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Lumber shortage?

5K views 41 replies 31 participants last post by  benson56 
#1 ·
Went to my local home supply store yesterday. Needed a couple of 8 foot 4x4s.


To my surprise, they were out. The clerk told me there is a big shortage of construction lumber. Apparently because a lot of sawmills are closed or operating on low capacity, because of COVID?

Just wondering if anyone else has run into this?
 
#4 ·
Yep, this has been well discussed on this forum. Wood, planting medium, concrete mix, you name it. It’s all in limited supply.
 
#7 ·
Right now is supposed to be the worst time to be building a new home. I have heard people say it will add 30% to the cost of a new home built right now and in some cases has caused major delays in building leaving half built homes exposed to the weather for weeks before they can get a roof on. That extra exposure to the weather can cause floors to buckle and mold to grow.

I take it as just another example of how delicately balanced our economy is with no reserve to make up for disturbances.
 
#8 ·
I haven't bought lumber in years, but I have my own mill and trees to mill so I never any reason for me to buy lumber.

Hell just on this five mile loop of county road I know of six people with private mills setup. I still have 100 logs to mill up that I took down this spring as part of my garden expansion. Most of that will become 6 x 8 beams and posts to reset up my 20 x 60 greenhouse here close to the house between the orchard and the large pond behind the house.

The more scarce lumber becomes the better off I will be I suppose...
 
#13 ·
I too have a sawmill. A wide head woodmizer. Can cut up to 35” wide on it. Wider than that and I can go to a chainsaw mill. That goes to 68” wide cut. And what most folks are missing... we have a kiln to turn wet wood into usable lumber. I usually only mill oak but if needed I have black locust to make tot resistant lumbar.
 
#16 ·
I have an Alaskan mill that I built that I bolt to my 64 stihl, then I cut 18 inch wide cants out of the logs to fit on my mill. I can do 18 inch width by 36 inch height, so I cut three flat sides and leave the fourth.

I have 27 large pines around 4 to 5 feet in diameter, as I eventually cut those for lumber I will probably have to cut them in half and split them the rest of way to get those buggers on the mill.
 
#24 ·
I was in Lowe's a few days ago and since I had my dad's truck I picked up a few 2x4's for a future project. It's been a while since I got any lumber from Lowe's but they seemed to be very close to being out of a large number of items.

Usually with 2x4's, they've got a spot on the wall for them and multiple pallets of them going to the ceiling. But this time all they had was about 1/2 pallet.
 
#25 ·
#28 ·
I was at my local lumber yard a few weeks ago and they were out of treated 2x6's and treated 4x4's, I bought a bunch of 2x6x8's and was shocked when I saw the tab, I went in a month before and got a quote for the lumber and it was significantly less than what I got charged, the guy at the yard told me the prices of lumber had went up due to mills be shut down, suppose I'll break out my chainsaw mill for the next project, I haven't used it yet and didn't want to do remodeling with roughsawn lumber I made on my mill when I've never used it.
 
#30 ·
Bad time to build a house. I've got a neighbor building a new home. They got the framing for the walls and the roof done in May. It's been sitting there idle ever since.

And it's about to get worse. Panic buying has set in. Just like it did for the toilet paper shortage this spring.

Talked to the lumber yard manager at my nearby store. He says a truck comes in at 6 AM and people are already lined up to buy.

Treated lumber is the hardest to get. But nearly all types of lumber are affected. Wall stud 2x4s and plywood decking are also in short supply.
 
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