WHY IS TIMBER SO EXPENSIVE . . . REALLY?
Talking timber from Gervais Sawyer and Adrian Hall.
WHY IS TIMBER SO EXPENSIVE..............................REALLY?
I took a friend of mine down to our wonderful local micro-pub, where he complained to me that 'wood is so expensive these days'. I made the right sympathetic noises of course. Then, a couple of days ago, I was at my local builders shed and the price of timber DID surprise me. I imagined myself down in the forest and thought about what it took to produce that of building timber, not forgetting that at each stage there were costs and profits/livings to be made. So, follow this logic......
1. Clear the ground of gorse, weeds etc.
2. Off to nursery to collect seedlings.
3. Plant seedlings
4. After a few years, come back and replace those seedlings that didn't take or got eaten by deer.
5. After 10 years, come back and do some thinning. (Minimal return that will defray costs.
7. After another 10 or 20 years organise felling and forwarder to gather logs at roadside.
6. After another 10 years repeat thinning.
8. Haul logs to sawmill.
9. Then, sort, debark, saw, edge, kiln dry, plane, strength grade, package and ship to builders merchant.
10. And after all that, a piece of CLS 38 x 63 x 2400 (1½” x 2½” x 8' if you are an oldie!) sells for...................£4 or less!
11. Take away the merchant's profit margin and the wood in a forest is virtually free!
That was just how I viewed things but what does the trade professional think? I asked Adrian Hall and his response was......
But, what does your friend mean by “expensive” ? Simply more than he wants to pay ? Well, that’s not unusual. Is he trying to say something deeper about the intrinsic value of the material to him, personally? This is so subjective as to be meaningless. Or, is it some emotional memory dragged up from, “When I was a lad, I could buy a bushel of timber for a groat…….”? Go back far enough in time (and you won’t have to go too far !) and you will surely be able to pick a “price” that has no meaning in today’s world.
As a case in point, the older members of the community can no doubt remember that houses once sold for a few thousand pounds. The world turns and things cost more, while the value of the money used to pay is less. That’s inflation for you. Lambasting the world for the economic realities is surely a pointless exercise.
But wood has a special place in the world of materials and it should be better valued than it is. It is undoubtedly true that timber is actually very cheap, too cheap and also under valued. Somewhat surprising for a product that drives strong emotions. It has a special place in our language and our hearts. But, despite our ongoing love of the material, it “grows on trees” and must therefore be cheap. And “cheap” means next to nothing, doesn’t it
Surely now it is beholden on every one to change that point of view. This material has enormous value, in so many different ways. It should be more expensive than it is !
