Building material shortages and their fallout are chief among the concerns facing contractors today. The Farnsworth Group in partnership with the Home Improvement Research Institute have been tirelessly documenting both in what product categories shortages are most pronounced for residential construction professionals as well as how they're handling that adversity. Live tracking of that data is displayed below and also available (with additional detail) directly through The Farnsworth Group.

Continue checking back for updates as they happen. 

CONTRACTORS EXPERIENCING SHORTAGES

Since August 2021, when The Farnsworth Group began tracking shortages, contractors have begun reporting more severe shortages. At the individual product cateogry level, shortages in certain categories—lumber, roofing materials, electrical supples, and windows and doors, among others—have remained a significant hindrance for a large portion of the industry while some categories—storage, shelving, and lighting, for instance—while still posing problems have been noticably less pronounced.   

HANDLING THE SHORTAGES

Managing around building material shortages in the residential construction space has been an ongoing struggle for contractors. But as The Farnsworth Group dats shows, some strategies are being implemented on a large scale. For instance, in handling the pricing increases, companies are largely waffling between either passing those increases on to clients completely or splitting the cost difference between overhead and revenue. Regarding methods to circumvent the shortages, residential contractors seem split between trying new products, new suppliers, new brands, or sticking to what they already know. Keep checking our trackers (supported by The Farnsworth Group) for more insights as they come in.