I went to my local plumbing supply house to buy parts for a water system rebuild. They claimed that pressure tanks and water heaters were getting hard to source. I see a wild first quarter next year for manufactures of basic durables.

Building around here has slowed down simply because of building supplies.

Same here... 12 week lead times on items that used to be 2 weeks

I just did a quote at my national (Ferguson) supply house and got back a bunch of cyber BS. They wouldn't say back order, but said call order desk.

Becoming like a third world country.

Home construction boom due to low interest rates?

Or covid shutdowns slowing down manufacturers?

Little of both probably. I talked to a brick mason yesterday about building a fire pit. He’s starting tomorrow- says it’s real slow now due to lumber prices. He says that he has 12 homes to do, but contractor is holding off until January to see if framing packages come down. They were working 6 days a week until lumber skyrocketed.

There will me many things that never come back.

Logistics and supply for many items are in a shambles.

I’m worried about the people at the low end. They run things until they die, then expect to replace and move on. The water system I’m working on is in a 125 year old log cabin getting ready for winter. A six week delay will move them to the holiday inn.

I went from busy before the virus, to really busy after, to swamped in Aug with 17 house starts at once, though 7 are still waiting for permits to come out. 3 to 4 month lead time for permits to be reviewed and approved, architects can't keep up with plans and redlines. It's a F'ing mess.

I didn't get to go archery deer hunting this year working 6 and 7 days a week, hotter than chit this year, wife keeps reminding me I said I wasn't working any more summers and contractors begging me not to retire on the other side.

Now lumber, trusses, windows, plumbing ect are hard to get.

Luckily for me concrete is still available.

Most likely any specs will be put on hold because of the shortages, but if it's under contract it will go ahead.

I'll ride this latest boom till it busts I guess.

It's not even the money, it's I'm still viable on the jobsite... and I've worked since I was 5 years old hoeing ditches for irrigation and finding pop bottles folks tossed in them for my pay... work defines me I guess.

Kent

Stuff made in China is drying up. Until American manufacturing can be reinvented, it'll only get worse. Wait until the Christmas rush starts. I highly recommend starting early...if you haven't already.

It's a good thing farm parts are still availible.

I look for a boom in small cap stocks.

I needed a few 4x4x8 PT's last week. Shocker, almost 19 bucks a piece!

try to buy a new freezer right now.....

I have been a remodel carpenter, most houses. I have never seen this before. We are all but out of LP siding. It is getting so hard to get that We might not be able to work next week. Lumber went from $400 / 1000 board ft. to $1,000. A 2x4 stud is $7 bucks at the discount stores and $8 at the lumber yard. I told my boss We need to be buying drywall a month early for a flip house. If siding is in short supply, drywall and insulation will be hard to find in a few months. I imagine tile will be in short supply too. Treated lumber is going on the short list too. Here is why, there are 2 reasons. One, of course is building is in high demand. However, the fake C19 shutdown is a big part too. The chemicals in treated wood is in short supply cause it was deemed " non essential" Now wear win trouble. We had a 3 month wait time for cabinets in the Milwaukee area so my bosses wife had a relative that did cabinets way up in Upper Michigan in Sault St. Marie. The idiot governor said it was non essential but he did it anyway . An 800 mi. round trip for a kitchens and we are good. Glad he got the job! He has some little tykes to feed ( Non essential my ass). The only good thing that might come form this is I will have some hunting time off. I went full blast all through the shut down and time to have some fun.

Many of the locked down decided to remodel.

We put in a new service panel at the upper end of the farm last month, electrician said he couldn’t get any more breakers, he was working off his stash he put up earlier in the summer. Apparently one of the factories in Mexico got ‘Rona’d.

Was looking for some 2x6’s for building some graders, went through about half a bunk trying to get a couple of straight boards that weren’t all knots and chips. Worst quality lumber I’ve seen in years, at twice the price. Wish they would send all these do-gooder do it yourselfers back to friggen work.

Had to spend that govt tax money somehow.

So their grand kids can enjoy the house while paying back the $$.

And those that didn’t decided to buy a puppy. I’ve been bombarded by people looking for pups, most of them having no business owning a dog.

That's what happens when you hit the emergency brakes on a train. Long time/distance to stop and long time/distance to get going again.

The invisible hand doing what it does.

It's freakin out of control.

I sell building material, primarily building stone and concrete products used for stone masonry and landscaping. Everything is hard to get. We started the year off good and it was going to be a great year. All of the contractors were booked up with contracts. Then the shut down hit in the Spring when things were getting going full tilt. Some of the manufacturers and quarries got shut down, but for the most part, most stayed in production. However, they didn't shut down the building industry and everyone building stuff kept working. Then you make millions of people stay home in the Spring time. All of those people got bored and started building schit. This added increased demand. A lot of producers, especially the quarries in northern cold climates usually bring in imported labor during the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Unfortunately they shut down the border and none of the people with temporary visas were allowed in. This caused a huge labor shortage and slowed production. So what we have here is the perfect storm. Extra high demand and slower production. Most concrete products are on backorder and some natural stone is out 4 to 6 weeks. Some quarries have already shut down for the Winter because of inclement weather. I might not see some of those products until late Spring. Now trucks are hard to find and freight rates are going through the roof. When I do get a load ready for pick up, I have a hard time finding someone to haul it which slows things down further. We're pulling sales numbers similar to the 2005 to 2008 time frame when we were at our peak. I need to hire people, especially a truck driver, and there's none to be had. If you listen to the MSM, they say that the economy sucks and unemployment is out of control. Total bullschit and fake news.

If you're planning on building something, you better get your schit together and figure out what the hell you need and order it now.

I’m good with just hanging out at the farm, eating chili and deer hunting everyday till January.

This will keep the wife from seeing stoopid chit on Pinterest that she wants to build.



I can remember for years and years
I would be a spec house, roofing it; a house or two next door would be being framed. I’d watch some framing crew’s “cut man” saw 4-5ft off of a 2x4 and chuck the rest into a blazing burn pile. 🤪

My son is a manager of a building supply house in the Sa

My son is a manager of a building supply place in Sault Ste Marie MI. I was up there last weekend and he and the owner was building a deer blind in the garage. My son said he bought all his lumber just as covid hit. He said he could not keep 2 x 4 x 8's in the store. He was saying they are over $11 each.
Yesterday he had a situation where two guys around 60 years of age got into a fist fight in the store. All because one guy was wearing a Trump hat. He had to break them out and push them out the door. The media and the dems have created this deep divide. They have created anger by lies and false reports. I am actually getting tired of giving these people a pass. We can not let the leftist when out or the country will never be the same.

I might be building a house in the next 24 months or so, but I'm definitely not doing it right now. Some friends are trying to get started on their build and the lumber total went up $15k this year. We also just had a hurricane that is going to suck up a lot of materials for repairs in Louisiana.