Barely a day goes by that one of our estimators doesn’t come into my office to tell me about another price increase. Last week it was foam insulation prices. The historic freeze in Texas, and accompanying power outages, took many petrochemical plants offline.  Bringing these plants back up is a complicated process that will take time. These plants produce key feedstocks for the manufacturing of spray foam insulation, among other building materials. 

We all know about lumber prices – the most widely-quoted index of lumber prices is up 189% since his time last year. Contrary to popular understanding we have plenty of lumber – it is sawmill capacity that is still struggling to meet demand after the COVID related shutdowns and the unexpected increase in remodeling activity.

Rising oil prices impact a lot more than the price to gas up our trucks. Oil is a basic ingredient in asphalt shingles and all vinyl products.

It has literally been a perfect storm, like nothing we have ever seen in our 17-year history.  So, how have we responded? No local builder is able to simply absorb the kind of price increases we are seeing now and remain viable. But we do follow these principles during times of rapidly escalating prices:

·        Communicate! - In times like these our main priority is to be good communicators. No one likes to hear about price increases, but even worse is hearing about a price increase with no time to react.   When we are forced to pass on a price escalation, we have that difficult conversation right away. We work hard to find viable alternatives and will search for other areas where we can take offsetting dollars out of the budget. 

·        Relate - We are fortunate to have worked with most our key suppliers for many years. While they can’t defy the laws of supply and demand they can be sure that Turnstone is getting the best availability and pricing they are able to offer.

·        Shop – Yes, we default to our trusted long-term suppliers during times of stress, but we still are out there shopping every day – both for price and availability.

·        Flex – Almost as important as price is availability of key materials. Our production schedules are finely tuned, choregraphed dances of dozens of trade partners and suppliers. If a key component is delayed it can bring the entire job to a grinding halt. If we can’t get an insulation inspection there is very little work that can be done to the project. But there are other areas where we can modify the order of steps to keep progress happening and lessen the impact on the delivery date.

·        Innovate – We are currently studying the use of alternative building systems that may make sense for some clients. For example, we have a lot of experience building with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) with address both the lumber and spray foam insulation price increases and supply constraints. If one of these alternatives makes sense for a client, we will discuss the options with them.



Yes, there are tough conversations taking place regarding material price increases. That is happening throughout the industry. No matter what happens in the industry, Turnstone will move heaven and earth to address any challenges for our clients.