Tim Hailwood of Timko Home Improvments cuts a piece of wood at a home under renovation. The price of lumber has doubled according to the National product price index

By Tiffany Goodwein

Sky-high lumber prices has consumers paying more

Apr 18, 2021 | 8:05 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Spring construction season is full speed ahead in Medicine Hat, but for many contractors, this year, the challenge hasn’t been finding work but finding supplies.

The cost of lumber, in particular, has risen substantially.

“I would say double, even higher on some stuff, It depends on what you are looking at for materials but some stuff has doubled or more,” said Tim Hailwood of Timko Home Improvements.

The price hike, according to Hailwood has made it difficult to produce estimates as prices keep climbing.

“We try to hold our prices typically for 30 days and right now some suppliers are telling us they can only hold their prices for five days so it makes a big difference when you give someone an estimate and the time you get to figure out that estimate and give it to the customer, a lot of times the prices have already gone up,” he added.

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Julie Davis just started renovating the upstairs of her new home. She too was shocked at the cost of lumber.

“I mean if you were looking back a few years ago it would have been $6 to $8 a sheet and I paid $65 a sheet for OSB and I was priced $85 a sheet for plywood a sheet and I’ve seen now it is $95 a sheet. I don’t know how people are building homes right now, to be honest,” she said.

According to local contractors, the rise in lumber prices is said to be because of supply not keeping up with the demand.

“The reason we don’t have enough of it is sort of like the perfect storm. We got COVID-19 that shut down a lot of plants; it has hindered a lot of cross-country transportation and import. It also had an impact on the demand because a lot of people are now at home they are looking at the projects that they want to do and so the increase in demand for these products has just skyrocketed,” said Lyle Woodward of Strongwood Construction.

Years of forest fires are also have depleted the supply, according to Woodward.

Despite the high prices, renovators like Davis are still forging ahead with their renovation. But they are not alone. Local contractors say they haven’t had too many people postpone their renovations, in part because prices aren’t expected to cool down anytime soon

“The forecast for the industry is not looking good in terms of prices coming down in the next several months to years and so a lot of customers are well informed or becoming more well informed about the situation and they are choosing to go ahead with the project,” Woodward said.