Aug 2020
Wood shortages during the coronavirus pandemic
02/08/20 17:58
Wood is becoming scarce and that is not good for a builder of fences. Since California began allowing outdoor construction again I have found it very hard to find the kind of wood I need to make fences. I need three kinds of redwood:
I’ve had an easier time getting 4x4s and 2x4s than I have with the pickets, which are essentially unavailable at places like Home Depot. I am sometimes able to get them at Truitt & White. Ashby lumber had some for a while, but at 3x their normal price.
Lately I’ve been making more fences and gates with welded wire (2”x4” grid), hog wire and cattle fencing (both 4” square grid) instead of pickets. I can get 2x4s and 4x4s and the metal wire fence sections or rolls and build a fence that way, but it isn’t opaque. It is, however, completely adequate to contain a dog.
There are some alternatives to redwood pickets that are at least worth considering. First, there are cedar pickets. Cedar is what they used to make roof shingles out of, because it lasts a long time. Like redwood it is naturally resistant to insects and rot. The best specimen of redwood is better at that than the best specimen of cedar, hands down. But, fence boards aren’t made from the best specimens of redwood. They are often made from “Construction common” redwood, which includes both heart wood and sap wood (when it doesn’t contain *mostly* sapwood.) Sapwood isn’t very resistant to rot or insects.
In the photo above the pink part is the heart wood. It is cracked on top, but even though water got into those cracks the rot didn’t get very far into the pink part. The white part is the sap wood. The holes were made by termites. They didn’t like the pink part because it probably tastes bad to them. The tannin in the pink part has anti-nutritive properties, so if the insects eat the pink part they starve. They probably know to avoid it by taste.
Cedar has sapwood too, but it is a thin layer. And, it usually gets milled away so it won’t be in your fence boards. There are no “construction common” cedar fence boards: they are all heart wood.
The best western red cedar boards are better than the worst redwood boards, especially where there is a lot of sap wood in the redwood board. I’ve seen fence boards that are completely sap wood and no pink heartwood at all. Of course I won’t buy those, but someone does. Those boards are worse than the cedar fence boards.
So, cedar is a decent alternative for fence boards, while it lasts. But it also needs to be milled and supplies of it are bound to run short as well.
So, if I cannot get wood some projects simply won’t be actionable until I can get it. I may have to resort to buying in large lots from a manufacturer, or I may have to temporarily work only on fence repair and not replacement or new fences. In other words: replacing fence posts.
My current queue of projects is about 6 months long. There is a mix of new fences and fence repairs. If I cannot get fence boards I’ll focus on repairs until I can get them. There isn’t much else I can do. It amounts to rearranging my schedule and disappointing clients with additional delays, possibly after they have waited many months for execution of their project.
There are more expensive alternatives to normal redwood fence boards. More and more clients like to use smooth construction heart wood mounted horizontally. Others like the next better grade called “Heart B” which is heartwood with very few knots (but not none). Eventually supplies of those will run out of the mills do not resume making more, but it is an expensive alternative to regular, rough fence boards, especially when compared with cedar pickets which are already a lot less expensive than the least expensive version of redwood pickets.
There are other kinds of fences that I don’t actually make for people, including steel fences, cyclone fences, stone, concrete or masonry walls and landscape fences (such as a tight row of bamboo). These all might be practical alternatives to a wooden fence depending on people’s needs.
They say that good fences make good neighbors, but for the right neighbors a row of pebbles would be enough.
- 4x4 posts, either 8’ and 10’ long
- 2x4 laterals, 8’, 10’ and 12’ long
- pickets (aka fence boards), usually 7.5” wide and 6’ long and 3/4” thick
I’ve had an easier time getting 4x4s and 2x4s than I have with the pickets, which are essentially unavailable at places like Home Depot. I am sometimes able to get them at Truitt & White. Ashby lumber had some for a while, but at 3x their normal price.
Lately I’ve been making more fences and gates with welded wire (2”x4” grid), hog wire and cattle fencing (both 4” square grid) instead of pickets. I can get 2x4s and 4x4s and the metal wire fence sections or rolls and build a fence that way, but it isn’t opaque. It is, however, completely adequate to contain a dog.
There are some alternatives to redwood pickets that are at least worth considering. First, there are cedar pickets. Cedar is what they used to make roof shingles out of, because it lasts a long time. Like redwood it is naturally resistant to insects and rot. The best specimen of redwood is better at that than the best specimen of cedar, hands down. But, fence boards aren’t made from the best specimens of redwood. They are often made from “Construction common” redwood, which includes both heart wood and sap wood (when it doesn’t contain *mostly* sapwood.) Sapwood isn’t very resistant to rot or insects.
In the photo above the pink part is the heart wood. It is cracked on top, but even though water got into those cracks the rot didn’t get very far into the pink part. The white part is the sap wood. The holes were made by termites. They didn’t like the pink part because it probably tastes bad to them. The tannin in the pink part has anti-nutritive properties, so if the insects eat the pink part they starve. They probably know to avoid it by taste.
Cedar has sapwood too, but it is a thin layer. And, it usually gets milled away so it won’t be in your fence boards. There are no “construction common” cedar fence boards: they are all heart wood.
The best western red cedar boards are better than the worst redwood boards, especially where there is a lot of sap wood in the redwood board. I’ve seen fence boards that are completely sap wood and no pink heartwood at all. Of course I won’t buy those, but someone does. Those boards are worse than the cedar fence boards.
So, cedar is a decent alternative for fence boards, while it lasts. But it also needs to be milled and supplies of it are bound to run short as well.
So, if I cannot get wood some projects simply won’t be actionable until I can get it. I may have to resort to buying in large lots from a manufacturer, or I may have to temporarily work only on fence repair and not replacement or new fences. In other words: replacing fence posts.
My current queue of projects is about 6 months long. There is a mix of new fences and fence repairs. If I cannot get fence boards I’ll focus on repairs until I can get them. There isn’t much else I can do. It amounts to rearranging my schedule and disappointing clients with additional delays, possibly after they have waited many months for execution of their project.
There are more expensive alternatives to normal redwood fence boards. More and more clients like to use smooth construction heart wood mounted horizontally. Others like the next better grade called “Heart B” which is heartwood with very few knots (but not none). Eventually supplies of those will run out of the mills do not resume making more, but it is an expensive alternative to regular, rough fence boards, especially when compared with cedar pickets which are already a lot less expensive than the least expensive version of redwood pickets.
There are other kinds of fences that I don’t actually make for people, including steel fences, cyclone fences, stone, concrete or masonry walls and landscape fences (such as a tight row of bamboo). These all might be practical alternatives to a wooden fence depending on people’s needs.
They say that good fences make good neighbors, but for the right neighbors a row of pebbles would be enough.
