Lumber out of stock

[Matlock]

First time I've run into a shortage of lumber. Guess it was inevitable.

Home Depot and Lowes are both out of pressure treated lumber. Small bowed stuff on the racks and nothing expected for at least a month maybe longer. Checked with the Menards distribution center and they had a few sticks of 4x6x12 and that was all.
Talked to some trades guys and they were not happy.

So all mills are closed and import from Canada is shut down. Humph!

Wrong time to build my deck...

 

[highdesertranger]

all mills are not closed. I am in eastern Oregon and logging is going on and the mills are open. I haven't had the need for pressure treated but next time I am in a hardware store I will check. highdesertranger

 

[PECVD2]

And they have increased the price of what is left on the shelves by 30%.

Time to start building homes with blocks again.

Just as a side note: I dropped by Harbor Freight for some diamond grinder disks and the store was nearly empty. The kid at the counter said “the supply lines from China had dried up”.

 

[IGBT]

We are building a house in eastern Washington and plenty of lumber here.   Trees are not worth diddly though.  We had to cut down a few 28" diameter pondarosa pines and almost could not give them away.

 

[izifaddag]

I have a friend in a small village outside Glasgow in Scotland. He has been renovating a cottage to keep himself busy during the 'plague'. He has been going through coniptions getting materials of all sorts. He has resorted to mail order and paying a premium price.
The repercussions of shutting down the world economy are starting to take effect.

 

[tx2sturgis]

What? No sticks?

What's next, no bricks?

Dang, next thing you know we will have a bunch of people on the forum with no sticks n bricks!

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

What? No sticks?
What's next, no bricks?

 
There's always straw.

 

[maki2]

Try going to a regular lumber yard that is locally owned. I would rather go there first before I go to Home Depot or Lowes. It has a lot to do with shopping in my own neighborhood to help preserve the truly local economy. Besides on the weekends it is a mob scene at those big box stores and when I look at the maps by zip code for the Covid 19 infections and deaths the zip code for those stores is more than double the reported cases of my own neighborhood that has lots of locally owned stores in it.

 

[Stargazer]

Same thing in CO. A local lumber yard said mill had shut down, no pressure treated lumber In addition, there was a new law passed about petroleum based sealers and turpentine and paint thinner. What is on their shelves now is the last of it, forever.

I thought he was full of it, just wanted to sell his crappy warped bowed pine. Poo.

 

[maki2]

For the exterior wood pieces on my build I choose to use IPE wood as it is naturally rot resistant and it is much stronger and harder than pressure treated wood. It is a "high end" out door decking wood. It will outlast pressure treated wood.

 

[mudbunny]

But ipe weighs a ton. Part of the reason that they call it iron wood.

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[Matlock]

I'm not a fan of IPE. It's an expensive import. Has toxicity, cost, weight and renewability issues. It must be pre-drilled for use and it eats saw blades. Because of its rarity, its illegally over-harvested. Most comes from South/Central America. I'd vote thumbs down for a mobile application just due to weight alone.

In my S&B application the support structure will rot out 20 years before an IPE deck surface. Try backing screws out of a 15 year old deck. Saving the deck IPE for a new rebuilt support structure isn't viable. Not a very builder friendly product. There are better alternatives but that's just my ol 2¢.

 

[maki2]

But ipe weighs a ton. Part of the reason that they call it iron wood.

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of course there is always Western Red Cedar which weighs a lot less than pressure treated wood.
or cypress
or redwood
or white oak
or doug fir
all of the above are rot resistant woods
it just depends on the part of the country you are located in as to which one is easy to obtain. The Cedar and Doug Fir are local to me.

 

[Ken in Anaheim]

Of course there's a shortage........that stuff don't grow on trees !