OSB OMG $$

[300UGUY]

I watched a report last week that the price jumped in lumber is due to the lack of demand. Sounds backwards, but here's what happened. People stopped building so lumber companies stopped producing. The supply went down. Now what is out there costs more. As demand rises, lumber companies will start producing again, and the price will go down.

Goofy, but that's what the report said.

Not so goofy. Factories, especially ones that are designed for continous processing, are expensive to start, stop, and restart. Most cannot make money unless they are running @ 85% or better. At low volume, the per unit cost is high. I know when I worked for GM, they told us that if everybody in the building worked for free, it would not make a 10% difference in the cost of product. I just had some cement work done last fall, it was cheaper than what I had been qouted 10 years ago.

 

[two_bit_score]

Just wait until the Value Added Tax is imposed and see what happens to prices. One thing for sure, they won't be going DOWN.

 

[Bedlam]

I found this price , as its the first wood product you see at my local Home Depot.
I have also noticed now that i don't have to shop at 7 am before the crowds hit. It looks to me that business is still struggling there.I now get asked if they can help me way to often. Almost to the point of I try not to make eye contact.I know its their jobs . I do like the 'buttons' they have by the electric and now the plumbing for assistance. Hope the whole store gets them..
But this OSB is funny stuff with regard to pricing. even during a few hurricanes the price didn't change.

 

[Pops15]

7/16 and 1/2 OSB were both $12.99 at Menards yesterday. 2X4 studs were $1.99 but 2X4-8' were $2.79

A couple months ago OSB cost half what it does now. Neither Lowes or Menards have much in stock locally.

The year 4 hurricanes hit Florida OSB went from $4.24 to over $16.00 a sheet in a matter a few months!

 

[eepete]

The 7/16 OSB I bought a month ago was about $7.25 at Lowes, up about a dollar from January when they had a sale at $6 per sheet. It's gone up a bit since.

Framing 2x4's are up at $2.50. 3 years ago they were $1.90 before Katrina and all the price hicks that came after that. I used a bunch of 2x3's for a garage project because they were under $2 each.

1st 1000' spools of 12-2 Romex I bought in 2006 were about $1.60, peaked at $390 in the post Katrina madness, and are down at $240 now.

I'm glad I don't have to quote construction cost for a living, seems like prices are more volatile today than I can remember. And not just construction materials either. Seems like volatility is the new inflation.

Pete

 

[jwstewar]

When I built my garage starting in summer '03, I budgeted out for OSB. It was $4.xx a sheet for 7/16. By the time I started needing it in the fall it was $13. Then the summer of '04 when I was doing the sides I was happy when I was getting it for $17 a sheet.

Late last year/early this year it was back to $4.xx something a sheet. I haven't priced it lately. Had I known it was going up like this, I wouldn't have cut up 3 brand new sheets of it that I had in the barn to make side boards for my trailer. I would've gone and got the right stuff to do it instead of ruining these for temporary sides boards to haul mulch.

BTW, for the 12/2 Romex, when I budgeted for it, it was about $20 for a 250' roll. When I bought it in the fall of '05, it was $120 a roll. I was very careful when I did it to make sure I minimized my usage. It is now back to about $38 a roll.

 

[marimus]

7/16 and 1/2 OSB were both $12.99 at Menards yesterday. 2X4 studs were $1.99 but 2X4-8' were $2.79

Oh wow, we pay per meter what you pay per length for framing :shocked:

Makes sense when you consider that we import it from New Zealand.

Hardwood prices are going up and up locally too. A few years ago hardwood was cheaper than pine, now hardwood is 1.5 to 2 times the price. Has a lot to do with our government locking up forests, and the lumber being sourced from private land - with a larger transport cost too.

 

[Pirwin21]

$14.00 a sheet now in NW PA. It's no wonder the housing industry is still so slow.

 

[2manyrocks]

The banks are still losing money on the loans they made to builders. That doesn't put the banks in a frame of mind to loan new money.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Unfortunately the price on most things today has nothing to do with manufacturing costs, but what the market will bear. It's spring time, wood prices always go up for the summer.