Alternative building materials for residential construction specifically. So we’ve had all these different spikes in different directions and there’s a shortage of this. There’s a shortage of that. I can’t get enough of this or oh my gosh, the price of and whatever.
And what happens is things need to continue moving along. Yeah, right. So we’ve had problems with lumber prices. All of a sudden we’re like, bam, way up here. And I would ask you today, because this is being recorded, what are lumber prices right now? So think about lumber prices.
And I would ask you real quick how our lumber prices are right now, that’s just one input. But if I’m asking you right now without looking it up, what do you think lumber prices are?
Look it up. No. So our lumber prices up or down? Right. Right now. Where do you think they are? So they got up like 1300 or 1600 for like just like a little bit, but they got up to like 12, 1300. And, you know, they had historically been around 405 hundred and 600. So the question would be, what do you think lumber prices are currently at?
Because that’s an input. And then there’s alternative methods of construction, because here locally, people normally do build their home with wood, right. As a framing material. But there’s other alternatives as prices go up. There’s metal studs, which they use in commercial, and those are a little bit more expensive. There’s concrete blocks that they use now. So that’s the thing. As prices change, all of these other materials become less.
We saw home, you know, I guess it was. Last year, a couple of years ago, started to be built with the concrete blocks. And I thought, what did you think about that? That’s a solid house. It really.
Is. It’s solid, secure. You insulate it. It’s not going anywhere.
And then there’s ice. There’s ice caps. And those. There’s like it’s pre construction where it’s put together prefab and then brought in and then that’s all done. So it’s kind of like made in a factory and then comes to you and you like, install it and put it together.
And like a commercial building, you’ll drive by and all of a sudden it’s like, wow.
That’s fast. Exactly. So that’s how they’re able to accomplish that. So these alternative building materials, as one thing goes up, the other becomes more attractive and sometimes it’s pricing, but sometimes we just fall into a habit and you’re like, Well, that’s not how we do it here in Dallas. We don’t do it that way. Right? And then all of a sudden you’re like, Well, why? And then you’re.
Just like, Well, everybody else does it that way. And that’s that’s the mentality, right? Yes. Because it’s always been done that way. And that doesn’t make it right. It’s worth the the due diligence to find out what are the pros and cons of this? Who’s done it around here? If it works for a commercial building, why wouldn’t it work for a residential home? These commercial buildings are, you know, a lot of times.
I don’t know. So maybe you’re going to start going with tilt wall construction for your house you’re just going to bring in and, like, oh, and stand it up and then have all open space in the middle.
Tilt wall construction for one storeys. I don’t know. It could work totally fine. Yeah. All right. Well, anyways, there’s alternatives. And what is one? And there’s different ways. So I would say open your mind and think about these different methods as you run across them. Pass along to us.
Yeah. If you hear of any builder using alternative products, that would be interesting.
