The rise and fall of building product prices

bobs409 · Oct 10, 2006

I'm sure this happened to a few here and not just me but wanted to vent a bit. I'm in the process of building a 2.5 car garage. In the past few weeks, I bought 20 sheets of 7/16" OSB for the sidewalls and 30 sheets of 19/32" for the roof.

Wouldn't you just know that the other day, I noticed Lowes lowered the price of the 7/16" by $2.36 and the 19/32" by $2.00! What a crock!

That just means I paid $110 dollars more than I had to!

That could have bought the back door I need.

SPECV · Oct 10, 2006

I would try to bring the reciept back and get the difference, Menards does this if its within a few months of purchase even when the item is on sale.

PAToyota · Oct 10, 2006

I can feel your pain. Being in the business - registered architect - the past couple years have been a real headache. We do a lot of municipal projects, which can take years to go from initial proposal to occupancy of the building. You start out with a client and a budget and then two years later you go out to bid and the prices have changed so much that they can only afford 70% of the project they started out with. Contractors are giving prices that are good for less than a month when the process to bid, process contracts, and award a bid may take two to three months. Contractors are also giving their best estimate and then throwing in 20~40% to cover possible cost increases.

With fuel costs going back down that is affecting the prices. Also, there was a certain amount of supply and demand at work. Everything was selling as fast as it was produced so the prices kept going up because they could charge what they wanted. Now they are getting a bit of a stockpile back and costs are leveling off and going back down a bit.

I'd take the receipt in if it has been a week or two to see what they say.

rockwithjason · Oct 10, 2006

The housing slow down has created a surplus in lumber leading to the lower prices. As the market continues to slow they will continue to come down.

ersatzs2 · Oct 10, 2006

rockwithjason said:
The housing slow down has created a surplus in lumber leading to the lower prices. As the market continues to slow they will continue to come down.

Yep I figure I timed my project to not only coincide with the absolute peak of material prices, but also right on the brink of steep declines.
c'est la vie.

REFLEXX · Oct 10, 2006

I hope copper comes back down out of the stratosphere! I still have to do my air lines!

Hawk231 · Oct 10, 2006

REFLEXX said:
I hope copper comes back down out of the stratosphere! I still have to do my air lines!

Me too. I was at Lowes today eyeballing what I'm going to need. Think I'll wait a week or three and see what happens. Anything I can save on copper can be applied to the purchase of other toys err I mean tools.

chaingang · Oct 10, 2006

If you think lumber is bad try buying steel. I have had material quotes for projects at work that have 1 to 5 day prices only. Srcap steel has been going for record highs recently also.

toxicz28 · Oct 10, 2006

REFLEXX said:
I hope copper comes back down out of the stratosphere! I still have to do my air lines!

It's allowed to now, I turned in my scrap copper.

bmwpower · Oct 10, 2006

We need a "Copper Watch" group. You know, a bunch of us who frequent HD should check in with prices. Or is this easily accomplished by checking the commodities?

I still have to do my air lines, too!!!

Winmon · Oct 10, 2006

I did mine lines RIGHT before the price went crazy......

REFLEXX · Oct 10, 2006

Win,

thanks for rubbing it in. Now go blow it out your hose (air hose, that is!) :lol_hitti

swgray · Oct 10, 2006

Today I got rid out some old wire with the insulation on for $2.10/lb.
Fifty pounds of it and I do believe 30 of it was insulation.

A few years back when I was putting the deck on my garage I had 3 leftover 2x10's. I took them back to Lowes and made just over $12 on them. I then promptly spent it.

bmwpower · Oct 10, 2006

Yea!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/04/bloomberg/bxcom.php

DOM! · Oct 11, 2006

Not to stray too far off the topic but a buddy of mine scoffed at the idea of me using metal (copper or anything else) tubing for the air lines. He said that the plastic PVC lines are the way to go now. Anyone else?

BTW I want to sheet rock the garage but may wait till prices drop. Sheetrock prices are stupid high!

6567GTO · Oct 11, 2006

DOM! said:
Not to stray too far off the topic but a buddy of mine scoffed at the idea of me using metal (copper or anything else) tubing for the air lines. He said that the plastic PVC lines are the way to go now. Anyone else?

BTW I want to sheet rock the garage but may wait till prices drop. Sheetrock prices are stupid high!

He's dead wrong. PVC explodes and sends shrapnel flying. Especially when it gets cold or when it gets older. Stick with black iron or copper.

Winmon · Oct 11, 2006

6567GTO is right, DO NOT USE PVC pipe! It is a time bomb waiting to go off....

PAToyota · Oct 12, 2006

DOM! said:
Not to stray too far off the topic but a buddy of mine scoffed at the idea of me using metal (copper or anything else) tubing for the air lines. He said that the plastic PVC lines are the way to go now. Anyone else?

You might want to read back through this thread for the reasons why not to use PVC...

HoosierBuddy · Oct 12, 2006

REFLEXX said:
I hope copper comes back down out of the stratosphere! I still have to do my air lines!

I'm not sure about copper pipe, but wire has already come down. I saw 12/2 for $70 per 250' roll the other day after seeing $102 per roll 2 months ago.

Phil

Willy Victor · Oct 12, 2006

Well I guess scrap Alum. is going at a premium, I just got my 14ft. Alum. rowboat stolen last week, hope they choke on the money.

Willy

FarmerSid · Oct 12, 2006

HoosierBuddy said:
I'm not sure about copper pipe, but wire has already come down. I saw 12/2 for $70 per 250' roll the other day after seeing $102 per roll 2 months ago.

Phil

Glad to see as I'm ready to buy wire for my new shop. Hope that it has come down thye same up here in Canada.

Cheers!

Sid

Blue · Oct 13, 2006

I really need to re-roof my barn with steel. Every estimate I've gotten has been higher than the last one.

Is it wrong to wish that the Chinese economy goes into the toilet, just so steel pirces drop so you can afford to reroof your barn?

DOM! · Oct 13, 2006

PAToyota said:
You might want to read back through this thread for the reasons why not to use PVC...

See that's why I am on this site.. Thanks gents!

PAToyota · Oct 13, 2006

Whoops - actually, when I saw the PVC discussion for air lines I thought it was in the current Air Lines thread here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5374

Take a look at that thread or this one:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1718

Before deciding to use PVC or CPVC.

boiler7904 · Oct 13, 2006

At work, I'm working on a 350,000 sf building in the middle of a 300 acre site. Bids were submitted over a year ago and construction is now roughly half complete.

During bidding, all subs were instructed to estimate material cost increases and submit their price accordingly. So far, everyone has held their prices. The only one that has asked for anything is the paver. He wants an extra $29,000 for material. We have miles of large diameter copper pipe and wire. Thankfully theft hasn't been a problem at the site.

bobs409 · Oct 14, 2006

Well I contacted the manager of my local Lowes to see if they offered a grace period in situations like this but they don't. Some business's will give a refund in similar cases but not them.

Get this though... the price on 7/16" OSB went back up to $7.34 again.

I just don't get it. :wtf:

The rise and fall of building product prices

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