Reporter writing about wood -- questions

[Avery Johnson]

I'm a journalist doing a story about wood prices and summer fix-it projects. Anyone willing to talk to me about how rising wood prices affects your home improvement endeavors? [e-mail]

[default]

Put in a bit about if the hose-heads in Washington would legalize the growing of industrial hemp, then paper companies could produce better paper with less land, and free up the rest of the forest for lumber...

[Dave Balderstone]

And, perhaps investigate how the tariffs on Canadian softwood imports are affecting US prices...

[Chuck Yerkes]

Or how the US freely exported raw lumber to anyone but canada would only export large amounts if it was FINISHED (eg. local jobs)...

But pertinently, I have a big "crawl space" (5-10 feet high). I want to wall and floor it, perhaps it becomes woodshop, perhaps just storage.

I priced materials in early 2003 (pre-Iraq fiasco). But I'd become unemployed a bit after buying a house.

Either way, I was a little reluctant to risk spending future mortgage money on the project while I had lots of time and no income.

Once I settled into my new job and had some time, I repriced last winter, a year later.

For joists, supports for them in the framing (sistering 2x6's to the existing to support the joists) and a misc support, the rough cost of lumber had been $3,000; this past winter, it had roughly doubled. (more than Mr Bush's tax pre-fund had given me).

That's not including walls, insulation, proper flooring or any finish stuff. Ok, so that's on hold (and the tools remain in the garage).

The guy who bought a burned out lot across the street is a carpenter. He comes buy to take care of the property.

His plans to build have been hampered some by less work, but that means more time. His plans have, it appears, been greatly stopped by the fact that lumber alone has gone from $50k to over $120k.

Labor, foundation, etc, etc aren't in that math yet.

Bye bye house.

But as long as Halliburton can buy all the plywood and sell it for 8x more, then I guess it's ok.

It's for the good of the wealthy.

[HA HA Budys Here]

I see your wood price increase, and raise you one network news production interview fee.

When broadcast and print media news sources become a service to the public, rather than a money-making media production for a very select few, I'll give free interviews. Until then, discussing current political and socioeconomical trends and their effects is gonna cost you.

[Dave Balderstone]

Huh? AFAIK Canada still exports raw logs.

[Jim Sullivan]

My knowledge is a bit dated, but at one time, the Softwood Lumber Treaty between Canada and the US restricted raw exports from Canada to the US, but did not restrict "finished" materials. So instead of a basic 2x4, you got a

2x4 with a hole 20" from the bottom. The first one was considered part of the quota, the second one wasn't.

The US Lumber suppliers have been restricting the imports of lumber from Canada for years, effectivly increasing the price you pay in the US for construction materials.