I needed a piece of plywood measuring 23×43×⅜ inches to fit over a storage bin that had a broken lid.

I ran to Lowe's just now. I thought I'd get a half sheet of plywood.

Good news: they sold nominal ½" (which is really .469") in a 2×4' piece. I thought the kid at the register said it be $7 and change.

Bad news: it was $17 and change!

Good news: Lowe's makes one free cut. I asked the guy operating a forklift if that was the right price. He got his little price checker out and confirmed. I said "Wow!" He
said that a full sheet of ¾" costs $60. A 6×6×8 costs $70.

Funny thing: the guy that cut the plywood was driving a forklift with lights on and horn beeping with another employee walking in front of him waving two blue Lowe's flags! I laughed at them and asked the kid with the flags if Lowe's is really paying you to walk in front of a forklift? He sheepishly said "Yes." I said the only ones getting getting rich are the lawyers. Then I said to the flag kid, "And I guess you can't operate the saw either?" He says that he hasn't been certified in that yet. So the certified guy cut my board. I say to the kid, "I bet you can operate a saw safely at home, huh?"

As I was leaving I said when I was in high school I worked at a lumber yard and drove forklifts, a front end loader, operated a saw all with no official training. and drove F700's without a CDL.... I rolled full loads of lumber as high as the cab, as wide as the bed, and longer than the 14' bed off my truck exactly where the contractor wanted the load.
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Lumber sure has got expensive. Especially that osb board. I got half a bunk of 7/16" 4x8 osb that had mossy oak paper on one side that got left outside and got a little bit wet. I got them for $2.50 a sheet, still using it. I made a temporary dance floor for my Daughter in our basement with some of it since covid started. Kinda hard to dance with zoom and any delay.

If you want to see how good those "certified" forklift operators are at Lowe's and Home depot just go look at their drywall stacks. Almost everytime I look I see loads of damaged drywall.
I never pay full price for drywall anymore. Slightly damaged and some very damaged doesnt usually slow me down and I save 50 to 70%

 

That's funny Abe! Being an ole farm boy I could just about operate any piece of equipment asked of me. While I was on the National Rescue team (USAR) they ask a few of us to get certified on a forklift. It consisted of a 25 question computer online test. What a joke! That's the government for ya! LOL

 

We would get 2×4×8 and 2×3×8 steel strapped into bundles with a 2×3 underneath in a railroad box car. The box car was just over 8' wide. We'd get the center skids out then use the big forklift to lift our little forklift into the box car. Then the little forklift would pickup a skid of lumber and hand it off to the big forklift. One false move by the little forklift operator and .... We had no flags, no beeping noises, no flashing lights. We had common sense.

Price of lumber: I asked if COVID drove up the price of lumber. They said no, we had two lumber yards burn down, one due to lightening, the other due to arson by a disgruntled former employee. But I said, how about lumber at other lumber stores? They said, yeh, probably COVID.
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A guy on another forum posted this... treated framing and synthetic deck material for a 13' x 15' deck with pergola. $6500.

 

Prices: it is called inflation. Any items with real value, i.e. lumber, will continue to go up as the government spends more money it doesn't have...and devalues the money supply. The cost of the lumber really has not changed much...just takes a lot more "dollars" to purchase something of the same value.
Moral of the story....we better get used to it!!

 

Prices, all building materials have gone way up. I get emails from my suppliers regularly announcing increases. There is a variety of reasons for it. Up here lumber has over doubled in the last year, right across the board.
Safety, it is all about liabilities. No body wants to take a chance with getting sued today. Can't blame them. there is always some lawyer ready to jump at that chance. A lot of school yard games and gym sports have quietly died over the years as well. All part of life. Just wait and see what our kids will say when they are as old as we are now.

 

I generally go to Home Depot for lumber.. I'm building a 16' cabin boat called the Chugger, and Home Depot carries dimensional douglas fir lumber. They used to have 2x4's, 2x6's up to 2x12's in 8' lengths. Now I can only get 2x12's in 16' lengths. But at least they still have it.

