Materials price rises

[nod]

I picked up 40 lengths of scant and some sheets of OSB 

sheets up by nearly £3

Scant up by 40p a length 

Furlough Brexit Or are manufacturers-and sellers  just cashing in on the building boom Which shows no sign of slowing down

 

[SuperJohnG]

My thoughts (not based on any actual analysis) is that it is just fall out from brexit and covid. Shortages at the start of the year mean people are buying more and and much as they can when it is available to catch up. 

 

Basically exactly like supermarkets and lack of food and specifically toilet roll at the start of the pandemic. A direct result of panic buying and its continuing into materials for trade. 

 

There are no less trees (apart from the ones that are harvested) sawmills still operating, plants still producing etc. Raw materials are very much available as they were 12 months ago its just a lag and manufacturers and suppliers reacting to that shortness of supply. If everyone chills out and stops stockpiling or buying more than they need then it'll slow down and return to normal. 

[Scoobyrex]

I import from Europe and China and export globally, brexit has added paperwork handling charges, all of this gets added to the end price. Imports from China have gone up significantly as well as shipping charges. As economies open up I can see prices continuing to go up not down due to further demand, and increased hassle / work getting stuff into the country.

 

A kitchen component supplier in the netherlands has now stopped shipping to the UK altogether, not worth the hassle was their response.

[CC45]

shipping container from china now ~ $10,000 - up 5 x from a year or so ago.  Some importers are just leaving stock out there - not worth the new shipping fee.  Empty containers in EU etc & full ones in China.  Add on the length of time between ordering and delivery .......  Suspect more are considering ordering from EU or even making in UK.  Every cloud etc

[SimonD]

FWIW, I just got a price on some Birch interior plywood - 1525 x 1525 x 15mm. £44 per sheet plus VAT. In December I paid under £17/sheet.

[Temp]

Papers just waking up...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/08/cost-of-building-work-on-uk-homes-to-rise-as-price-of-materials-soars

 

 

[MAB]

Construction Materials Shortage Continues Amid Ongoing Price Rises

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/news/construction-materials-shortage

[Cpd]

This thread makes grim reading for potential self builders on a budget never mind those who are a little better off. 

[Mulberry View]

5 hours ago, Cpd said:

This thread makes grim reading for potential self builders on a budget never mind those who are a little better off. 

 

Terrifying. Someone I follow on Instagram has just had to change their plan from a Timber build to Brick & Block.

[SteamyTea]

In some ways it focusses the mind and what to spend money on.  Many spend more on a kitchen and bathroom than insulation and airtightness, which means they spend more on a heating system.

Ideal time to reappraise the building materials choices from the ground up.

[Conor]

100mm floor insualtion was £34 a sheet last week, it's now £39. Really regret not buying last week!

[Carrerahill]

On 02/05/2021 at 11:21, nod said:

I picked up 40 lengths of scant and some sheets of OSB 

sheets up by nearly £3

Scant up by 40p a length 

Furlough Brexit Or are manufacturers-and sellers  just cashing in on the building boom Which shows no sign of slowing down

 

I think it is driven by shortages brought on by businesses being greedy and furloughing staff. I know of so many businesses that were just shutting down with no real reason to do so other than so management and owners could take the year off and not worry about the financial implications. Clearly this is not the story for all and for many financial problems are rampant, but there was some sheer greed and stupidity at play.

 

When they stopped making plasterboard and milling wood that was just ridiculous because it was still being consumed apart for the first 4-5 weeks of initial lockdown.

 

But lots of manufacturers saw the opportunity to stop paying wages, shaft the government and sit and do very little. 

 

So now we have shortages of everything due to backlog and also a boom in building projects, Brexit has nothing to do with it. Costs should drop again when it all levels but I fear they won't as everyone gets greedy.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Carrerahill

[SuperJohnG]

9 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

 

But lots of manufacturers saw the opportunity to stop paying wages, shaft the government and sit and do very little. 

