Got a question.
Stopped by a WallyWorld tonight to get my supply of Pringles and Breyer’s Vanillabean ice cream because it’s $2.84 there instead of 5 something at the superKmart next door. Different stores so no question as to pricing.
Went to Lowes to pick up a couple 2x6s. House brand spf TopChoice 8footers were $3.86 and in pile next to it from an ‘Irving’ supplier was the same spf in a 92″ length at $4.94 that looked like crap, less wood and worse shape. I can see comparison display for their house brand maybe so no question there.
But the osb has me stumped. Same manu stamp from michigan on both 7/16 and 1/2.
7/16 osb at $9.99 a 4×8 sheet and
1/2 osb was $13.98 4×8 sheet.
Same store, same manufacturer.
Standard retail pricing. No special sale prices.
How come that is? I mean how come that is?
‘Nemo me impune lacesset’
No one will provoke me with impunity
Replies
Hard telling.
I got a piece of 3" vent pipe yesterday. I don't remember the exact prices, but the 24" long was something like 3.35 and the 36" 2.85.
Proabably came from a different buy.
My guess would be supply and demand.
The 1/2 inch is specced for roofs. The 7/16 is used for sidewall sheathing. The sidewall sheathing competes with thermo-ply and plywood and mineral fibre board and foam sheathing. The roof sheathing has no options, other than a more expensive cdx plywood.
I'm not sure if any of this means anything but it's a theory.
blue
Often when you see pricing discrepancies like that it is because they price it according to what their cost was when it was received and then don't reprice it as supply prices go up. They find that it is too much trouble to run around repricing everything as the market shifts. I have found some older slow moving inventory at small hardware stores that are significantly cheaper than at the big boxes because it had been priced several years ago. I don't know how Lowe's pricing works, however.
I have found some older slow moving inventory at small hardware stores that are significantly cheaper than at the big boxes because it had been priced several years ago.
Ran into that last week. Lumber yard had the Drylok for $17 while Lowes had it for $20. typically the lumberyard is $3-5 higher than Lowes on items like that. When I asked the guy, he basically said their slower turn around on the product means they're going off the price from earlier in the year, whereas Lowes price reflects the price increase caused by the oil increases.
Just wish the yard had more of the white Drylok. I cleaned them out of it. Didn't really want half my crawlspace wall to be in 'swimming pool blue', so will have to pay the $20 at Lowes for the remainder.
jt8
"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust." -- Zig Ziglar
That may be the case on hardware in the stores, but when it comes to lumber it is a commodity. So the only way you can compete it to adjust according to marke price. Now this is not the case all the time I have seen small lumber yards not able to lower price, one being not having the volume advantage like Lowes or Home depo. Also they can afford to take a hit on lumber if the price falls. Smaller lumber yards most of the time can't take a hit like that.
are you saying that 7/16 osb can not be used to sheet a roof?
heh heh I knew that was going to get here from somewhere.
be batten down the hatches boys, the south will rise again
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
Im like Blue I dunno , but there could be a difference in Northern and Southern board which there is here .
Tim
I'm confused. You found that thicker wood was more expensive and don't understand it? Isn't this always the case?
Thicker wood defined as approx. 1/16 inch thicker at about a rough 1/8 volume increase as a $10 item jumping to $14? Nah, too strange.
That's like saying a 2x4 at 8ft might cost $10 but add a foot or so to make it around 9ft will cost $14.
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
A $100 bill is the same size as a $10.
Be a penny, not a dime
Edited 12/16/2005 1:07 pm by Notchman
GET BACK TO WORK!!! IT AIN"T NIGHT YET!!!
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
The reason for the big price jump between 7/16 and 1/2 is that they are selling the 7/16 well below cost. They are either right at cost on 1/2 or very slightly below it.
The reason for the big price jump between 7/16 and 1/2 is that they are selling the 7/16 well below cost. They are either right at cost on 1/2 or very slightly below it.That my be the case were a store moves more 1/2 than 7/16 but in my area
most framers use 7/16 for walls and roof, so little 1/2 stock moves. Me personal I use 5/8 osb on roofs and would never use 7/16 on a roof. But still it seems odd to take a 4 dollar cut on sheeting, and in my area I know for a fact that that is not the case. I keep in touch with a friend of mine who buys whole sale, and from what I see in price they are not making that much anyways, for sure not no 4 dollar cut a sheet. Besides why do you think they would sell below cost, they are in it to make money most of the time unless their is a big drop in cost and they have alot they have to move bellow cost.
