August Lumber Commodities Report

While commodities have seemingly course-corrected, supply constraints are still painfully out of whack. Recently we’ve gotten some requests to explain how the shortages and lead times have affected our business, and we’re absolutely with you in the trenches when it comes to feeling the effects. Below is a short list of product categories and what we’ve experienced and seen.

Cabinets

• Our showroom should have been completed nearly three months ago; however, we were hit with the 20 week lead time that our customers have been experiencing. The wait has been painful, and we will be excited to show off our new showroom in the coming few months. Theoretically, we are starting to see some relief on lead times, but it’s still very challenging.

Countertops

• In the next phase of our showroom remodel, however, templates are anywhere from 3 to 7 weeks out, further delaying the completion of the department. After the template, we’ve got 2 – 3 weeks until the tops will be installed.

Paint

• We’ve had to cancel our fall exterior paint sale for lack of product availability. We keep hearing that the supply chain is starting to work out the kinks, but we’ve yet to see relief. Some bases are available, but the most common bases (based on color choices) are in short supply.

Steel

• We recently were notified that the new racking for the remodel at Angeles Millwork was canceled due to the limited availability of metal and manufacturing. Fortunately, we were able to source an alternative supplier, but this was entirely unexpected. Some gun nails continue to be a challenge to source. When we’ve found them, we’ve purchased pallet quantities to try and keep up with roofing demands.

Decking

• We’ve been able to get most composite decking, but specific colors have been nearly impossible to come by. Thankfully, we could still run our summer decking sale, but there are still customers waiting for their color selections to return to stock.

Engineered Lumber

• Supply is starting to return to a more normal place, but we’ve been on allocation from our vendors, meaning we can only order a percentage of last year’s total sales. This has meant that our suppliers have been unwilling even to quote some large jobs. This has felt like madness in our industry – who wants to say no to a big job?

I’m incredibly proud of our purchasing team and how hard they have worked to keep our stores stocked and ultimately keeping our customers’ jobs moving forward. It hasn’t been an easy 18 months, and we haven’t always been able to make things happen on the timeline that we aim for, but our team has never given up and continues to work above and beyond. I also want to thank our customers, we know it’s been an incredibly challenging time for you, and we understand how these delays contribute to increased expenses. Yet, through it all, you’ve shown us patience and understanding.