Better Take Out A Loan If You Need PT To Build A Deck

[kevin c]

Each year my club builds new props for our action pistol matches. I can confirm that the stick lumber and ply we just bought cost us triple what it did a year ago. Unfortunate we had to grin and bear it, as we're hosting a major match at the end of the month and the old props are just too beat up to use.

[jonp]

The price hike is due to supply and demand. There are so many mills shut down due to covid and the unemployment is paying more than a worker can earn working. Workers are riding the unemployment. At least that is what my local hardware store told me.

Wife is having the hardest time getting workers to show up even going to the extent of raising pay $2-4hr and offering raffle prizes of big screen tv's and the like for the weekend shifts. Still people calling out and won't work.

[RKJ]

I'm redoing my deck out front and luckily the planks are solid enough to flip over. I'm cutting and reusing as much as I can due to the price of lumber. So far I've just had to buy new deck screws and spindles but it's still got a good chunk of money in it. I don't want to think of the $$$ if the wood was no good.

[William Yanda]

Take out a loan and arrange a security detail to escort the lumber to your home.

[JRLesan]

What did you expect to happen when the gov't sent out free money; that you'd be way ahead of the game???

[35isit]

Lumber is high now. Wait until the environmentalist get Joe and the Ho to stop most of the logging.

[bedbugbilly]

OMG . . . . HOW CAN THIS BE? Why . . . just two days ago I heard a know it all Democratic Socialist say on TV that "inflation is not occurring">

My family was in the lumberyard business for close to 100 years - we closed and sold out a number of years ago. We weathered through a Depression, numerous recessions and periods of inflation.

One has to remember tha a good portion of lumber comes from Canadian mills as well as U.S. Mills. We have gone through a pandemic which certainly cuts into supplies as many were not working - we all have seen the same thing with reloading supplies - and prices - "supply and demand".HOWEVER - you add on everything that Biden and his cronies are doing and the end result will be sky high inflation due to add regulations, shutting down our domestic oil and energy supplies, etc. - and don't think for a minute we will ALL be paying higher taxes which will mean less money in YOUR pocket to pay inflated prices. Higher lumber prices equates to fewer homes being built as fewer will be able to afford them. This equates to a slow sown in housing industry which will equate to fewer jobs in related manufacturing. Fewer jobs means more people hurting and dependent on "big government" - which is what the Left Socialists want.

I got hit with the sticker price of lumber a month or so ago - I had a small repair job to do and when I priced out the lumber, I said the heck with that and revised what I wanted to do and fortunately had enough bits and pieces of lumber stashed away to do what I needed to be done.

Take the OP as an example - and I don't know him personally. He has a deck he needs to build but the price has probably more than doubled since he started. He needs to get it done so he bites the bullet and perhaps uses the money that he and his wife had saved to take a vacation. He gets the deck done but now they can't take the vacation and they have to cancel their reservation for the cottage they were going to rent so now the cottage owner loses out on a week's rent that he was planning on to use as a down payment on a new tractor he needs to plant produce to sell to pay his car loan off. Inflation hurts everyone and slows the economy down through the trickle down effect.

Unfortunately, it is a lesson that Washington has never learned - especially the Democrat Left - now better known as the Democrat Socialist Communist Party. Just take a look at some of them such as OAC. A mouthy "know it all" wer behind the ears Socialist who doesn't have a clue about how a successful business is run but who thinks she has all the answers on how we all should live. I wonder if she has ever paid the taxes SHE owed the IRS that were in arrears from HER failed business?

Sadly - we are all in for a rough ride - higher lumber and consumer goods pieces - until these fools in Washington are either fired or put in jail - hopefully before they either totally destroy this country or the economy collapses putting us into a full-blown Depression.

[375supermag]

Totally agree...
We are in for some tough times in this country as the socialists slowly destroy the economy.

[quilbilly]

We have a lot of large (24-30" at the base) red cedars on our property and we have had several offers from independent loggers to buy a couple loads for an unbelievable price for our share. It's amazing! We haven't accepted any because we like our privacy. It is comforting to know we have those "standing assets", though. The temptation is that they have offered enough to buy that Kubota mini- tractor with front loader and backhoe I have always wanted outright. That is how crazy the market for good deck building material is.

