A single house under construction in America today faces all kinds of problems, starting with a run on lumber, then bricklayers in demand, subcontractors with Covid, appliances on back order and plumbing fixtures out at sea. [...]
The home-building industry is having the most difficult time in decades meeting demand, the sum of many pandemic complications. But this moment reaches peak absurdity with garage doors.
— The New York Times
Architects have been active in calling to attention some of the extreme challenges put to them by the pandemic economy. Particularly, construction of new buildings has been affected by the cost and availability of lumber and other important building materials, which have risen by about 20% for most contractors between FY 2020 to 2021.
Garage doors are holding up the inspection process primarily due to the standard-fare safety mechanisms that automatically prevent the doors from closing if anything (or anyone) strays into their sensors. The delays have pushed the average construction timeline back by months. A study from John Burns Real Estate Consulting cited by the Times stated that garage doors are third behind only home appliances and light fixtures on a list of products that rely more on imported components and complex supply chains.
“It used to take us 20 weeks to build a house,” Brookfield Properties development group CEO Adrian Foley told the Times. “And now it takes us 20 weeks to get a set of garage doors.”
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