Price of lumber !!

Yikes !! Stopped by local Lowe's store for something and passed by the pile of 2x4 studs..... 6.54 each ! Sales tax and all, you'd be over 7 bucks for a 2x4. That works out to $1.34/bf for common framing lumber.

Admittedly I haven't bought 2x4's in a long time, but last I noticed, they were in the low 3 buck range.
How the heck is anyone building anything at those prices ?

Photo of one poplar tree I sawed into four 12' logs, and the number of 2x4x12' that came out of each log. Tree was about 22" DBH (diameter at breast high). Top got damaged in a storm, and tree looked like it was dying, I took it out to keep it from falling later on one of the barns.

Over a 100 2x4's plus couple scrappy ones that would cut back to an 8'. That makes that one tree worth 100 x 8bd ea = 800 x $1.34 = $1,072. It sure didn't LOOK like a thousand dollar tree.

 

And yours are actual 2x4s not those 1.5x3.5s.
My next house is going to be build from poured concrete, steel studs and steel roof.

 

Ha,Artificial inflation by the middle men,Mills are taking in very little logs down here due to the glut...
The guys trying to make a living are paid peanuts compared to prices by the time it hits Lowes
We are being snookered again with no lube !

 

wood - the new gold.

 

Your house is worth more when sold by the piece than as a whole now LOL

yes, been seeing the price of lumber on the rise. Saving my pennies (and gold/silver) to get a saw mill to make my own lumber. I got 22 acres of woods that no one wants to come harvest.

 

Yep ,,2x4s are bringing right at $ 1.00 a foot with tax ,, so to frame an 8 ft tall wall with 1 bottom , and 2 top plates is going to run you about $ 11.00 a linear foot , on an interior wall ,,, and for an exterior wall with plywood on it , it's going to run you about $ 17.25 a linear foot . The price of a house in this time will have to go up 10 to 40 thousand dollars , depending on the size of the house. Not sure when , or if it will go back down . If Bidumb really does become Prez , it may come down pretty quick , because the housing market will probably hit bottom , so there won't be a need for all the houses being built .

 

@kckndrgn
Im 70 and I have a LT15 , manual , Nexet time Id buy the LT40 diesel hyd unit , Im starting to slow down.
Sloth

 

I keep a small stash, not really enough to do any kind of a big project.
I guess if prices ever go down I'll stock up a little bigger pile on my inside lumber stash.

 

Looks like my property value just increased which means I get to pay more money in taxes

 

Maybe you could sell your stash on Ebay and replace it later when prices go back down ?

 

You'll know you're in for a tax increase when the assessor comes out with a 'stud finder' and starts scanning your walls.

 

Gotta jump in here with a comment on our present economy and a little history.

First, the U. S. Federal Fiat Notes are in the early stages of hyperinflation. It is sporadic at the moment, and most apparent in certain parts of the economy. Auto parts and construction materials are going up fast. So are food prices, especially at fast food franchises. Right now I can now buy tomatoes in the local supermarket for the same price per pound that is charged for the least-exalted cuts of beef.

Every sector of the economy that doesn't look inflated at the moment will soon be as inflated as the rest. It's only a matter of time, and when it happens it will be shocking fast.

Anybody remember Scotty's Hardware?

The went bankrupt in 2005.

Part of that was due to severe storm season of 2004.

Scotty's management made the unfortunate decision at that time to gouge the living hell out of their customers in Florida in response to the increased demand for (particularly) plywood for boarding up windows.

At the time 1/2" (nom) plywood was about $6.99 a sheet. I went in one day, bought a few sheets, and then came back the next day to buy a few more. The price had been jacked up to $11.99 a sheet.

Management had posted a sign that "explained" that the rise in price was due to the increased price of plywood from the mills.

It wasn't.

Scotty's had not bought any new plywood. They had just jacked the price up on the same stock that was already sitting on their racks.

The time to jack their price up properly would have been after they sold out their existing stock and received new plywood from the mills.

It was price-gouging, pure & simple.

Until that day, I had shopped at Scotty's often. After that day. I never spent another dime with them.

I'm pretty sure that, by alienating most of their customers, Scotty's soon found themselves unable to compete with the other chains, like Home Depot & Lowe's.

