Probably a good news

[Osvaldo Cristo]

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, so the record prices for lumber in the US can be reversing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-28/lumber-gauge-finally-slips-in-further-sign-boom-may-be-easing

Sorry if I couldn't to post the link or used wrong forum.

[Frederick Skelly]

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, so the record prices for lumber in the US can be reversing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-28/lumber-gauge-finally-slips-in-further-sign-boom-may-be-easing

Sorry if I couldn't to post the link or used wrong forum.

Hi Osvaldo,
That would be great news for woodworking. I bought some poplar for a project and was surprised at how much I had to pay.
Fred

[jack dempsey]

Fred,
I just priced poplar for a project and found the following: 6/4 $3.75 a board foot, 8/4 $3.85 a board foot. How does that compare to what you paid?
Jack

[Steve Eure]

Hardwood in our area went up maybe 10% if that at the dealer I go to. The borg;s is another story altogether. My wife and I started a major kitchen rehab when this thing started. We were buying only what we needed for each section that would take about 2 weeks to complete. Plywood started soaring, so we decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and buy everything we needed at once. Best call we made. Ply jumped up 300% within a month. Supply dwindled down to nothing around here. We saved quite a bit by doing so. Poplar is still going for around $3.50ish bf right now. Hopefully this trend of skyrocketing prices will settle down soon.

[Bob McBreen]

With the exception of sheet goods, my hardwood supplier has had minimal price increases during the past year. I purchase mostly maple, cherry and walnut.

[Matt Day]

I’m ready for some good news on this front. Yesterday I out loud at Menards said “What!?” When I saw the price of a 2x4x8 was $12+.

[Frederick Skelly]

Fred,
I just priced poplar for a project and found the following: 6/4 $3.75 a board foot, 8/4 $3.85 a board foot. How does that compare to what you paid?
Jack

Hi Jack,
I'm afraid my situation won't really compare to yours, Sir. I needed to make a small box in a hurry. So I bought poplar at a nearby BORG - which was the first mistake. My second mistake was buying their 1/4" x 6" x 24" "hobby" stock. Because this is a specialty item, they charge a premium no matter when I've bought it. About a year ago, I paid about $5.50 per piece. This time it was $7.25 per piece, and I needed several pieces. Hugely dumb, I know. :( If I'd had time, I'd have gone to a real lumber yard, bought 6/4 and resawed. Just didn"t have any extra time. I was still surprised at the increase.
Fred

[Rich Engelhardt]

I’m ready for some good news on this front. Yesterday I out loud at Menards said “What!?” When I saw the price of a 2x4x8 was $12+.That's up from $9.87 from just a week ago.

[Jack Frederick]

I went to pick up 5 sheets of 1/2” CDX ply last week to finish lining the interior walls of the pump house. $58/sheet. That project will wait or possibly never get done. I pout off a project at my daughters house due to the elevated, stratospheric material costs.

[Jeff Roltgen]

Bought 3/4 Hickory ply from local supplier in November. Just bought 6 more sheets - likely off the same stack, and was hit a solid $40 higher per sheet. That puts MSRP at ~$150 a sheet for hardwood veneer core ply "because it contains white wood" . Yet the MDF is just as stupidly expensive. And mdf is becoming the next problem, as manufacturers are cleaning them out of MDF now, since the ACX used for making shipping skids/pallets went off the rails, so they switched to buying MDF. Ugh.

Same general trend on lumber as others have posted - maybe 10-15% increase, which is not a big deal. Local Menards Chinese ply tracking fairly close, for items that are somewhat comparable.

Gotta admit - "feels" like the industry leaders saw the toilet paper fiasco of last year, coordinated public's behavior analysis with marketing strategy and BINGO - more profitable than bitcoin - (whatever that smoke screen of monetary exchange is all about.) Coordinated or not, a TON of money is being made, as any stock on hand is commanding the inflated pricing, disregarding how much of it was bought way before these obscene increases.

Betting it takes months for suppliers to even begin to acknowledge this news, and the stacks will continue to dwindle 'til pricing drops to pre-covid pricing for replacement stock, as evidence currently is trending towards.

Thanks for sharing- good to hear pendulum is slowing in momentum and preparing for the swing back.

jeff

[Bill Dufour]

Osvaldo, how did lumber prices move in Brazil? All we see here from South America is exotic tropical furniture grade stuff. What timber species do you use for big construction like houses and ship docks? Is it local or brought in from other countries?
Bill D

[Osvaldo Cristo]

We have different techniques to house construction as most houses use bricks and concrete blocks as main material, reinforced by concrete and steel rods.