[waksupi]

I'm thinking alternative building may gain. Straw bale houses, cinder block, adobe. Fake wood for the decks.

[gwpercle]

But we are "saving the environment" doen't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy
This is where I roll my eyes and go hug a tree .
Good luck at the gas pump too ... we don't need no stinkin pipelines do we Joe ... Heck No

Last time lumber was sky high and in short supply we started using metal studs and metal joist for house construction , long a standard in Commerical construction ( Non Combustable Type ) once a crew got used to screwing them together instead of nailing them it was OK ...lots less waste with metal studs and joist . Non-Combustable construction can also get you a lower insurance rate in some places . Good Builders are reourceful and there is always more than one way to build a house ... bust out some of the old contractors ...they can do it .
Gary

[dverna]

My buddy is planning on getting a bandsaw mill. I have 70+ large pine and spruce logs I can get free from a property 4 miles away and a tractor to handle them. We will each take half the wood we mill. Should come in handy for a couple of small jobs. Might try selling some too.

[Shawlerbrook]

Just completing a small remote shed for a ATV tow behind brush hog for a hard to reach pasture. Bought some rough cut lumber from a local Amish outfit and am using some Black Locust in place of PT . If you think the crazy prices are bad, wait until the shortages become epidemic. We are in for some hard times.

[MaryB]

Part of the problem is shipping. Pics of lumber storage yards have shown them to be over flowing... mills can't get enough truckers to move the lumber out...

I need some 3/4" ply to cut into shelving for the garage... that project is on hold until prices come down or I find a cheaper alternative!

[1Papalote]

My new meat cutting house was put on hold due to lumber being rediculous.

[jonp]

Part of the problem is shipping. Pics of lumber storage yards have shown them to be over flowing... mills can't get enough truckers to move the lumber out...

I need some 3/4" ply to cut into shelving for the garage... that project is on hold until prices come down or I find a cheaper alternative!

Years of stagnant wages, long hours and abusive companies are coming home to roost in the trucking industry. Couple that with 2 generations that wAnt to sit behind a keyboard and get paid and the disaster is here not only for the trucking industry but trades in general. You now have kids convinced they have to go to college to make a living if they get a degree worth anything. A good welder can get six figures, a degree in Afro American Studies not so much unless you hit the grievance circuit and that train is nearing capacity

I just read a story about a company in Texas that couldn't find enough owner operators to run the oil patch despite their drivers making $300,000 - $400,000. Imagine that! 10yrs ago I'd have been packed up and gone ready

[imashooter2]

[Geezer in NH]

.Gov gave out free money what else would you expect eh?

Not all went to booze and drugs.

[Harter66]

I bought a sawmill for my own building which for many unfortunate reasons was put off .

My son is putting up a place and I'm feeling a lot better lap siding .
Going tomorrow to look at a bunch of trees . His place has about 4000 trees per acre . Only about 25% are big enough though .

[Idaho45guy]

Years of stagnant wages, long hours and abusive companies are coming home to roost in the trucking industry. Couple that with 2 generations that wAnt to sit behind a keyboard and get paid and the disaster is here not only for the trucking industry but trades in general. You now have kids convinced they have to go to college to make a living if they get a degree worth anything. A good welder can get six figures, a degree in Afro American Studies not so much unless you hit the grievance circuit and that train is nearing capacity

I just read a story about a company in Texas that couldn't find enough owner operators to run the oil patch despite their drivers making $300,000 - $400,000. Imagine that! 10yrs ago I'd have been packed up and gone ready

Sadly, that is simply not the case around here. When I was in college, I worked for a propane company delivering LPG to homes and businesses in a bulk truck. I had to have a Class B CDL with hazmat, tanker, and air brake endorsements. This was in the late 90's. I liked the job, except in the winter when I had to chain up several times a day.

I was paid around $12 an hour. Over 20 years ago.

I was interested in doing it again after being burned out in my current job. Guess what they pay now? $16 an hour. McDonald's pays $14 an hour here.

I would love to work a local route doing delivery or service work, but I don't have my CDL anymore, and the other drivers on the road are losing their minds. Plus, local companies refuse to pay decent wages. When the average income is $33k, and the average home price is $350k, you have a serious problem.