
Right now in the San Bernardino National Forest , property owners are paying a premium price to have contractors remove the dead trees, racing to get ahead of the next fire season ,and they go to waste,or firewood mostly
It is a tragedy, By next year Sequoia National forest will have millions of Brown dead standing pine , the death rate is already showing around 20% there 80% dead forest in San bernardino NF
Good thing Clinton declared all that new National Monument status locking out the public access to all that beautiful forest and killing any chance of harvesting or thinning.
A great national treasure squandered by the Leftist entity, The Sierra Club

[.38sw]

We're working on rebuilding the fence around our yard (6'x 8" rough cut redwood). My husband has decided to redesign the portion in the backyard that borders on open space, after checking out the price of lumber. We're using wire, reusing the posts, since they're still most in pretty good shape (the infill, however, and the rails were pretty shot), and replacing the top and bottom rails and the kickboards. He just bought the rails over the weekend, and paid over $200 for rough cut redwood, 2X4's, I think. I'm glad he agreed to do the wire thing. I had proposed this before, and he didn't like the idea. But, it'll save us a whole lotta money to do it this way. It doesn't look bad, and several of our neighbors have done it this way.

[farmfriend]

He thinks those prices are high, he should price redwood. A 16' 2x6 is $20. And that is common construction not heart. Heart is $10 more.

[Skooz]

I guess I now have a good excuse for not starting that huge deck my wife has been nagging me about.

"Not now, dear, we have to wait for the lumber prices to fall back down."

[Freesofar]

Build with concrete.
You can incorporate wood grain effects if you must.
I could use the work.

[DefCon]

"...Five companies account for three-quarters of all sales in North America. They are Louisiana Pacific, Weyerhaeuser and Georgia-Pacific in the United States, and Nexfor and Grant Forest Products in Canada..."
- - -
I happen to work for one of the companies named.
Lumber prices are experiencing a perfect storm, of sorts.

-Demand is up due to the low interest rates for mortgages.
-Demand is up due to some very large government contracts.
-Supply is down due to the shut-down of a lot of production units when prices were so low a few years back.
-Supply is down due to some of the more recent HUGE (hugh)environmental costs that the "little guys" could not afford and/or justify.
-Operating costs for the plants are up due to higher energy costs.
-Wood supply (trees) is a little low.
-Transportation costs are up due to fuel prices.

Meanwhile, my company stock is doing quite well.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

I am glad PA is behind the curve. I recently bought 3/4 CDX for about $25 a sheet.

[EggsAckley]

building a house in Playa del Rey CA.........the cost of the lumber used in building a typical entry-level home had roughly doubled in 18 months, to $24,000.

The typical entry level home on the coast of California averages around $400,000 these days. $24,000 is nothing compared to the prices they charge. Being the owner of a redwood timber preserve, I'm seriously considering a limited harvest.

[petercooper]

Speaking of lumber, what is better to line a gravel driveway at the beach. Railroad ties or maybe some cedar 6x6's? Thanks

[lewislynn]

A handful of manufacturers dominate the OSB market. Five companies account for three-quarters of all sales in North America. They are Louisiana Pacific, Weyerhaeuser and Georgia-Pacific in the United States, and Nexfor and Grant Forest Products in Canada.

Isn't there still a Bush tariff on lumber products from Canada?

[DugwayDuke]

Actually, one of the factors in the high price of these lumber products are the 20% tariffs imposed on these lumber products from Canada. Of course, protecting jobs in one sector generally means harming jobs in another. In this case, we protected loggin jobs and now were hurting construction jobs. Of course, we're also hurting any one who wants to build or buy a house. Just one more example of how tariffs harm everyone. But, don't tell that to the anti-free trader freepers who are always clamoring for tariffs to protect "American Jobs", usually theirs and to hell with everyone else.