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earaercircular · 3 years ago

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Scarcity of raw materials makes it more difficult to get a foot on the housing ladder

The prices for solid structural timber have risen by 83 percent within a month, and for roof battens by 45.7 percent

Cables are not available, sockets are sold out and the prices for roof battens have risen by 45.7 percent: if you build a house now, you could be occupied for a long time. And pay a lot.

Carina Angeli actually wanted to move into her house a long time ago. The 30-year-old and her partner are currently building a single-family home in Regensburg, construction began in the summer of 2019. "It takes a lot of time," says Angeli. The windows were delivered seven months late, and there are other problems too. The floor layer, whom Angeli hired months ago, cannot deliver: she was told that the quality of the material that he received from his wholesaler was too poor. And other material is hard to obtain.

Bavaria's construction industry has been struggling with a lack of materials for months - and with rising prices for building materials. In the beginning there was mainly a lack of wood, nowadays there was a lack of metal, rubber or plastic, sometimes electronic or sanitary products. The consequences: construction times are getting longer, planning is standing still, building owners and service providers are facing additional costs. The extent of the need is difficult to estimate, even for industry experts. "We had hoped that the whole thing would decrease in the second half of the year," says Wolfgang Schubert-Raab. He is president of the regional association of Bavarian building guilds[1] and, together with his wife Gisela Raab, runs the construction company of the same name[2] in Ebensfeld, Upper Franken. When he calls, he's stuck in a traffic jam, nothing is happening, as appropriate. He has been working in the industry since 1983, says Schubert-Raab, material was always in short supply, steel for example. But there has not been a deficiency like this since the end of the Second World War. Even filigree floors and ceilings or prefabricated parts are hardly available. "You can imagine what a joy it is on the construction site."

After all, work continues not only on Schubert-Raab's construction sites, but also on many others. Short-time work only seems to be in fashion at the moment. In general, the shortage of materials does not affect everyone equally. If you ask around in the industry, you will also meet companies and builders who hardly report any problems. A site manager reports delivery problems and delays of around two or three weeks; the targeted completion dates are to be kept anyway. However, he could not understand why the German manufacturers of building materials let themselves be carried away by such a "sell-out".

Unexpected high demand in building materials

In fact, building materials are also in short supply elsewhere. The causes are manifold. Among other things, the global economy has recovered from the corona shock faster than expected; the high demand surprised many manufacturers. Important production facilities in Asia and America were paralyzed by the winter weather, floods or other disasters. A construction boom in the USA forced local companies to buy a lot of wood abroad, including in Germany and Bavaria. In May, the Federal Statistical Office[3] registered record prices for wood in this country: for solid structural timber they had increased by 83 percent compared to the same month last year, and for roof battens by 45.7 percent.

Seen in this way, client Angeli was still lucky: her roof is already on. "According to our carpenter, we would pay twice as much if we only started building the roof now," she says. And yet, the house will not yet be finished. It was only thanks to contacts that Angeli was able to hire another floor layer at short notice. But he cannot install the originally planned epoxy resin floor - again the raw material is missing. "There was only one pattern to choose from, either I'll have to take it or wait for months," says Angeli. "But of course I am very happy that we are getting a floor at all."

Creative recycling: demolished supermarkets as a treasure trove

Yusuf Yesilova can understand the client's displeasure. The electrician is the managing director of eTechnik Schmidt GmbH[4] in Regenstauf. "We almost have construction freeze this week because we can't get our parts," he complains. There are no cables and plastic parts such as sockets or switches. When material finally arrives, it will be 50 to 70 percent more expensive than usual. There are now almost weekly price increases. He can hardly make offers to customers, "I don't know how prices will develop". In the end, there is always the risk of being left with the additional costs.

The industry has already been questioning how resources can be used more efficiently for the sake of the climate. Those who can have postponed orders in the past few months, provided that budgets, contracts and all parties involved agree. Sometimes companies help each other out with material. In some places, forest owners and timber companies want to join forces for more planning security, for example in Traunstein and in Berchtesgadener Land. The Federation of German Builders, Architects and Engineers[5] also calls for a "regulatory strengthening" of the building materials market - of course "without restricting the global building material trade". The availability of sustainable raw materials must be given a higher priority.

New ways of recycling and upcyclingcan also help selectively. They tried out a building materials exchange at the Raab construction company. The equipping of two demolition supermarkets was given to customers in the region free of charge. The "experiment", as Gisela Raab calls it, was successful: a number of parts that would otherwise have ended up in the scrap heap were used elsewhere, glass panes, cooling devices, rain gutters. When the experiment began, the material shortage was not yet an issue. But when the prices rose, suddenly even the wooden beams from the roof were in demand. "We are now considering how we can consolidate this project," says Raab. A property developer has already expressed interest.

At least with wood, the situation seems to be stabilizing. A general end to the material shortage is not in sight for Wolfgang Schubert-Raab. "We basically live from day to day in the hope that we can keep working." Even Carina Angeli doesn't sound really optimistic when she says that her house should be ready by winter at the latest. There is too much concern that there will be bad news about delivery times and costs in between.

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Source

Maximilian Gerl und Sarah Höger, Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle teuer,[6]in: Süd-Deutsche Zeitung, 8-8-2021. https://sz.de/1.5376285

[1] https://www.lbb-bayern.de/home.html The Landesverband Bayerischer Bauinnungen (LBB) (State Association of Bavarian Building Guilds) together with the Verband baugewerblicher Unternehmer Bayerns e.V. (VBB) (Association of Building Entrepreneurs of Bavaria) form the organization of the building industry in Bavaria (Das Bayerische Baugewerbe). [2] https://www.raab-bau.de/unternehmen/ueber-uns/geschaeftsleitung.html Fourth generation. Over 200 employees. 175 construction workers, qualified in-house. [3] Bundesamt für Statistik (Destatis) https://www.destatis.de/EN/Home/_node.html [4] https://etechnik24.com/ eTechnik Schmidt is a company of electrical professionals for installations and repairs of LCN, Smart Home, security systems, network technology, fiber optics, light, energy and building technology. [5] https://wetschwaben.baumeister-online.de/home/ The Bund Deutscher Baumeister, Architekten und Ingenieure (BDB) pursues a large number of goals that are consistently pursued in the interests of the members.In doing so, the BDB has made it its business to consistently stand up for the central professional policy demands of its members [6] The original German headline is a word play in reference to the saying “schaffe schaffe Häusle baue”, which is Swabian German and means “work work and build a house” a credo in reference to Swabian work ethics and preference for building their own one family homes for which they are famous. The adaptation to “schaffe schaffe häusle teuer” (work work house expensive) means that this dream of building one’s own house is becoming increasingly difficult to attain because of rising prices for raw materials and the global supply chain disruptions making it harder to get the construction materials when needed

#circular economy #recycling concrete #waste recycling

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