10/19/2005 11:59:00 AM Cost of home improvement going up
Mark Best, store manager at McCrorie Carpet One in Port Hadlock, talks about anticipated increases in the price of carpet and flooring products made with petroleum byproducts. – Photo by Kasia Pierzga
Everybody feels the pain of price hikes on fuel at the pump.
But increasing energy prices are also driving up the cost of construction and home-improvement projects, and not just because it's getting more expensive to transport products and materials.
Both petroleum and natural gas are used in manufacturing a wide range of construction materials. As a result, whether you're buying new floor covering, windows, roofing materials, asphalt pipes, lumber or just about anything else, the higher prices are having an effect.
In front of McCrorie Carpet One at Rhody Drive and Irondale Road in Port Hadlock, a sign warns prospective customers to "beat the price increase" by buying before an anticipated jump in the price of carpet and flooring products that are made from petroleum byproducts.
Store manager Mark Best said his company anticipates wholesale price increases of as much as 12 percent in the next few months.
"This is just the first wave of price increases," he said. "We don't know what's going to happen."
With lumber, prices have risen as the result of concern over availability as Gulf Coast communities prepare to rebuild following the recent hurricanes.
To ensure they have the inventory they need to meet demand, contractors concerned about potential shortages have been stockpiling several months' worth of materials – something Joe Lovato, co-owner of Hadlock Building Supply describes as "panic buying."
"Things are not that bad out there," he said. "But you've got to hedge that you'll get the product you need."
With glass products, including items such as shower doors, it's the rising price of natural gas that is driving price increases.
At Groves & Co., a window products firm in Port Hadlock, the wholesale cost of some glass products went up 8 percent last week. And that's on top of wholesale prices that have gone up some 50 percent over the past five years, said owner Jim Groves.
Groves said he received notification from some vinyl window manufacturers that if their costs rise too high, they might have to cancel contracts because they won't be able to provide their products at the prices they promised.
New prices for 2006 should be released by February, but Groves said it's too early to say how much they will go up.
"Unfortunately, the consumer is the one that pays the ultimate price," he said.
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