Schuylkill County companies cope with 'astronomical' building supply costs

Apr. 11—Costs of construction supplies have increased in the past year, but the demand for new homes and renovations remains high for many local companies.

Nick Fanelli, operations and counsel director for Pleasant Valley Homes, Pine Grove, said the cost of lumber has had a significant impact on construction.

"We're raising our prices on the homes that we build, because lumber is at astronomical and unforeseen levels," Fanelli said.

However, the demand for new homes has still been high.

"We have not seen a dip in incoming orders for Schuylkill and the surrounding counties," Fanelli said. "Right now, we have a record backlog, and that's due to a combination of factors, but demand is one of those."

Fanelli said a combination of factors is "saving construction" of new homes in spite of the increasing costs of materials. Those factors include low interest rates, the older age of existing homes in the Northeast, the rise in home value and the low inventory of available homes, especially in Pennsylvania.

Further, Fanelli said they have seen a lot of first-time homebuyers, as well as many people leaving cities and moving to suburbs during the pandemic.

"It helps offset some of that bite, but it doesn't offset all of it," Fanelli said.

Not just lumber

Corey Holobetz, owner of Pride Homes LLC, Pottsville, said lumber has not been the only material to see an increase.

"There are some things that are costing four times as much, individual sheets of plywood, for example, or treated lumber," Holobetz said. "Storms down south affected resin plants, which is affecting costs and availability of raw materials, plastic material, siding and bonding related items."

Holobetz said resin production was hindered by storms and freezing temperatures in Texas, and labor shortages have been one factor causing problems with lumber.

In some cases, Holobetz said homes built in the past year have seen increases between $8,000 and $12,000, but low interest rates have helped some buyers.

"There's a balance between the interest rates and the cost of materials, so the cost of building a home has gone up, but the buyer can decide to justify that with lower interest rates, or hold off and let things settle back down," Holobetz said.

Mary Helen "Mimi" Mettam, owner of Mettam Brothers Lumber Co., Saint Clair, said prices on materials have increased anywhere from 30-50%.

For example, a sheet of plywood increased from $35 to $60 and a standard two-by-four from $4 to $8. Metal products, such as roofing, have increased three times this year so far, Mettam said, with another increase coming.

Along with increasing prices, Mettam said there have also been delays in shipments and availability shortages.

"Certain things like drywall, steel doors and composite decking are soon to be on allocation, so manufacturers will only ship so much," Mettam said. "You may or may not get what you ordered."

Mettam said orders on supplies, like windows, drywall, steel doors, lumber and screws, have gone from a week or 10 days to three to six weeks. On an order of screws, Mettam said she might only receive 70% of what she ordered.

"It's affecting our sales and affecting our customers," Mettam said. "It snowballs down, because the contractor or the homeowners may not get their projects done on the schedule they wanted."

For lumber last year, Mettam said they used up the supply allocated for the year by June with the increased demand for decks.

"Many homeowners are at home, not going on vacation, had a little extra money from the stimulus that maybe they were fortunate enough not to have to use that toward the necessities, so they had a little extra money to do something with their home," Mettam said.

Mettam said she hopes prices and supply will return to pre-COVID normal eventually, but it is hard to say when that might happen.

"Will we get back to normal? Maybe someday," Mettam said. "I used to think maybe by fall, but I'm not sure about that at this point."