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Oculus Spirit [97903]
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Interesting article on lumber prices
Feb 24, 2021, 3:38 PM
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There's a bottleneck in the supply chain and it's the mills. The demand from builders, etc. is through the roof. But mills have been bought out, consolidated, and made so efficient, their numbers have halved over the years. Plus, they 're being designed for more middle-aged wood, and not larger timber stands. PLUS, the mills can't produce enough lumber, and there's a surplus of trees, and a shortage of finished product from the mills.
Before the pandemic this problem existed in SC timber, moreso in certain areas than others. Many mills have closed in SC, meaning the logging of timber in many places has become prohibitively expensive to transport all the trees to the mills. It's a hour drive from our land to the nearest lumber mill now, and it used to be less than 30 minutes. As such, it's hard to get loggers in there to take the wood at a decent price, compared to the past.
The tree growers have been screwed here, and the system is broken really. The reason for the expensive wood is less mills. The reason for lower timber prices is the surplus of timber, because there are less mills. Meanwhile, the mills are raking in the money in the middle between forest and consumer. Loggers are also getting screwed cutting the timber, hauling it further, for less money.
Anyway, interesting to see how the pandemic has exacerbated a problem that had been building for years.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/lumber-prices-are-soaring-tree-growers-miserable-11614177282
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All-In [43225]
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Interseting - I had heard rough-sawn lumber was still cheap.***
Feb 24, 2021, 3:44 PM
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All-In [26735]
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My dad insisted on clearcutting his beautiful 200 acres so
Feb 24, 2021, 3:50 PM
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he could plant pine trees that would be ready in 20-30 years. Me and my brother both told him it wasn’t worth the hassle, just keep the place as is. Nope, he went ahead and did it. Now it’s a barren wasteland and he didn’t get half of what he thought he would.
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All-In [30199]
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Heh - "middle-aged wood"***
Feb 24, 2021, 3:55 PM
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Oculus Spirit [79500]
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I just had a 32' x 16' deck quoted
Feb 24, 2021, 4:06 PM
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I was thinking it'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-$13k....Came back at close to $26k. They said they had to source lumber from 4 different suppliers most of the time to get enough material.
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Heisman Winner [105886]
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$50/SF for a f*kkin deck? Wow***
Feb 24, 2021, 4:14 PM
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Oculus Spirit [79500]
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Might be total B.S. but the contractor said
Feb 24, 2021, 4:28 PM
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he would have quoted closer to $16-17k last fall. Guess I'm going to forget that and save up money to buy a 2x12 so the dogs can get from the screened porch to the backyard.
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Oculus Spirit [97903]
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I have no clue how they're building houses now.
Feb 24, 2021, 4:33 PM
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BIL's adding a room for a new niece/nephew and was quoted $90K. Granted they're expanding the bathroom and taking out a closet (only adding a tub for plumbing), and extending the hall the length of the room. But still...insane.
Side note, catalytic converters are the new craze in #### UDP people are stealing. Copper is out.
Message was edited by: Tiggity®
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Oculus Spirit [79500]
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They're just charging $250k for what 2 years ago cost $120k.***
Feb 24, 2021, 4:35 PM
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Heisman Winner [136751]
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Oculus Spirit [79500]
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The goal is to add value, not detract.***
Feb 24, 2021, 4:35 PM
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Oculus Spirit [97903]
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Deck ain't gonna add $26K
Feb 24, 2021, 4:38 PM
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Or heck, maybe it will now. But ####, not if I'm buying.
Heck, we bought this all brick house in 2012 new at $89/sq foot.
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Oculus Spirit [79500]
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I know, we'll probably just risk falling through the current
Feb 24, 2021, 4:48 PM
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rotting deck for another year or so and see where things are. There's about a million new track homes being built everywhere I go though, so it may be worse.
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CU Medallion [66333]
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Heisman Winner [136751]
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Replace lumber with milk, beef, pork, any ag product
Feb 24, 2021, 4:31 PM
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really, It reads the same way.
Producers and consumers getting screwed by the fat cats in the middle.
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All-In [31620]
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Re: Interesting article on lumber prices
Feb 24, 2021, 5:12 PM
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Interesting thing is that resale home inventory is so low that prices have gone up along with rising cost of new construction. There’s no clear better option.
I’m building a new custom house and paying only a modest premium over buying a similar size/location resale that we would have to then immediately renovate.
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Hall of Famer [22040]
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Easy answer: open a mill
Feb 24, 2021, 6:32 PM
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I'm sure we can think of some Joungy bidness names.
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