Have plywood prices gone way up?

[Brian Elfert]

Last year I bought a bunch of BC plywood for a project. I recall the 3/8" plywood I bought was around $10 a sheet. I need to buy more plywood to continue the project this spring. The price for 3/8" BC plywood today is over $16 a sheet! The price has gone up by 60%! Has the increased home building caused materials prices to increase?

[Scott Shepherd]

I don't think it has anything to do with increased home building, but the prices have skyrocketed. I have a repeat job for a customer that is made from 19/32" OSB. A year ago, it was $11.95 a sheet. Today it's $19.95 a sheet.

Then again, what used to cost $5 for lunch, now costs $8, so my guess is it has nothing to do with housing.

[Brian Elfert]

I haven't noticed the cost of lunch increasing by nearly that much in just the past year, but the prices of eating lunch out have certainly gone up over the past several years. The cost of food in general has gone up quite a bit so I am not really surprised.

Maybe the economy is now doing well enough that there is no longer a glut of wood products. A lot of logging companies shrunk dramatically or closed during the recession plus a number of sheet good mills closed too. I'm not going to go broke paying an extra $100 for my project, but I certainly have better things to do with $100.

[David Weaver]

There was just a post here not too long ago about a tariff or something on chinese plywood.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Has it ever occurred to someone to just ask a person in charge at a lumberyard why the price has increased?

Most of what you will get here is skeptical personal opinions with little unbiased facts to back up the opinion.

When we saw an increase in our cable television and internet service, we called the provider and they told us why the rates went up.

[David Weaver]

Duty on chinese plywood - 22.63% to 27.12%

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91Q1CE20130227

http://www.aa-hp.org/#!news/c73g

(see the top article at the second link for the duty charged to two different groups).

The second link is the american alliance for hardwood plywood. Note by the dates on the articles how current this issue is. That would explain why price increases are recent.

[Brian Elfert]

Has it ever occurred to someone to just ask a person in charge at a lumberyard why the price has increased?

Do you think the $8 an hour workers at Home Depot or Menards have a clue? There are no retail type lumberyards I know of to ask.

[David Weaver]

Do you think the $8 an hour workers at Home Depot or Menards have a clue? There are no retail type lumberyards I know of to ask.

I would agree with that. It took me much less time to piece together a prior discussion (which was accurate) and go find a link than it would've taken me to find someone at any yard I'm aware of. I could've called the local commercial plywood supplier here to ask them, but I'm not making an order from them any time soon, and it would be kind of rude to waste their time if I'm not.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I haven't bought lumber, plywood or hardwood at Menard's or Home Depot in years..I buy my wood several local lumberyards...I said quote "someone in charge at a lumberyard". I don't think the $8/hour guy is in charge either.....Talk to a department manager or store manager at Menards or Home Depot. They might know.

However, a couple years ago I was in HD locally, the plywood they were carrying was manufactured in this country.

[David Helm]

Sheet goods prices are very volatile. They change dramatically with world conditions. When a hurricane causes damage, sheet goods prices go up. When things are stable, prices go down. Sheetgoods may be the most classic example of supply and demand pricing.

[Lee Koepke]

Dave's links are correct regarding the tariffs on hardwood plywood. The chinese hardwood plywood is generally 'paint grade' sheets, domestic hardwood plywood is the stain grade types. Of course as the imported prices rise, the domestic prices are sure to follow. The part of the 'other' sheet goods (OSB and pine plywood) pricing stems partkt from that, but we do have an increased market now for multifamily and single family new starts. A hotel we are working on is migrating its design away from wood construction due to the rising labor and material costs.

Unfortunately the price seemed to JUMP rather than creep.

[Brian Elfert]

However, a couple years ago I was in HD locally, the plywood they were carrying was manufactured in this country.

I was just at Home depot two nights ago. They have both birch and oak plywood that is marked made in the USA on it. A friend of mine is doing a project for me and he buys his oak plywood at Home Depot because they will cut it up on their panel saw into manageable pieces. Myself, I probably wouldn't buy oak plywood at Home Depot.

For ordinary construction grade plywood it is just too hard to buy at the few local lumberyards that still exist. If you're not a contractor the local lumberyards won't give you the time of day. They don't want to deal with the guy who wants to buy a half dozen sheets of plywood. I've tried and it just doesn't work out so I go back to Home Depot or Menards.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

I live in a relatively remote area. While we have HD, I haven't shopped there for lumber in at least 5 years.

We have 3 local lumberyards.

One is very small local version of "Menards or HD". The quality of lumber they sell is so bad that and their attitude toward customer is so bad, I refused to accept about $100 worth of badly warped framing lumber after they loaded it in my pickup. When they told me I couldn't pick and choose my own, I told them to unload my truck while went back in for a refund. I haven't been back. This and HD are the only lumber supplies available on Sundays. I often wait until Monday to shop elsewhere if I need lumber.

We have 2 other lumberyards.

One is closed on Saturday and Sunday. They have a good quality oak plywood I use for cabinets. Their hardwood supply is limited and I seldom buy there unless I am finishing a project and just need a small amount. I buy most of my construction lumber here too.

A lumberyard across the Snake River in Clarkston, WA is open on Saturdays and I buy there when necessary.

My hardwoods I typically drive 30 miles north to Moscow, ID to purchase or drive 110 miles to Spokane, WA.

Hardwoods are expensive here as our forests are primarily coniferous.

[Matt Meiser]

Do you think the $8 an hour workers at Home Depot or Menards have a clue? There are no retail type lumberyards I know of to ask.

http://www.hiawathalumber.com/
http://www.siweklumber.com/
http://www.youngbloodlumber.com/

I've actually been to the first helping my brother buy materials for a project. Seems decent.

[Brian Elfert]

http://www.hiawathalumber.com/
http://www.siweklumber.com/
http://www.youngbloodlumber.com/

I've actually been to the first helping my brother buy materials for a project. Seems decent.

I've purchased hardwood plywood from Youngblood before. They close promptly at 3:45 pm and are really set up for delivering product by the truckload rather than retail sales of a few sheets of construction grade plywood. Siwek Lumber tends to be really hard to deal with. I have bought from Siwek on some specialty stuff. I've never been to Hiawatha Lumber because it is too far away.

All three of the above are really too far away for everyday purchases. Siwek is a 30 mile round trip. If it was easy to deal with a local lumberyard as Home Depot or Menards I would shop there.

I shouldn't have said there are no lumberyards locally. There are just none that are easy for someone buying a few sheets of plywood to deal with. Not being open evenings and weekends doesn't help.