I think it's even different than that.On a product such as OSB, the raw material is relatively less expensive and the cost to manufacture is more. Thus, adding 1/8th to the thickness of a piece of OSB should add less than 1/8 to the cost.As someone else said, the cost difference is most likely just a fluke of market timing and inventory turn-over.Life and suffering are inseparable.
That 12.5% more material costs 40% more money is the strange thing. Usually it's the other way, the price per unit of weight or volume goes down with the "giant economy size".
-- J.S.
That's a trick. Go to the grocery store and the humongous mondo size stuff is usually more per unit than the large size, which is generally much cheaper per unit than the small, medium, "personal" or "convenient" size. So I usually get the bigun, but not the great bigun.
"Usually it's the other way, the price per unit of weight or volume goes down with the "giant economy size"That's what the retailers want you to think, but I have found it to not be the case more often than not.Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
That wasnt mne was it John? I might have pasted it in my post . Heck I dunno! <G>
Fergit me Im in the corner. LOL.
Tim
7/16 osb at $9.99 a 4x8 sheet and
1/2 osb was $13.98 4x8 sheet.
Same store, same manufacturer.
Standard retail pricing. No special sale prices.
How come that is? I mean how come that is?
Its called de-centizing the consumers to buy less product by making the alternative overly expensive. This isn't surprising in the least, and its something I've seen in plywoods for the last 3-4 years. A simply difference in 1/16 or even 1/32 in a sheet and a 40-80% price difference for the same grade material by the same manufacturer.
I chalked it up to wood being scarce, but then again it could just be there way to cut less and charge more.
Oh I think I get that. The idea is to make the one item(7/16) look like such a deal compared to the other (1/2) that the consumer will bring out the charge card and buy more than needed just cause the price now looks too good to be true?
be still wanting to put some away
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
They produce the 1/2" by buying 7/16 and laminating another 1/16. Or, in the case of OSB, weaving the new layer on. And you don't think it's worth $4?Aren't you glad you asked? Anything else you want to know?
Wait a minute.
You're saying the 7/16 is the premade base product for the half and that the 1/16 is just heatpressglued on there?
Well, come to think of it, how is the 7/16 produced in the first place? Is it an all in one woodchipglue configuration in a 7/16 thickness or is that too layered together in increments?
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
Now there's a product idea.
What if they were to take a core of OSB, and laminate rotary cut veneer surfaces on both sides? Kinda looks like plywood, only the core of it would be OSB. Like "I" joists, that would put the greater resistance to tension and compression at the extremes, where it does the most good, with a weaker middle. I'd guess that the main surface would hold up a little better to moisture, but that edge swelling would still be the same as OSB.
-- J.S.
OSB comes in 1/2"? I have never seen 1/2" in the Houston market.
Are you sure you were not looking at 3/8" for $9.99 and 7/16" for $13.98?
No, I was double checking everything because of the peculiarity. It was 7/16 and 1/2.
'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity
There is always the possibility that some inattentive clerk just stuck the wrong price on it and it hadn't be caught yet. A couple of studies have claimed that the mistakes in supermarket scanning prices are more likely to be in your favor than against you - don't know who paid for the study, however... (That may be because prices usually go up and it is not uncommon that the new price is not entered in database).
Tx, I've never seen 3/8" osb here in MI.
blue
Yep, 3/8" here in TX.
What would be the sense in making 7/16" and 1/2"? Is the extra 1/16" going to make any differance anywhere?
It's typical to sheet a skip-sheathed roof with 7/16" OSB before shingling. You could certainly go with 1/2", but it's 12% more weight to haul up the ladder and 12% more dead load you're adding to a roof that has sagging rafters anyway.
At least that's what I decided on my house.
OSB comes in many flavors. A friend of mine manufactures a line of office furniture using 3/4" and 1" OSB panels he sources from a mill in Canada. It's a very high grade, nothing you'd use on a house.
Tx, the 7/16 is noticebly more flexible on roofs, especially on trussed roofs where the spacing is 24" oc.
We use the 7/16 on the walls.
blue
In general, the pricing of items has much less to with the cost-of-goods-sold (COGS)as it does the supply vs demand. This is a really hard concept to get across.
When they manufacture the various sizes, they are doing it to a forecast of the anticpated demand - which is always a guess. They could have had an over-run of the 7/16 and are trying to move it.
Or they could be pricing the 1/2 at $4 dollars more due to the average consumers idea of the extra quality that 1/16 provides.
The overall goal is to sell the max amount and have the customers satisfied. There is a whole science behind this stuff.