Page 58 - BusinessWest February 21, 2022
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And they are prompting a wide array of color- ful analogies — from hitting a moving target to shopping in a grocery store, COVID-style.
In addition to longer delays in securing needed materials, Burger said, even when materials are available, there are still glitches. As an example, an architectural roofing shingle manufacturer usually offers about a dozen colors of their prod- uct. After one of his customers made their selec- tion, Berger had to tell the customer to pick another color from one of the three colors the company currently offers.
Trying to keep up with what’s available and what isn’t is like hitting a moving target, according to Carl Mercieri, vice president of South Hadley- based Marois Construction.
“Lumber is more available than it was six months ago, and while the price is still high, it’s leveled off for now,” he said. “On the other hand, rigid insulation is hard to get right now.”
Kevin Perrier, president of Five Star Build-
ing Corp. in Easthampton, said everyone in this sector is feeling the impact of COVID on finding available products. He compared purchasing con- struction materials to what shoppers are finding at the grocery store.
“You walk in one day, and for some reason there is no pasta on the shelf; the next week, you go in, and maybe the cereal aisle is empty — it’s the same in this business,” he said, noting that there is a similar hit-or-miss quality and inabil- ity to product availability that only increases the frustration level.
Indeed, Mercieri noted that, while lumber is available right now, that luxury (and, yes, it can be called that) may well be short lived. The recent protests among Canadian truckers over vaccine
mandates may soon cause a shortage of lumber coming to the U.S. from Canada, he said.
After running his company for 22 years, Perrier said he could not have imagined the problems he has experienced with building materials over the past two years.
“There have always been long lead times for certain products, but generally most materials were readily available,” he
explained. “This is a new
experience, where lead times are no longer pre- dictable, and some of the most common building materials are now delayed by weeks and months.”
For this issue and its
focus on construction,
BusinessWest takes an in-
depth look at how several
issues, most all of them
COVID-related, are making
this a good time, but also a very challenging time, for area contractors.
‘Lumber’ Curve
As he talked about supply-chain issues — and how the unavailability of needed materials is causing no end of frustration in his sector — Per- rier noted that his crew had to install FRP interior wall paneling for a recent project. The adhesive used to secure the panels — easily available everywhere before the pandemic — was nowhere to be found when they needed it.
“We searched the whole country, multiple sup- pliers. We were told it would be 16 to 20 weeks before we could get the adhesive,” he said, with
discernable exasperation in his voice.
Burger said products like overhead garage
doors can have wait times of up to 14 months. Mercieri concurred, noting that his company was trying to finish a project for Yankee Candle, but the overhead doors caused a delay. “We had ordered the doors in May, and we just installed them in January.”
“You walk in one day, and for some reason there is no pasta on the shelf; the next week, you go in, and maybe the cereal aisle is empty — it’s the same in this business.
A market environment of scarcity and price hikes also invites unethical practices. Perrier
said he knows of subcontractors who have been approached by suppliers offering to reduce wait times if they are willing to pay more for the prod- uct. “If a product had a 40-week wait time, they could get it in 20 weeks if they were willing to pay 20% more for it.”
Situations like this beg the question, how does a contractor bid on a project and see it through completion with so many variables? The contrac- tors who spoke with BusinessWest said they add in extra time for each job and keep a conversation going with their clients, most of whom are under- standing of the times everyone is in and the chal- lenges they present.
      KEVIN PERRIER
”
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   58 FEBRUARY 21, 2022
CONSTRUCTION
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