Windows traditionally are made with lumber (peroba and imbuia are the commonest) but today most of them are made by Aluminum and steel. The same for external doors.

Traditionally ceilings have a wood structure to support ceramic or concrete tiles. Since long time it was made with peroba or ipe but last years saw some alternative species, included pressure treated
eucalyptus.

It is common to use pine and a species of cedar for temporary applications like molds and scaffolds.

As you can see, house construction isn't an intensive user for limber as it is in the US.

Anyway we had in the last six to eight months a generalized price increase for most construction materials so we can feel your pain...

[Bill Dufour]

California has lots of eucalyptus in the parts were it does not freeze. planted starting in 1882. The link below shows the oldest ones in the USA, in Berkeley California, planted on University campus 1882. they are now the tallest hardwood trees in North America.
They were planted thinking they would grow to be timber trees. There are over 700 species and the ones they got Are only good for firewood. Most in the state are blue or red gum trees. Blue gum grows tall and straight with spiral cracking the red gum is shorter and more branched. The branches rot off and fall before it gets to 12 meters.
Bill D.
modesto, CA. USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwV_nlNoO2c

210 feet =64meter

The tallest redwood is 379 feet = 115.7 meters

[Tony Latham]

I don't follow the price of gold or bitcoin. But oddly, I watch the price of 7/16" OSB –which I detest– on Home Depot's site. (Yes, the stuff has a place in homebuilding.)

Last week it was $62. This week it's $53. It's an indicator of construction lumber prices.


T

[Peter Kelly]

Osvaldo, how did lumber prices move in Brazil? All we see here from South America is exotic tropical furniture grade stuff. What timber species do you use for big construction like houses and ship docks? Is it local or brought in from other countries?
Bill DI read somewhere that the US is the largest export market for Brazilian plantation-grown Ipê, Radiata Pine and Eucalyptus.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Thanks, Osvaldo. That's the first time I took note that board futures had quadrupled in a year. We dragged our feet on a home addition this year, and recently we've decided to ride this wave out due to the price distortion for materials and the lack of availability of nearly every member of the project team. Maybe we'll aim to break ground in the fall of 2022.

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm seeing more and more articles about builders not being able to bid on houses. They say prices are going up so much, that within a week their bid is unworkable. Sometimes within a day. And what potential homeowner is going to sign a contract saying that the cost is "we have no idea", and then we'll tack 20% on to that?

I'm also riding this out. I bet a lot of homeowners are starting to do that.

[Peter Kelly]

Lowes in Catskill NY as of Yesterday, June 10th. Even 23/32 CDX plywood is (slightly) less expensive.

https://i.imgur.com/ZObLjSl.jpg

[Meryl Logue]

California has lots of eucalyptus in the parts were it does not freeze. planted starting in 1882. The link below shows the oldest ones in the USA, in Berkeley California, planted on University campus 1882. they are now the tallest hardwood trees in North America.
They were planted thinking they would grow to be timber trees. There are over 700 species and the ones they got Are only good for firewood. Most in the state are blue or red gum trees. Blue gum grows tall and straight with spiral cracking the red gum is shorter and more branched. The branches rot off and fall before it gets to 12 meters.
Bill D.
modesto, CA. USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwV_nlNoO2c

210 feet =64meter

The tallest redwood is 379 feet = 115.7 meters

Bill I was told by a history buff that the RR planted them for ties, only to discover that they twisted too much to make for parallel rails, and they abandoned them.

In SoCal, they used them as windbreaks on the orange groves. My aunt’s block’s backyards were lined with them… huge beasts, but all their houses were a converted orange grove. She saw that first hand, as they bought the contractor’s own house. I Googled it a couple decades after she died, and the last of them were gone, including hers. NOTHING grew under them! And massive shade.

[Bill Dufour]

I think poison oak will grow under them. Nothing else will.
Bill D

[Meryl Logue]

Wow… OSB… and premium at that. (Isn’t that an oxymoron?)

[Meryl Logue]

I think poison oak will grow under them. Nothing else will.
Bill D

To which I am highly allergic.

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm still seeing crazy prices.

Is it me, or should we pass on that top plywood board for $90.46? I'm thinking it might be a little warped. Hard to tell.
459409

[Meryl Logue]

I'm still seeing crazy prices.

Is it me, or should we pass on that top plywood board for $90.46? I'm thinking it might be a little warped. Hard to tell.
459409

All my plywood looks like that. I have to use a zillion clamps to force it into place. Baltic and CDX, all pre-pandemic. 8 sheets in total. Maybe I should sell it all… I’d make a hell of a profit.