Higher construction costs due to rising lumber prices

The proportion of wood in the house is overestimated similarly to the meat content in sausage. The timber market is globalized, and something like subsidy-driven nonsense in livestock transport probably exists for wood as well. The market price will likely cause the share of Romanian wood in your house to fluctuate; your local carpenter doesn't necessarily harvest the wood in their own forest. In globalized markets, every conceivable perversion is implemented, and prices fluctuate more due to stock market manipulations than actual facts. I usually find business management considerations amusing: business economists are people who tell successful entrepreneurs that they theoretically did everything wrong :-)

I didn't check and don't know which region you come from, but for my region (BW) definitely not (and probably not for most other regions either). there you're more at 5-10%. (Individual cases can be more). And yes, I am talking about construction costs, not materials.

Ok. I always wonder why people still regularly present ready-to-move-in single-family house offers here in the forum for sometimes just over 2,000 EUR/sqm. I totally agree with you and have not had any other experiences either. South NRW with upscale fittings, 190 sqm living space, including construction costs and a single garage, I am already at 2,700 EUR/sqm living space.

No, I meant as a buffer for construction costs, not the material price.

Oh, right, yes of course. We have that too.

Ultimately, it was more about getting a feel for the current price development in order to be able to assess the adjusted offer of the house builder.

Ok. I always wonder why people still regularly present turnkey single-family house offers here in the forum for sometimes just over 2,000 EUR/sqm. I totally agree with you and haven’t had any other experiences. South NRW with upscale fittings, 190 sqm living space, on BP and with a single garage, I’m already at 2,700 EUR/sqm living space.

First of all, they simply build in cheaper regions and with "normal" fittings. Beyond that, it is a question of what is included. Some then understand that without painter and flooring work and might have counted the porch as part of the outdoor facilities; for others, it is just included in the offer, and so on. Others have contributed their own work and did not count it in, paid the brother-in-law at the construction company or the plasterer in cash. People don’t like to talk about all that here in the forum or simply forget it. It is also a difference whether these are reports from people who have just moved in (i.e., prices from 2020 or 2019) or those who are currently under construction (prices 2020) or those who are planning (prices 2021 or 2022). Except for the first group, the proof that it works is still missing...

I was ultimately more interested in getting a feel for the current price development in order to assess the adjusted offer from the house builder.

So you don’t have a “fixed price” yet?

Well, he could have told you about the other 398 materials he installs that are all getting more expensive. You have to tell the customer something in order to adjust the prices.

Make sure that the houses are still delivered more or less on time. Wood is scarce and production is partially stalling. Says the word on the street.

Prices are skyrocketing everywhere. Also with us. Between 6 and 30%. Not to mention delivery times.

Make sure the houses are still delivered more or less on schedule. Wood is scarce and production is partially stalling. That’s what the grapevine says.
Prices are skyrocketing everywhere. Also with us. Between 6 and 30%. Not to mention the delivery times.

I can only agree. The wood buyers (sawmills) get domestic wood about 40% cheaper. But due to years of drought, bark beetle infestations, etc., the quality of the available wood has drastically deteriorated. As a result, the reject rate is high, the machines are running suboptimally to say the least: industrial wood production suddenly requires a lot of manpower to sort, restock, maintain machines, etc. Currently, wood is traded at daily prices. Price trend is therefore unfortunately significantly rising or simply unavailable. DIY store quality OSB, for example, is available, but construction boards (large OSB3 or even OSB4 boards) are hardly obtainable. Even simple things like KVH battens 4x6 are currently often not deliverable. This can mean construction stoppages or that work doesn’t even start.
Steel similarly at daily prices, finished processed products or semi-finished goods (steel beams, U-profiles) see above regarding wood. How glad I am that our (wood) cabin is standing!

Wood is scarce and production is partly stalling. Says the grapevine.

I am rarely in the bush, but very often in the forest. The main paths currently look like wood yards. What is becoming scarce are the woodcutters and the freight carriers – and probably also the saw blades. The wood itself is not scarce; I estimate last year’s harvest volume alone at at least four average annual yields. The drought, the bark beetle and moderate breezes knock down more than Kyrill or Lothar. However, one cannot compensate for this by increasing the amount of inferior quality logs through unwanted salvage logging beyond the "emergency culling harvest". What is actually somewhat scarce are the full fillet sawn structural timber for the wood "post" panels. The market situation for roof trusses is less dramatic because it is common there to also use beams. The "consumer" builder can "help a lot" by focusing less on long logs in one piece. Material for wood-based materials remains in huge quantities in the forests because the market rejects it. By the way, beetle wood is also perfectly usable and only discolored. But the "does not get it, but buys organic products" consumer only wants "the finest" and rather loves sustainability as a buzzword.

This is why the reject rate is high, the machines run suboptimally if not to say: The industrial wood production suddenly requires a lot of manpower to sort out, refill, machine maintenance, etc.

Uh, yes, the emergency logging wood stresses the saws more.