Material Selection
Siewers Lumber
Markets for building materials vary wildly across the United States. What one manufacturer makes available in one particular market may not be available in another market. For example, a specific line of vinyl siding may only be offered in the Northeast and nowhere else. A brand of roofing shingles may be available in the Mid Atlantic Region in its full range of colors, but only have selected colors available to the Southern states and no offerings at all in the Southwestern part of the nation. This is partly due to demand for certain items. Materials designed for the harsh colder environments will be popular and needed in the Northern states but will have little practical use in the Arizona or New Mexico desert climates. The markets for building materials are also driven by the location of the manufacturing companies. Building materials are notoriously expensive to ship. They are often bulky and heavy, and long distance freight costs only add to the cost of the product itself. This is one reason that high end custom homes have the high price tags that go along with them. It is often the case to use highly specialized materials from an out of area manufacturer when building luxury homes. The issue becomes more about using a specific product because of its design elements and less about the cost to acquire that product. In normal, everyday construction projects, more standardized products are specified for use and those products are sourced as locally as possible.
Some markets are so small that there is virtually no market for building materials at all. All supplies must be brought in from afar. This is the way of life for contractors who build on the beautiful Caribbean Islands. All materials are pre-ordered and placed onto shipping containers and then imported to the job. We have it a bit easier than that in all parts of the United States, however we still have our fair share of remote areas that require all building materials to be trucked in, sometimes over very long distances. Conversely, major metropolitan areas have a plethora plethora of building material resources to pull from. The larger the population, the more demand for construction and hence, more material manufacturers, distributors, showrooms and retail facilities. Our local market in Fredericksburg, VA is a strong market for building materials and they are easily available for standardized construction projects. There are a handful of lumber yards that stock the basic materials required to construct a home and they are all competitive with one another. For projects that stray from the very standard, then these same lumber yards can special order additional materials and deliver them to the job. For projects that require special consideration, such as luxury homes, historic renovations, or contemporary and modern style homes, we sometimes have to go into another much larger market to obtain the necessary materials for production.
Ted F. Limbrick, Builder has deep roots in the Richmond, VA material supply markets. In fact, we have been sourcing materials from Richmond from our very beginning. The Fredericksburg market was not as it is now. It was too small to make available the best materials for construction. At the time, the material market in Richmond was well established and a robust one at that. Ruffin & Payne supplied us with framing materials, windows, doors and more in our early days, before the Fredericksburg market became well established. We still use them today, along with many other material suppliers who are based in the state capital city. Our connection with the Richmond material market also facilitates our ability to easily source high end products and very specialized products that are in less demand. Let’s talk about trim for example. There are a handful of profiles that are pretty standard for window and door casing (trim). You can find them at any retailer or material yard all day long. However, if you venture beyond these basic profiles, then it becomes a special order. Special orders take longer, are generally more expensive, and are not returnable for credit if you have product left over at the end of the job. If you run short of material on the job, then it needs to be ordered again and you have to wait for it to arrive, which takes even longer. In a larger market, such as Richmond, builders are not limited to the small handful of trim profiles. Siewers Lumber and Millwork, located just off of I-95 and Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond, VA, carries over three hundred trim profiles. Most of these are stocked in a perfectly organized warehouse and the rest can be made on site in a short order of time. We frequently pull material from this gem of a lumber yard because it allows us to use trim profiles in new additions that match the profiles in the existing house, even if the house was originally built over one hundred years ago. Another advantage of a larger and well stocked lumber yard is the variety of wood species that are offered. Sometimes a primed, finger jointed trim board just won’t do. If a project calls for the trim to be stained, then clear material is required. By today’s standards, stained trim is a rarity and therefore clear material is a challenge to source in smaller markets. The species of wood also determines its strength and ability to resist rot. Harder woods are typically more advantageous in this respect and you will have an easier time finding them at a place like Siewers in the larger markets.
