Yesterday I began the installation of the crown molding in the living room. It’s going OK, but only OK. This molding is all wood and I’m used to using MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) which is quite a bit easier to work with. And the fact that it is wood has made the price a bit steep; $19 for a 12’ length. I looked at many suppliers for better prices and varieties of molding, but if it’s wood, it will be expensive. I have the molding up along two walls so far and today I hope to have it all done. Then I will have to repair all of the dings and hammer marks that I put in it before I can paint it and call it complete.
That brings up the subject of trees; wood is made from trees you know (You knew that, right?) and the price of lumber has increased dramatically. There is no good reason for the price increase except for greed. America has created an illegal trade barrier for wood and wood products from Canada and that has driven up the prices. With that barrier in place, the lumber industry is free to charge whatever they want in the absence of competition. The average American logger doesn’t see any of this profit because he is a supplier of the raw product and is always squeezed by the manufacturer. It’s the manufacturer that controls the pricing structure. And most of the larger lumber companies have used their money to buy up and control all of the needed links in the chain of supply. They have their own land, mills and their own logging trucks and they only let the small operator invest in the risky part of the business, the labor.
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