Lumber & Building Material Trends for MD & VA Builders

Three major lumber and building material industry trends are reshaping outdoor living projects across Montgomery County, MD and Fairfax County, VA. Design Builders partnered with Frisco Woodline, a leading East Coast supplier, to uncover how these trends impact custom deck, porch, and outdoor kitchen builds. Here's what homeowners need to know.

3 Lumber Industry Trends Northern Virginia and Maryland Homeowners Should Know

Get an outdoor living space perfectly tailored to your needs and wants. Save time, money, and hassle building it.

Here are three current trends in the lumber and building material industry to help you accomplish that.

1. Understand recent changes to the moulding market.

Especially in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore markets, there’s been a considerable amount of corporate consolidation in the building material space. Larger companies are buying out or otherwise acquiring numerous independent dealers, many of which were the companies offering custom moulding profiles. 

Because there’s real time and expense associated with custom profile projects, these large corporate companies are not anxious to take them on.

What does that mean for the DMV homeowner?

If you’re excited about creating a high-end, truly one-of-a-kind screen porch or other outdoor living space, including custom moulding profiles, work with a design and build firm that has access to partners like Frisco Woodline.

(Learn more about the Frisco Woodline benefits and why they’re a preferred supplier of Design Builders.)

Their custom trim and moulding services mean you can get any amount of trim or moulding created to the exact specifications and needs of your unique project. When you go with bigger operations, that’s not always a guaranteed service.

2. Know what the rise in pre-finishing services means for your outdoor living space.

When you work with Design Builders supplier Frisco Woodline, you’re getting a company that can prime, stain, and finish just about any product. (Think everything from lumber and PVC to tile and composites.)

Here’s why that’s such a big deal for you, the homeowner: 

• Labor shortages. It’s difficult to find laborers in the commercial or residential construction space right now. Working with a company that does the finishing paint work in house cuts out the need to find, secure, and pay a reputable third-party labor source.

“The more that can be done beforehand, the better,” says Neil Agarwal, president and CEO of Frisco Woodline.

• Time savings. Using a prefinished product (lumber or otherwise) can speed the building process along. Say for example, a project is waiting on the siding to be finished and installed. The design and build team can’t move on to the hardscape until that previous step is complete. This disrupts the entire project timeline.

Using prefinished, ready-to-install products wherever possible is one way to finish a project faster—and get the homeowner out of the disruption that comes with construction.

• Eliminate variables. Every construction project is at the whim of different variables. Weather conditions. Temperature. Fluctuating building material costs. These things can significantly affect a project’s time frame and budget.

Prefinished products get the project done faster and create a smaller window where those variables have to be considered.

3. Prioritize customer service where quality and value matter.

If you’re looking for a standard, cookie-cutter exterior construction project, then budget and convenience likely top your priority list. This is where mega corporations in the online and brick-and-mortar spaces come in. You find something you like in stock, click a button, and it shows up on your doorstep.

On the other hand, the high-end, custom construction industry is incredibly relationship driven. Homeowners interested in unique, thoughtful, artfully designed spaces prize quality, industry knowledge, and outstanding customer service. And an increasing number of homeowners are willing to pay more and wait longer for products that offer a better lifetime value and overall build experience.

Are You Ready to Start Your Northern Virginia or Maryland Outdoor Living Space?

Aesthetics. Quality. Value. Customer service. If these are the qualities you prize in a design and build project for your home, then reach out to Design Builders today.

We and our carefully curated team of suppliers and vendors are here to execute your vision, creating an outdoor living space you love for decades!