Continued issues with materials & building supplies.
Date: 8 Mar 2022
From March 2022
To all our customers,
Things continue to be very challenging at the start of the year, not only with Covid Isolation affecting staff and contractors, but also continuing material price increases and worsening delivery periods. One of the biggest issues you will have seen is the supply of Gib which has now pushed out to 6 months from order until Winstone wallboards (the gib manufacturer and distributor) go to an allocation system in June. This means they will supply to merchants on an historical volume basis so things may improve at that point.
Some of the delays are as follows:
• Frames and trusses – from 4 week delivery to 20 weeks
• Windows, ext doors and glass delays of 4-8 weeks
• Cladding materials delays of 3-6 months
• Gib – from 2-3 weeks out to 26 week
• Staircases – 2 months
• Timber products/retaining wall piles – delays of 4-8 weeks
• On top of this it is taking longer getting information from engineers and designers and design review panels (where applicable)
• Covid delays resulting from lockdowns, alert level settings and isolation requirements – 3-6 weeks on average.
In some instances, there may be a period where no construction activity happens for several weeks whilst we await gib. The good news is that by that point houses are normally fully clad and lockable.
We are in the process of contacting customers individually to give an update on completion dates.
As advised previously we are left with no option to pass on some of the cost increases as we are unable to absorb these given the extent of increase to a wide ranging number of products.
Since July 2021 material prices have increased on average by the following amounts:
We will update you as things progress and we appreciate your support and understanding during this difficult period.
