The quality and high price of construction lumber has little to do with Katrina. It has more to do with the U.S government imposing high import duties on Canadian lumber. Before a deal was worked out between the Canadian and U.S. governments, the U.S. government added about $5 billion to the cost of Canadian lumber. One major U.S. home builder calculated this illegal duty added about 15-20 percent to the cost of a new home.
Another factor to the cost of lumber was a heightened demand for new housing as a result of more people qualifying for sub prime mortgages. I suspect you will see the cost and quality of lumber improve over the next year. I recently purchased some lumber for a renovation project and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and straightness of the lumber (No 1&2 SPF). The price for the same 2x4 and 2x6 lumber was about 25 percent less than it was 2-3 years ago. This is Canadian lumber, bought in Canada without any U.S. duties. And there is still a housing boom in Canada. Go figure. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Stephen Russell > Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 11:54 AM > To: ProFox Email List > Subject: Re: [OT] Recycling (was Re: [NF] Photos: Three low-cost Linux PCs > |TechRepublic Photo Gallery) > > On Feb 1, 2008 10:09 AM, Michael Madigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I like recycling, but I'm afraid you're correct. It > > costs more to recycle than any benefits you might get > > from it. > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > --------------- > > I wish that there was recycling in place for dealing with construction > waste. The amount of good materials that are thrown out in a re-model job > will surprise you. If we could take those landfill items and present them > in a sorted manner to lower income groups they might be able to afford to > do > things in todays high cost of repair supplies. Since Katrina the cost of > lumber has gone through the roof and the quality of it has gone into the > toilet. > > YMMV > <snip> No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.18/1255 - Release Date: 2/1/2008 9:59 AM _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
