How much effect will Ike have on the wood industry? It's gonna take a lot of wood to repair all those damaged home and businesses.
Not being a business major or anything, I imagine it would be pretty short term - They will need a lot of 2x4's and plywood though. Lotta shingles too. Sad to see everything that was 'normal' down there absolutly destroyed in a few hours.
The item most home owners could use right now is probably Tarps because there won't be enough trades people to handle all that needs to be repaired in a timely manner to protect what is left from the elements.
Roof shingle suppliers and manufacturers probably have low inventories because the price of petroleum being so high. A ten thousand dollar roof job is gonna be closer to 20 because of supply and demand of material and trade.
Dealing with the aftermath of these storms really stinks.
Construction companies who are looking for work across the US have now found it. ::)
After Katrina the price of OSB spiked in anticipation of all the rebuilding that was going to be needed, but the actual demand never materalized because much of the rebuilding has still not been done. One can only hope this one will be different as there is capacity sitting idle right now.
Katrina didn't have a spike since a lot of the people didn't return to build. Will this one be different?
If your home was destroyed by the hurricane, the one to replace it probably won't be the same type of construction. It will probably be more hurricane resistant. They don't use as much wood in the exterior structure. They may even use less in the interior.
Any wood floors may be repaired with tile or other type of fired brick. Slab flooring could be concrete. Roofing could be replaced with metal, or with photovoltaic, if someone has a green tilt.
Its hard to gauge how much of an increase there will be. Housing construction and codes have changed quite a bit from even 10 years ago. Do they really need as much wood for a house as they used to?
A lot of engineered wood is used, but it is wood just the same, just reconstituted.
Most of Texas building codes include hurricane clips for wood construct, and they hold up. But, local mill production ended with Rita, it was low before, but gone now. Prices may go up on stumpage, but I doubt it, retail has just started up, according to my local retail guy. Wood is the number one construction in Texas, seems metal studs fold in a fire quicker than wood, sheet rock holds it off, but the heat softens the metal. Whose to say.
My house has been through two now, with little impact, and 40 year old construction. This one was the worse, and we have minimal damage that I have found so far.
They actually use more wood in the Hurricane zones. Since Andrew, in 1992, the Fla code requires total sheathing with plywood, rather than just on the corners. Rafters and joists are bigger, and most design requirements call for more wood. Slab floors are a big no-no in the surge zone, and cinder blocks are only used for "blowout" walls there. The biggest difference is in the fasteners. Lots of clips, anchors and straps.
The way I see it, the Ike disaster and the nationwide building slump will have an effect on each other. The slump will effect Ike more than Ike effects the slump. As massive as it is, the Ike rebuild is still small compared to the slump. On the other hand, the Ike damage might be repaired quicker than it would have, due to all the hungry carpenters available.
TR, I'll bet your house was built way above the code of forty years ago. ;)
I bet it will not be much. I just got new lumber prices from NorPac and they are down again. Hickory, maples, ash is just $400mbdft for all grades above 3A and I have $450 mbdft in it. More folks will have insureance in TX then in LA when Katirna hammered them. Lots of the 9th Ward is empty in NO.
How about the timber? Was there as much knocked down as there was in Katrina and Rita? In short, will there be a glut of timber to clean up and nowhere to get it sawn?
Here in western Arkansas we had more water damage than wind. Between 4 & 5 inches of rain on top of the last Gustav visit, our bridges can't take much more. The district to the east of me sustained lots of blowdown around one rec area, had one camper trapped from down trees. Got a conference call tonight on response - Blue IMT activated and headed to Beaumont. I heard the Davey Crockett (east of Lufkin) was pretty much devastated, as far as timber damage. In the fact the word I heard was it had exploded - what ever that might mean, but it don't sound good............