1949 construction material and lumber prices.

[Michael Weber]

Recently came into possession of dozens of receipts for lumber and supplies my dad paid for when building our house in 49 when I was 3. Interestingly, back then, softwood was sold by the board foot. Price for twelve 16 foot long #1 s4s 1x4 yellow pine cost $9.60. That's .15 cents a board foot. #2 2x fir was .075 cents per board foot and 350 fir 2x4 8 foot studs (1865 bf) cost dad $140.03. #2 yellow pine was slightly more than fir at .08 cents per bf.
Kegs of 8d and 16d common nails were $10.00. Keg was a hundred pounds. Sacks of masonary cement were .88 cents and 30 of them came to $26.40. 40 tie down bolts came to $4.80. It all seems so cheap but in 1949 the average wage was about $3000 and I suspect dad wasn't far from that. Total from the lumber yard was $2600. No idea about plumbing, cabinets, etc. Dad paid cash and he must have saved and planned for a long time to build our modest 3 bedroom 1 bath home in Arkansas.
life has certainly changed in the past 70 years. Nostalgic post off.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Nostalgic post off.

In my 1941 house, one thing I'm not nostalgic about is the dark tar-like material that was used to glue down linoleum. Do you have records showing what that stuff is?

Nowadays, I don't recall seeing yellow pine in local (NM) hardware stores. What is (or was) yellow pine used for?

[Rich Engelhardt]

one thing I'm not nostalgic about is the dark tar-like material that was used to glue down linoleumOne thing for sure about that mastic .......it's high in asbestos content. Best thing to do with it is cover it up with 5mm luan & tape all the seams.
One of the manufacturers of what's on your floor is probably listed here (https://www.asbestos.com/products/construction/adhesive.php). Unless you have an empty container laying around somewhere, there's no real way to tell who made what you have.

[M Toupin]

It all seems so cheap but in 1949 the average wage was about $3000 and I suspect dad wasn't far from that. Total from the lumber yard was $2600.

Very neat find! Adjusted for inflation $2600 comes out to $27,189.32, certainly was different time.

Mike

[Bert Kemp]

If I remember correctly and its a big if Yellow Pine is much harder and was used as flooring in the old houses. Still is in some today.


In my 1941 house, one thing I'm not nostalgic about is the dark tar-like material that was used to glue down linoleum. Do you have records showing what that stuff is?

Nowadays, I don't recall seeing yellow pine in local (NM) hardware stores. What is (or was) yellow pine used for?

[Lee Schierer]

Very neat find! Adjusted for inflation $2600 comes out to $27,189.32, certainly was different time.

Mike

The interesting thing would be to take today's lumber prices for the same material and run your inflation calculation backwards and see what it would have cost in 1949.

[Michael Weber]

Yellow pine is a southern thing mostly I believe. It's common here and what you normally get at the Borgs unless it's the generic lettered stuff SPF (spruce,pine, fir)or "whitewood". Heavier than white pine or fir.
i did compare today's price to a few of the item. Common lumber and the masonary mortar were pretty much inline with M Toupin's inflation figures, about 10 to 11 times the 49 prices. But the #1 grades of lumber were about 25 times the 49 price. Also don't know how the quality of lumber grades might have changed in the interval.

[Lee Schierer]

I had one other thought. In 1949 a 2 x 4 was actually 2" x 4". :rolleyes:

[Bob Leistner]

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVi_nX3ZahbcAi.cnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21 tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1517736039/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.fpl.fs.fed.us%2fdocumnts%2fmi sc%2fmiscpub_6409.pdf/RK=2/RS=o4h34tlwn8yzQs1v9.mJz8Qq_70- This History Of Lumber by the Forestry Dept shows that the standard for 2x4's changed in 1906