Lumber prices and alternatives

Loganwayne said:
I’m not sure if any other builders are having people come in and wanting to build and not understand why everything is so expensive. In the last two weeks we’ve had the “you don’t have enough money for what you want” talk with clients.

One guy thought wormy chestnut was a easily sourced lumber and wanted all his floors done in it
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Sounds like a floridiot.
 
So...way back in the day, my great grandaddy (born 1900, died 1990) built his house. This was probably the late 1920s or early in 1930, a few years before the depression. The majority of it was heart pine that he cut himself during the 20s. Fast forward to around 2010 and the guy that bought the land with his old house on it was tearing it down. Come to find out, he was tearing it down, BURNING the wood, and pulling out all the nails so he could scrap them. He told me and my cousin we could have whatever of the wood we wanted, but had to pull the nails out and bring them back to him.

I tried several times to tell him just how retarded he was, but it never clicked. He probably made 40 bucks on nails, but could have retired from selling that wood. My cousin did get a good bit of it and my sister got him to make her a pretty sweet table out of it.

EDIT: I was told via my grandma, his oldest daughter, that they were legit old growth logs too. Apparently we still had some hidden away in the swamps around here in Croatan. Some of them as tall as 160 feet and close to 4' in diameter. Could you imagine finding some of those today? My god...you'd be a wealthy man. You can still find the old tram roads in the woods in front of my house where the railways were for winching them to the main road from miles back in the woods/swamps. Apparently we used to have massive cypress trees back there too. Like, ungodly massive. Some of the old stumps are still scattered throughout the woods, wayyy off the beaten path.


Sounds like some @XJsavage type stories, truthfully! My grandma is the oldest, local resident. Hell, the church at the end of the road brings her pictures to see if she knows who the people are in them. She usually does.
 
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Well since this thread has turned this way, how does one determine what old wood is the kind that is worth money? I have an old house (early-ish 1900's) that needs to go away.

Duane
 
I need to be able to like that post, laugh at it, and also be mad about it.

Higher than giraffe anything is always funny to me.
 
CLRracer said:
Well since this thread has turned this way, how does one determine what old wood is the kind that is worth money? I have an old house (early-ish 1900's) that needs to go away.

Duane
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Slap an ad on it that says "reclaimed barn wood" and let some waspy, white woman who's drunk on HGTV write you a fat check! Or, if you know what it is, you can always sell it to people who deal solely in old wood. I'd figure if it's in good shape, it's worth a lot more than nothing. Shoot, if all you want is the house to be gone, there's probably people that would disassemble it just for the wood.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
Slap an ad on it that says "reclaimed barn wood" and let some waspy, white woman who's drunk on HGTV write you a fat check! Or, if you know what it is, you can always sell it to people who deal solely in old wood. I'd figure if it's in good shape, it's worth a lot more than nothing. Shoot, if all you want is the house to be gone, there's probably people that would disassemble it just for the wood.
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Well the excavator can make it gone while it's there, but if it's worth anything then I don't want to pass up an opportunity to make some money. And I have no idea what it is other than "old" and "wood" lol.

Duane
 
Penguin pooter would be coooold (artic ones anyway) and pretty much drug around on the ground all day 😬
 
jeepinmatt said:
Only a fool would sell a perfectly good house, buy some land, and build a new house right now :laughing:
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What about selling a pretty good house and building a new house on land they've already bought? Asking for a friend........

Duane
 
jeepinmatt said:
Only a fool would sell a perfectly good house, buy some land, and build a new house right now :laughing:
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Screenshot_20220129-151722_DuckDuckGo.jpg
 
Matt is just taking a shot at me because I’m selling a perfectly good house and buying some land. What I’m not doing is building right now. We luckily have a place to live until the building market gets right or we save enough to cover the difference. I’m not in a rush to build whatsoever but like to follow what’s going on.
 
Time for an update...
Prices on lumber have fallen for about 3 weeks or so. Not drastic, but triple digits anyway. Plywood has eased up a little as well. Last week, lumber dropped around 25/m board feet.
Then this AM...
My plywood mill sent a mid-week price increase and my lumber mills informed me lumber is trending back up. New orders are through the roof and expect noticeable increases again by Friday.
I hate the term "new normal". But I think this is it.
Spring is about to hit and prices will continue to increase.
 
Just confirmed with our mills. Expect triple digit lumber increases by mid next week and simliar price increases on plywood.
We are on the cusp of springtime boom in construction and this should hold steady for a couple or three months.
 
For those in the know how much per acre average would you say people are getting to clear cut hardwoods. I know it hasn't gone up as much as lumber but...

I have seen several properties close by sell for top dollar and are now being clear cut.
 
$1000-5000/acre. Depends massively on the size and density of trees, and what the local mills are buying, and how big the parcel is.
 
jeepinmatt said:
$1000-5000/acre. Depends massively on the size and density of trees, and what the local mills are buying, and how big the parcel is.
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If that is hardwood what are the pine forest bringing?
 
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