Lumber pricing is at an all-time high during the pandemic, affecting homeowners and home builders alike. It’s increasing lead times on home improvement projects and causing massive consumer sticker shock.
SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) — Lumber pricing is at an all-time high during the pandemic, affecting homeowners and home builders alike. It’s increasing lead times on home improvement projects and causing massive consumer sticker shock.
A surge in pricing for lumber is impacting western Massachusetts, along with the rest of the country.
“It’s everything from trucking to the COVID shutdowns right down to supply and demand, so we’re finding that even with the prices as high as they are, the demand is very strong still and of course, getting the product to our facility is a challenge and getting it to our mills is a challenge,” said Bob Boilard with Boilard Lumber.
Boilard told Western Mass News that everyone – from suppliers to contractors to homeowners – are affected.
“What we do see is a lot of the homeowners that come in on the weekends…so our Friday and Saturday business, there’s a lot of sticker shock, so a lot of those ‘Building a shed in my backyard’ to possibly doing a deck this year. A lot of that thing has slowed down or stopped,” Boilard noted.
Western Mass News photo
It’s not just impacting lumber.
“This is affecting everything. This is not just the lumber market. I can’t get power tools, I can’t get drill bits, I can’t get fasteners,” Boilard added.
Western Mass News spoke with a local contractor about how the increase in lumber pricing is impacting their ability to complete jobs.
“It could go up any day and it has progressively gone up and people are starting to get priced out of building new homes…You’ve really gotta plan way ahead…You know, it’s 10 weeks to get a door now and usually it was two,” said Ken Kozlik with Ken Kozlik Building and Remodeling.
Dependent on your project, Boilard recommends looking into alternative products in the meantime.
“The lumber market is almost like watching the stock market…It doesn’t do anybody any consumer good to have prices this high and when you’re talking three, four times the normal cost, it just doesn’t make sense, it can’t last,” Boilard said.