Their CDX plywood is also douglas fir where as Lowes carries SYP, and charges more too... I'm lucky that I bought most of my lumber last year when the plywood was $25/ sheet because it's near $50 now

 

My biggest issue with these places is that they put the REAL lumber yards out of business. The one I used mostly was great. You’d go to the desk, tell them what you wanted and pay for it, then drive into the yard and the guy would load up your truck. If you needed it cut, you tell them and they do it, no questions, no charge. Now they’re gone and we’re stuck with $12/hour employees flagging in front of the fork lift while you serve yourself.

 

No wonder my Lowes stock has been going through the roof!

 

Bob, that exactly describes the lumber yard I worked at in 71,72 and 73.

 

That's how it is in most industries. Try to find a decent independent auto parts store. The McParts places have taken over the industry. Used to be able to go into a parts store and the guy behind the counter was there for years and could answer almost any question you had and if you needed a part for an old car or a vehicle not made by the big three he would be able to find it for you. Also they all had rolls and rolls of paper catalogs with descriptions and many times drawings of the parts you needed so if they didn't have the exact part you needed for your old or odd vehicle they could go through their catalog and match something up. Today if it's not in their computer they don't have it, end of story, next.

Try finding an electronic part, something as simple as a pilot light or toggle switch, no one sells them to the general public any more. Radio Shack was joke but sometime got lucky finding a part you needed but they have all pretty much disappeared.

As for safety. When I first started in the industrial machine industry 30 years ago system design was fairly simple. You had to incorporate a simple emergency stop circuit in all control which mainly consisted of a normally closed switch which hit in an emergency situation would open a relay which would kill power to the circuit. Now there are redundant and double redundant circuits using timed relays systems. Control panels are divided up to separate high and low voltage circuits. Warning labels have more than doubled. Then you have plant safety when you are in a customer's plant. When I started we'd show up at a customer's plant, drag our tools in and start working. Now many you have to go through an hour long safety course that basically tells you not to stand on the top of ladders and use safe extension cords and don't stick you fingers in moving machinery and energized electrical boxes. You also have to wear reflective vests and adhere to a dozen other safety procedures.

The biggest safety joke I was involved with was at a former employer. Their company grew and with the growth they started hiring more professionals not directly related to the operation of the business. They hired PR people, logistic people and safety coordinators. We all had to become OSHA forklift certified so they brought in their safety manager from their other plant to train us and to certified. We all gathered in the meeting room, the safety manager came in and gave us all a booklet with all the safety requirements to operate a forklift. The first thing he said is, "Put the book on the side, you won't be needing it." He then started a video on forklift operation and safety, again, basically know where you're driving, don't dump a load and don't kill anyone. The video lasted about twenty minutes and afterwards we were given a test which we self corrected as a group and the manager gave us the answers. We handed in our tests and we handed an official OSHA forklift license. Never went out to look over the forklift or discussed any of the controls. Funny thing is after I quit the place I still did contract work for them and in doing so I had to move around somewhat heavy pieces of equipment to do my work. I'd hop on a forklift and mover the stuff around until one day the shop manager, who is a ****, came up to me and told me I could no longer use the forklift even thought the "license" I got there was good for another year. Fine, so instead of smoothly doing my job and using the forklift on my own I had to wait until someone was available to operate the forklift. Fine with me, I was charging them hourly,

 

We still have a good local store, Sheridan Rd Lumber. I find that I may pay a little more, but I can get delivery if I need it. And get good material without spending hours looking through a beat up, twisted pile of wood trying to find a couple straight pieces.

 

I have a nephew n law in Iowa who works in a lumber yard. He does loading and cutting and such. He told me that lumber is through the roof mainly because of supply and demand as a result of the fires on the west coast. He says they get what they can and the price is what suppliers can command. And yes he a said they have some pretty stupid rules about safety there too.

 

I had to pay 23 bucks a sheet 4 x8 x7/16 osb. I had started a project when I reitered in July and need to finish it so I just bit the bullet.Now my north wall in the shop is done and a computer desk to the side of the work bench. Now back to the 55 working on it.All I wanted was a desk/shelf to the side of my bench and one thing turned into 12.