The same firm that provides the cost numbers in REMODELING’s Cost vs. Value report is alerting pros to make sure they are including new, higher prices when they bid on jobs.
“Since a series of hurricanes hit our country, three material types have increased in cost dramatically: dimensional lumber, plywood, and pressure-treated lumber,” RemodelMAX’s Bill O’Donnell wrote in an email to be sent to users of Clear Estimates, a software program that uses RemodelMAX numbers on product costs to help create estimates.
Wood studs prices have varied less, he said, because buyers were awaiting for the U.S. government to reach final decisions on duties for Canadian softwood lumber. The government announced its decision Nov. 2.
Between mid-September and Halloween, RemodelMAX said, retail prices nationally increased 18% for plywood, 18% for dimensional lumber, and 7% for pressure-treated lumber. Local prices vary; RemodelMAX found the price of 4×8 plywood sheathing cost 87% of the national median price in Arizona and New Mexico and 113% of the median in Montana and Colorado.
Random Lengths, a service that tracks how much retailers and distributors pay for lumber on the spot market, reported Nov. 3 that its index for panel products has risen 39.1% since a year ago, while its index for framing lumber has climbed 24.9%. The difference between the two has been that the panel price has risen consistently since spring while the index for framing materials has snaked up and down.