Remember toilet paper shortages? And chicken? And baby food?
A similar train wreck has been quietly playing out in the building industry when it comes to all sorts of wood and - as it applies to exterior cleaning - cedar shingles. Here on Cape Cod, I first heard of the really acute shortage about a year ago when builders complained of skyrocketing prices for all sorts of goods including both red and white cedar shingles. Then, the shingles disappeared entirely from the lumber yards. Now, bundles which appear here and there are sold at multiples of what they were a year ago, and order of any quantity will arrive God-knows-when.
The reasons for shortages and price increases are many: production slowdowns due to COVID-19, skyrocketing demand due to the remote workers' exodus to seaside homes, Trump's tariffs on Canadian softwood. Then came a tariff hike by the Biden administration in late 2021, sending prices higher. Throw in a national shortage of truckers, historically high oil prices, and it's really no wonder that we're so busy cleaning old cedar so that property owners can put off replacement as long as possible.
As I drive around the mid- and outer-Cape, I see an odd number of almost-finished homes sitting becalmed, devoid of the normal buzz of contractor activity, because the poor builder can't find cedar shingles to install on the siding. No siding = no certificate of occupancy. It's a mess.
Some builders are resorting to measures unthinkable a year or two ago, including installing vinyl siding, Hardi-board, and (as pictured above) low-grade knotty cedar shingles. In my 12 years of cleaning here on Cape Cod, I've never seen knotty shingles installed on multi-million dollar properties.
... all of which is to say, it makes more sense than ever to maintain your cedar siding so that you get the most life out of it.
If you have a cedar property here in the mid-Cape area, I'll be happy to talk about ways to stretch the life of that cedar siding. 508-209-1972.