‘Lumber is now apparently made with gold’: Businesses react as prices soar

The price of lumber continues to reach new heights, having positive and negative impacts on local businesses in the process.

In the span of one year, the price has risen roughly 380 per cent and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The rising cost has even prompted some incidents of theft in Saskatoon.

The exponential price increase has made it harder for Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore outlets in Regina and Saskatoon to get the supplies they need.

“Our stock really relies on donations from the general public and because lumber is now apparently made with gold, people kind of hold on to it,” said Glenn Saganice of the Saskatoon location.

“We don’t keep the lumber that’s in our store very long and we certainly don’t get as much of it as we did last year.”

Amanda Partridge of the Regina location says the staff have started to get creative with getting the product they need.

“We’ve been taking apart and using reclaimed wood in order to have items for our customers to purchase,” she said. “We also want to remind people that we are taking donations so that people can get them at a substantially cheaper price.

“We don’t mark stuff up based on the market.”

The stores aren’t the only ones getting creative, as customers have started to show some real ingenuity.

“People are definitely getting creative. Lots of customers have been using pallets for different things whether they take it apart to create something,” Partridge said.

“People are thinking, ‘How can I complete this project that I have in mind using something that maybe isn’t wood that would work for the project?’ ”

A business that has been showcasing lots of ingenuity is the Prairie Barn Brothers.

They dismantle old buildings and then resell the lumber, which is something they have been doing for the last two years — well before the dramatic price increase.

“We see quite a demand right across Canada,” said Tyler Slowski, the owner of the business. “Lumber prices have gone a little crazy here over the last year.

“We’re finding that a lot of the owners of barns and buildings want to get some kind of payment for the building. So we’re seeing that a lot more with the increase in lumber prices. It also increases the cost for us as it would in any business.”

Slowski says the company is seeing a lot more calls as of late as people look to capitalize on the trend.

“It’s just not cost-effective to fix a lot of these buildings, so that’s where we come in,” he said. “We try to come to a fair agreement on both sides and that’s how we kind of got started. We started by just basically rolling into farmyards.

“I’ve got a crew of six guys. We’re expecting a very busy summer.”