Expensive Lumber: The cost of lumber has...

Expensive Lumber: The cost of lumber has been soaring in recent months, thanks at least in part to bad weather, a weak economy and the amount of timberland being taken out of production for ecological reasons.

Some builders suggest that there just might be a little bit of profit enhancement by lumber manufacturers as well.

In any event, Random Lengths, an independent magazine in Oregon that covers the lumber industry and maintains an index of lumber prices, says its index for 1,000 board feet of framing lumber hit an all-time high on Friday: $491. That’s up 88.8% from $260 in June, 1992.

Builders figure that lumber is roughly 10% of the cost of a home. And big price increases in a weak market tend to cut into profits for builders because they cannot raise the prices of their houses to cover the difference and still stay competitive.

The result is that some builders have started looking seriously at an alternative to wood.

Coleman Homes, a builder based in Bakersfield, used steel framing for a home in Temecula last summer, when lumber prices started climbing, and a Fontana builder has just begun work in that city on an entire tract of 144 homes that will be framed in metal.

And in Orange County, Warmington Homes in Costa Mesa has ended its studies and decided to start using metal framing in a single-family development by the end of summer, a spokeswoman says.

Builders say some metal framing systems now cost about the same as wood, provide greater seismic safety and cannot be discerned by the homeowner.