Fluctuating prices and delays in procuring building materials are challenging Connecticut new home builders and remodelers, and in some cases, causing construction delays.
“It’s painful,” said Bob Wiedenmann, owner of Sunwood Development in Wallingford. “We worked for years where the hardest thing to do was getting that next sale. Now the sales are easier, but it’s harder to make a profit.”
Lumber prices have gone up and down since last winter and now other product costs are on the rise, according to Wiedenmann, whose company is building a home in its Magnolia Ridge development in Middletown.
“Lumber costs went crazy last winter and into the spring of this year,” he said. “They are lower now than they were then, but they’re still higher than they were two years ago by about 20 percent. We’re expecting aluminum prices will be increasing by 30-to-35 percent at the beginning of the new year and the additives that go into concrete are going higher.”
Lumber prices peaked at $1,515 per thousand board feet at the end of May, according to Fortune Magazine and then fell to $399 by late August. Between then and the end of October, lumber prices rose 40 percent to $545 per thousand board feet.
The price that Jesse Allen, owner of Milford’s Bay Construction pays for roofing materials has gone up three times this year alone, he said. About 80 percent of Bay Construction’s business is remodeling, Allen said.
That kind of volatility “makes it harder to price things.” said Liz Verna, a principal in Wallingford-based Verna Properties.
Allen said it’s possible to pass along some of the cost increases he is experiencing if it is a new contract.
“But once it’s signed and sealed, you can’t really go in and add more to the price,” he said.
As painful as rising prices are for builders and remodelers, delays in the supply chain have been worse, shutting down construction in some cases.
“It’s really bad,” Allen said. “We’re losing some projects because we can’t get the materials that we need. It takes almost 90 days to get windows when it used to take two weeks.”
Sunwood Development had to stop work on a home in Woodbridge for a month because of delays in getting foam insulation, according to Wiedenmann.
“We have a house in Essex that is all done and the family wants to move in by Thanksgiving,” he said. “But they can’t because the gas company can’t get a meter for the house.”
Verna said everything associated with new home building from plumbing supplies to appliances and garage doors, “is in short supply.”
“We used to order garage doors two or three weeks before we needed them, now it takes 16 weeks to get them,” Verna said. “We’re ordering appliances now when we pour the foundation, And we order trusses and windows as soon as we pull the building permit.”
Wiedenmann said, “there’s no rhyme of reason” to the delays.
“We’re waiting for water heaters and fiberglass showers,” he said. “That wasn’t a problem six months ago.”
The shortage of building supplies is translating into delays in completing new homes. Wiedenmann said houses that his company used to build within 90 days are taking anywhere from 150 to 180 days to complete.
