Construction companies dealing with pandemic-related challenges

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said projects at Robins and Morton are running behind. No project at the company is running behind. The Voice apologizes for the error.

Ordering steel, lumber and other materials during the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been easy, Ken Upchurch said.

Upchurch, with TCU Consulting, which oversees the Community Spaces Plan for the city of Vestavia Hills, said there has been very volatile pricing.

“It can change daily, weekly, monthly,” he said.

The price of commodities such as steel can change so quickly that manufacturers cannot honor the pricing they provide to companies such as TCU, which then creates pricing issues at the next level of construction projects: subcontractors, suppliers, general contractors and eventually the owner, which, in TCU’s case, is the city of Vestavia Hills.

Prices are only being honored for seven to 15 days, and some manufacturers won’t even give a quote, preferring to give a range, Upchurch said. The disruption to the supply chains due to worker shortage and the fluctuation of supply and demand that came with the pandemic have also impacted project timing, Upchurch said.

For example, for another project Upchurch oversees, he was supposed to have a roof delivered in July, and it might arrive in mid-September.

As economies around the country and around the world open back up, the market is “white-hot,” Upchurch said. There is so much money in the economy that the construction industry is “running ahead of itself,” he said. Combined with a labor force that is not coming back as quickly, it leads to an unpredictable market, he said.

Adam Scott, senior preconstruction manager at Robins and Morton, said the supply chains shut down a year ago, thinking there wasn’t going to be much demand with the pandemic. As demand increased, labor unfortunately did not, with sawmills shutting down to protect employees.

Steel remains at a high price, Scott said, while lumber is coming down. But Upchurch said lumber is coming down from an all-time high, so it is still expensive.

The price of steel increased by $1,000 per ton, and the final price varies for fabricated steel products, Scott said. Upchurch said for the first time in his 40-year career in construction, he has bought raw steel.

In the residential business, windows and appliances are hard to come by as well, Upchurch said. Of note for Vestavia residents, the Community Spaces Plan has also been impacted by the pandemic. The delays to steel deliveries, delays with glass and insulation, along with manpower shortages, have pushed some components back, including the opening of the Vestavia Hills Civic Center, which city leaders hope is open by the end of the year, though the timeline is unknown.

In order to compensate for the price changes and delays, Joe Forsthoffer with Robins and Morton said it is vital to check on lead times, trying to get earlier releases to begin work from the owners, and to move schedules around to mitigate any issues. However, no projects are running behind, he said.

“There’s always something going on,” Forsthoffer said. “Our folks are experienced and have experience handling that.”

Upchurch said he tries not to surprise project owners, keeping them aware of the situation, and to purchase materials earlier, ahead of work beginning.

While Scott said he believes the situation could resolve itself in the next six months, Upchurch said he isn’t so sure and doesn’t see the situation improving in the next nine to 12 months.