 

So now we have shortages of everything due to backlog and also a boom in building projects, Brexit has nothing to do with it. Costs should drop again when it all levels but I fear they won't as everyone gets greedy.

 

Agreed. 

 

One thing to note fro that article is about plaster, which they say is fine. Last year....you just couldn't get it at all. But that's fine as it's had it's dip and production was then scaled up. 

 

Everyone hang tight and it'll be fine.

 

I'm currently having my SIPS kit erected so ina few weeks I'll be put on my lonesome again buying materials so I can only hope that's what happens. 

[Kevin J]

Metal Roof system suppliers are introducing price increases with up to 80% being put about. Already several system suppliers have full order books with extensive lead times in 2022

Standing Seam is now widely adopted. Work with reputable distributors who can offer installer details or product installation trading and with those who have stocks

[Kevin J]

[MattSu]

Hello I'm new to the forum and have been reading posts with interest.

 

Just how serious is the current price hike and material shortage? I am in the process of buying two building plots to develop and sell on, and I have to say the current headlines are very alarming. Having built in brick and block before, I was starting to consider the timber frame or sips route, as all my headaches seem to come from dealing with bricklayers; but having seen figures such as 80% increase in timber being bounded about, it makes for sobering reading.

 

When I was finishing off a property renovation late last year, we couldn't get hold of finish plaster for love nor money, is the situation still this bad but across the board now?

 

Is there an argument for choosing less mainstream materials to carry out the build, rather than relying on the staples, or is it a raw materials problem which will affect everything?

 

My plan today is to start speaking with timber frame suppliers and working through my costings to see what's what.

[markc]

Timber, Steel and Bricks/Blocks are all rising fast. China has closed a lot of steel mills to push prices up so structures and roofing systems will increase.

Copper, so tube and cable are rising rapidly. and timber is in short supply worldwide. Luckily we are fairing much better than many parts of Europe because their material costs are going sky high.

[SimonD]

13 minutes ago, MattSu said:

Hello I'm new to the forum and have been reading posts with interest.

 

Just how serious is the current price hike and material shortage? I am in the process of buying two building plots to develop and sell on, and I have to say the current headlines are very alarming. Having built in brick and block before, I was starting to consider the timber frame or sips route, as all my headaches seem to come from dealing with bricklayers; but having seen figures such as 80% increase in timber being bounded about, it makes for sobering reading.

 

When I was finishing off a property renovation late last year, we couldn't get hold of finish plaster for love nor money, is the situation still this bad but across the board now?

 

Is there an argument for choosing less mainstream materials to carry out the build, rather than relying on the staples, or is it a raw materials problem which will affect everything?

 

My plan today is to start speaking with timber frame suppliers and working through my costings to see what's what.

 

It's hard to say for sure right now. Bank of England sees this as a short term blip as a result of Covid that won't cause long term price inflation but that averages inflationary pressure across the economy as a whole and as we know a lot of the economy is still holed up for the time being. I also don't think construction is fully back to normal yet either.

 

The more worrying side to it is that with timber, for example, demand has been growing slightly faster than supply over the last decade or so, which has shown a slow uptick in timber prices year on year. Now we've got the bottle neck caused by Covid, it's going to take some time to flush it all through. There are other issues in that the US government has decided to increase duties on Canadian lumber imports, which at the moment will drive more importers to look to Europe for supply (because North American and Canadian lumber is a traded commodity with sky high values right now, up over 200% since August last year).

 

Supplies are difficult right now which means some planning ahead, or as has been the problem I've faced throughout Covid is having to build, not according to sensible sequence, but doing a bit here and and bit there as materials, fixings and other bits come through the door (it's very frustrating and slows things down a lot).