They went extinct.

Inflation will bring out the opportunists in many sectors of our economy. Many will gouge early and blame it on inflation.

The thing to do now is shop carefully, stock up now on whatever you know you will need later, and (for some of us) buy that portable chainsaw sawmill and start stacking some wood up to dry.

I shopped last week for a fuel pump for a Cub Cadet riding lawnmower. The one I bought online cost $7.69. Walmart wanted $19.00, and O'Rielly's wanted $56.38.

I no longer shop at O'Rielly's. Funny thing, too: I actively avoid Walmart now at every possible opportunity.

Aldi's has much better prices, anyway.

This is not the time to leave your money sitting in a bank at 0.5%. It will soon be almost worthless. Use it to buy hard goods, and put it in income-producing properties. if you can.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said except where the prices increase. These wood prices went up on the stock lowes and home depot had the day prior to the increase. They didn't wait till the inflated stock arrived. Just like the gas stations,, when a storm knocks out a major drilling platform,, their prices shoot up almost immediately,,, not when the storage tanks are refilled.
But yes sir ,, I believe everything is going to higher before long.

 

Reminds me of the time when oil costs jumped. The next day gas prices sky rocketed, then when oil prices dropped, the gas prices stayed high.
Reasoning provided by the oil/gas industry was:
We purchase oil at "future" prices so we need to increase prices now
then
We are using the oil purchased as the higher price which is why we don't lower the price of gas.

Just like shippers adding a "fuel surcharge" but then never removed it after the prices dropped. Hey, why give up free money right?

 

Actually that's a pretty good idea. But not on ebay that part is really stupid. Put them on Craigslist or facebook yard sale for $6 each, that's more than double what I paid for them.
Might as well since I don't have any 2x4 consuming projects for the foreseeable future.
It's not my fault you didn't buy enough to share.

Edit: before I listed my 2x4s on there I'm like "I better double check the price at lowes dot com" I looked it up and an eight foot #2 is over $9 here right now, I'm like that can't be right, so I called and no shit they're over $9 each. So They're going to be over $10 each by the time you add sales tax. I'll charge $9 and at least triple my money.
So thanks?

 

Or when truckers charge extra because they can and get away with it even though a Ranch Is A Business.

 

Work at a repair shop, problem is if you have stock on your shelves that you paid $3 for and plan to sell at $4, if the price goes up to $6 and the wholesale price goes up to $4.50, you will lose $1.50 on each one you sell at $4 and replace, people holler about gouging, we just closed the shop for a few days until the wholesale prices came back down. People expect you to sell it for the same price when the wholesale price goes up and you have to pay freight to get it from some place outside of your regular supply chain. Easiest way is just don't bother, you can't win, sell at old price and go broke, sell at new fair price for added wholesale price, cost of generator and gas to run shop, and added freight , etc and you are a horrid price gouger, sell to your good customers thru the back door and close the shop. Only rational decision even in normal times, God knows what would happen if TSTF. Doesn't pay to order in new stock at $4.50, if things go back to normal, and you reduce the price, you will lose on every sale you make at the old price, if you don't you are stuck with expensive stock and price it at $6 when the big box store with its rapid turnover and just in time stocking, drops the price back to $4.
And that my son is why you find even less independent stores after ever major event. You can't win and all your fixed costs just keep on going.

 

Man, If I still had that Golden Retriever that ate wood and crapped 2x4's...I'd be a millionaire !

 

Man,, I was just getting ready to take you up on that 6 dollar 2x4 price ,,, then your price shot up just as fast as the big box store.

 

Yeah turns out I had like 47 number #2 2×4 put them on the FB yard sale and sold them for $400. There's no way I paid more than $250 for them in the before times.
Turns out I would buy 2 to 4 boards everytime I bought something that needed to be dragged home on my trailer and I would put them inside on my indoor lumber pile. I would buy the 2x4s to put on my trailer to protect the aluminum deck.
Also have about 20 pressure treated 2x4 but I'm not selling those. The only projects I can think of that I might do involves replacing wood around a window and a door. I always use seasoned pressure treated wood for that.