Windows

[Mike Goetzke]

I've done a lot of needed maintenance on my close to 40 year old house. Three upstairs windows are next on the list. I bought a few windows couple years ago and took about 2 weeks to get them. This time I almost fell over when they told me 18 weeks! What is going on out there?

 

[Bob D.]

Same all over.

I ordered a vise from Rockler in March, it arrived two weeks ago.

I ordered a couple spoke shaves from Lee Valley in August, only
one has made it to me so far.

I ordered another tool from Lee Valley back in March, still waiting.

 

[Cheese]

Mike...just take a deep breath, order what you need and slowly sip on a cocktail/beer/wine...every supply line has been compromised.

I ordered some stuff from Mouser an electronics house out of Texas. The Fluke amp probe...in stock will ship tomorrow, the Molex male connector...in stock will ship tomorrow, the Mean Well LED driver...not in stock & will not ship until late November, the Molex female connector that mates with the previous Molex connector...not in stock and will not ship until May 2022.  [eek]

So you have a Molex connector that's available immediately, however it's mating element is not available for 7 months later...that could be an issue.  [smile]

 

[Bohdan]

Time to practice making windows.  [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

Time to practice making windows.  [big grin]

[big grin]...Or tooth picks... [big grin]...there's always an opportunity lurking around the corner.

 

[Peter_C]

Jeld-Wen is super slow. Ordered in Sept of last year and didn't get them until 4 months later. Milgard was also about 4 months, but that was earlier this year. We are in a building boom right now, but 18 weeks seems to be about the norm. I have never gotten custom windows in two weeks....

Any chance they are stocked at a store? Often common sizes are available in BIG box stores. You can search inventory online.

 

[Peter Kelly]

Sheet glass and PVB films for lamination are in short supply right now. I ordered a few sets of casement windows from Andersen weeks ago and was informed the delivery date would be some time in late December.

The glass container industry and anyone dependent on it seems to be pretty seriously impacted right now as well.

 

[Dogberryjr]

Yup. We were quoted a (maybe) three month wait on a custom size casement. Seeing as this quote came when there was a big whole in the wall, we went with what they could find in stock at a big box store.

 

[woodferret]

This time I almost fell over when they told me 18 weeks! What is going on out there?

Freight truckers supply.  Various industries are willing to pay silly prices to leapfrog demand.  But it's unstable and makes predicting lead times unstable for anyone doing JIT work.  Home centers are pretty bad at it and really overpay on transport just to have stock hence why their prices are silly compared to cabinet or lumber shops.

 

[Packard]

My friend waited 7 months for a washing machine.

A few months ago I shopped for a chest-style freezer.  I was told that they had orders that were over 4 months old and those had to be filled first.  They would give no estimate on the lead time for new orders.

Pandemic and shortage of steel and chips. 

 

[cpw]

During the pandemic we bought a chest freezer (our dog eats 2lb of ground meat per day, we buy it 120lbs at a time); and the lead time was 5 months, but Home Depot delivered it the exact day they said they would 5 months before.

I needed to do 8 replacement windows this summer.  Home Depot/American Craftsman was ~$2700 and Lowes/Pella was ~$3000, but the lead times were 9 weeks vs. 6 weeks, IIRC.  The $300 is much less than the taxes/interest on the vacant house for three weeks, so Lowes was the better choice.

 

[Bob D.]

We waited 6 months for a chest freezer last year. Couldn't find anyone in all of Southern New Jersey who would even take an order for one. So I ended up 45 miles away at an appliance store in Delaware who took our order.  The salesman told me at the time they had over 800 freezers on order for that one store.

 

[Packard]

The long lead times are partly because the appliance industry was not declared an "essential business" during the pandemic and many had to shut down.

Another issue is the availability of steel and stainless steel. 

There is a worldwide shortage of iron ore.  That is partially because China bought out huge amounts of iron production--well above what was predicted, and because of the dam that broke in Brazil flooding a major iron ore mining area and virtually shutting down Vale, a major iron ore producer. 

The new dam is under construction and is scheduled to be complete sometime in 2023.  The earliest that it is predicted that the steel market will return to normal is late in 2023. 

Stainless steel has been hit even harder because the Philippines shut down the nickel mining industry because of the pandemic.

Our company buys both stainless steel and steel. Some grades of stainless steel are now taking 7 months to deliver, where before we would be able to get this in 2 to 3 weeks.  Type 316, which we used to buy for about $1.60 per pound is now going for $4.20 per pound.

We used to buy C1050 high carbon steel for $0.89 per pound and get delivered in 1 - 2 weeks.  Our latest quote was for $2.29 per pound and delivery in March.

High carbon steel wire in trailer load quantities was quoted to us with delivery in March-April where we used to be able to get this in 4 weeks or less.

Freezers and all large appliances use large amounts of sheet steel.  So that compounds the problem of getting delivery.

I know all these numbers and facts because I have to explain this to our customers several times a week.  Tiresome. 

 

[Bob D.]

Did you buy either of those two retired carriers the Navy let go for ONE PENNY each?

Lots of steel there. I know it is much harder to recover than it seems but still a few thousand tons of steel is nothing to sneeze at if normal sources are not available. I hope they are broken up here in the States and the steel used here and not overseas.