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View Full Version : Price of Sheet Goods is Outrageous



Brad Schafer
10-16-2003, 6:37 PM
Put a floor in my garage "attic" last week ... 3/4 t&g OSB was $28/sheet (!!!). called the yard today, and 7/16 is $18. couter guy claims it's due to the Iraq conflict and the hurricane.

Plywood is even worse.

Strangely, stick lumber isn't up much at all compared to last month.

Anyone else seeing this?


b (no longer in a buying mood)

Jim DeLaney
10-16-2003, 6:55 PM
Put a floor in my garage "attic" last week ... 3/4 t&g OSB was $28/sheet (!!!). called the yard today, and 7/16 is $18.


7/16" OSB is $9.80 here - at Home Depot. The real lumber yards are probably a bit cheaper.

Kevin Gerstenecker
10-16-2003, 7:21 PM
Yep Brad, sheet goods, especially Plywood, prices are thru the roof. I use quite a bit of 1/2" and 1/4" Oak Ply for the Slot Car Boxes I build. I always purchase my Oak Ply at the local Lumber Yard. For whatever reason, I have never seen 1/2" Oak Plywood at a big box store........they have 3/4 and 1/4 Oak Ply, but never 1/2"? I never did ask them why this is the case, but I am sure they have some goofy reason. (For what it is worth, the 1/4" Oak Plywood I purchased ONCE at HD was absolutely JUNK.........I'll never make that mistake again!) I haven't purchased any Oak Ply for a month or better, so I don't know what to expect the next time I have a need. Box Prices will probably be going up though..............the old "Supply and Demand" thing I suppose? :rolleyes:

Mark Azevedo
10-17-2003, 2:29 AM
3/4 OSB is up to $30/sheet :eek: . We just bought 8 units. Boss was freeked out by the price, and told me to make sure it was inside (If the weather is nice, we keep the OSB outside). He didn't want anyone to drive by and see 8 big stacks of $30 bills laying in the yard. It is better not to tempt some people I guess, or at least we know it shouldn't walk away from inside the building.
I hear the reason is the Fed Govmt bought up 2,000 railcar loads to go to rebuild Iraq. The Boss and I figured out over beers after work one night that it was something like 80 million sq ft :eek:

As for stick's, a load of 2x12 16' resawn 1 face spruce (primed) is up over $6,000 more than a month and half ago.... Gonna do the math... Hold on. OK its up almost $12 per board... lets do the :eek: thing again

Bottom line, I'm gonna have to wait to ask for that raise. (Or boss could be blowing hot air to keep me from asking for the raise :D )

Mark

Brad Schafer
10-17-2003, 7:16 AM
Mark - sounds like you're being told the same story I'm being told. :eek: indeed.

Jim - $9.80 a sheet for 7/16 might be an investment in today's market. That's half what it is back here. Maybe I should call the box stores ...


b

Lee Schierer
10-17-2003, 8:28 AM
If the price jump was for either the war or the storm, wouldn't they also need framing lumber to go with it. Has the price of framing lumber jumped too? If not, then what use is plywood by itself??

Color me curious....... :confused:

Bart Leetch
10-17-2003, 10:05 AM
Purchased White Oak Ply yesterday 3/4" $99.00 a sheet 1/4" $22.00 a sheet. White oak hit & miss $2.61 board foot I have 100 board feet coming. & 2 sheets 3/4" & 1 sheet 1/4". The LOML's Christmas present is a sewing machine cabinet & other projects on the horizon.

Brad Schafer
10-17-2003, 10:37 AM
If the price jump was for either the war or the storm, wouldn't they also need framing lumber to go with it. Has the price of framing lumber jumped too? If not, then what use is plywood by itself??

Color me curious....... :confused:

beats me, lee. one wonders why they couldn't get sheet goods from europe, asia or africa. surely the US doesn't have a lock on OSB?

don't get it,


b

Steve Clardy
10-17-2003, 2:36 PM
Not cabinet grade stuff, but floor and roof sheeting. Just did a cabinet bid at a new house under construction. I noticed the owner had used tongue and groove ply instead of the usual osb and said something about it to him. He told me he paid $38.00 a sheet for it.
I decided it's not the time to build with these kind of prices.
Now what makes me smoke out the ears about this is that when the hurricanes hit, and now we are rebuilding iraq, why do the prices go up so much? [they say supply and demand, but---]. Back in the early seventies when on of the three anti-freeze plants burnt down, anti-freeze went from 3 dollars to almost 15 a gallon.
Now, if my shop burns down, may I increase my cabinet and staircase prices by three fold? No way, I wouldn't have any business, people would not pay the price.
So, the big companies and investors that control all of this have us tied to the wall. We either pay, or don't buy. In this case of building sheet goods so high, I am glad I am not a builder. But this affects everyone.
If people do not build, I do not build cabinets.
Steve

Brad Schafer
10-17-2003, 3:04 PM
... If people do not build, I do not build cabinets.
Steve

i hit HD and Lowe's here today just to see - $15.80/sheet of 7.16 (give or take a few cents). neither will sell over 75 sheets (a bundle) at a time, because they can't get it. best my yard man can do is high 17s (and that's almost at cost).

talked to a kid at lowes (who really knew his crap - go figure!), he said they were buying last year at around $3.50/sheet; they're selling at $15.80 today but can't replace it for that - again, cost is over $17!

both the lowe's kid and my lumber man claim to have accounts "in excess of $1M" that are flat stopped because they can't get (or won't pay) for product. imagine locking in a 60 day contract a few months ago and now having to fulfill.

so i guess it's not something local. bummer.


b

Mark Azevedo
10-18-2003, 1:21 AM
If you want to check out lumber prices, go to this link:

http://www.randomlengths.com/

LOML mentioned it to me as the company she used to work for had a subscription to their newsletter in order to keep track of everchanging lumber prices. She used to work as an estimator for a construction consulting firm specializing in defective construction.

Brad Schafer
10-18-2003, 8:40 AM
If you want to check out lumber prices, go to this link:

http://www.randomlengths.com/



Interesting site - tnx for the pointer,


b