Building Material Costs Are Still Rising

By Todd Fratzel on Home Improvement Cost Savings

picture of building materials and rising costsYou would think that the slow down around the Country in the building industry would suggest that building material costs should be coming down. Well you would be wrong with that assumption. Today I read an interesting article, Builder’s ‘Dumbfounded’ By Continuing Cost Increases, that reveals a significant increase in building material costs this year.

The two driving factors for increased costs are soaring fuel prices and overseas demand for materials from China and India. Shipping and manufacturing costs due to increased fuel prices have driven up most building materials. The steel industry has hampered by the weak dollar making U.S. steel especially attractive to overseas vendors.

The heavy civil construction sector, highways, roads, and bridges saw an average increase of 19 percent this year in large part because of steel and diesel fuel. The single family housing sector saw an average increase in costs of almost 6 percent. The one positive note was the decrease in some lumber and gypsum (drywall) products.

Obviously the increased costs have taken a toll on the construction industry. Forecasters don’t see much change over the next couple of years due to soaring inflation numbers. It will certainly be interesting to see how things pan out over the coming months and years. I for one certainly hope things settle down and we can get back to building more new homes.

About the author

Todd Fratzel

I'm full time builder for a large construction company in New Hampshire. I run their design-build division that specializes in custom homes, commercial design-build projects and sub-divisions. I'm also a licensed civil and structural engineer with extensive experience in civil and structural design and home construction. My hope is that I can share my experience in the home construction, home improvement and home renovation profession with other builders and home owners. I'm also the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Tool Box Buzz. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or you'd like to inquire about advertising on this site.

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