 

As it is, I know of smaller building firms and trades that have had to stop work because customers won't go ahead with price uncertainty and they can't get the supplies they need (there's a new house being build just down the road from me that's pretty much halted for a good month or so now with partially completed walls). People will also eventually see some sense and stop paying stupid prices for materials. This will eventually have enough of an impact on the market to ease supply problems and bring prices down (even if only marginally as they never seem to go back down to previous levels do they?).

 

Where you are at the moment, it's probably more sensible to consider the timeline for your project and consider the risks in that light. If you're only just buying plots right now, I anticipate that by the time you've got planning and everything else lined up there may be a longer term more stable outlook. But who knows, we're in very strange times right now.

 

 

[MattSu]

I'm just at the pre-planning, plot buying stage. But what concerns me on this development is the uncertainty of the completed property value, and how that is offset over some of the unknown costs.

 

Because the plots are in a rural location, there is no gas supply, and a requirement for them to be at least Code 4 homes, so I'm unfamiliar with some aspects of this type of build such as heating/recovery systems, PVs, electric charging points (and their costs), but also the potential for let say just a 10% uplift in building material and labour costs, would pose a big problem for me.

 

Because I will require substantial borrowing to complete this project, something I've never had to rely on before, I would like to structure the project so that it can be completed very quickly, so I'm looking at methods such as beam and block and SIP construction. But if it turns out these building methods are unpredictable in the short term, I may need to reconsider the whole development viability.

[markc]

Where in the Country are you? Most developers are having a hard time at the moment, material and labour shortages are making many smaller projects uneconomical

[the_r_sole]

24 minutes ago, MattSu said:

I'm just at the pre-planning, plot buying stage. But what concerns me on this development is the uncertainty of the completed property value, and how that is offset over some of the unknown costs.

 

Because the plots are in a rural location, there is no gas supply, and a requirement for them to be at least Code 4 homes, so I'm unfamiliar with some aspects of this type of build such as heating/recovery systems, PVs, electric charging points (and their costs), but also the potential for let say just a 10% uplift in building material and labour costs, would pose a big problem for me.

 

Because I will require substantial borrowing to complete this project, something I've never had to rely on before, I would like to structure the project so that it can be completed very quickly, so I'm looking at methods such as beam and block and SIP construction. But if it turns out these building methods are unpredictable in the short term, I may need to reconsider the whole development viability.

 

 in my experience, there isn't really a construction method which significantly shortens the overall construction programme, there are ones which allow you to get to wind and water tight or  certain milestones quicker but there's not really a method for reducing the start to finish time without introducing a fair bit of risk.

[MattSu]

21 minutes ago, the_r_sole said:

 

 in my experience, there isn't really a construction method which significantly shortens the overall construction programme, there are ones which allow you to get to wind and water tight or  certain milestones quicker but there's not really a method for reducing the start to finish time without introducing a fair bit of risk.

What about prefabrication? I am wondering if given the current uncertainties with labour and materials, whether getting more done offsite would remove some of the cost and construction risks and not increase them?

 

What's your experience of this?

[the_r_sole]

Just now, MattSu said:

What about prefabrication? I am wondering if given the current uncertainties with labour and materials, whether getting more done offsite would remove some of the cost and construction risks and not increase them?

 

What's your experience of this?

 

prefab is fine, but the time is just taken in a factory rather than on site - you can potentially overlap the site works with the factory work, but then you have to make sure that slabs/sole plates are mm perfect, prefab in this country isn't really competitive so far, any time we've looked at it in the last few years the economics haven't stacked with it for individual homes or small scale private development

[markc]

Agree with the above, pre fab works brilliantly for hotel builds etc. and pre fab Dormers etc are great to fit and save loads of grief on site. But for a small development the pre planning etc just isn't viable

[MattSu]

22 minutes ago, markc said:

Agree with the above, pre fab works brilliantly for hotel builds etc. and pre fab Dormers etc are great to fit and save loads of grief on site. But for a small development the pre planning etc just isn't viable

 

Do you care to expand on that, why is it not viable? Isn't it just a question of detail in terms of planning?