High priced materials and supply chain issues are making it difficult for construction companies

JACKSON, TENN (WNBJ)-

Huge increases in the price of materials and supply chain issues have made it hard for construction companies to get their jobs done.

"It's a huge impact. Material prices have gone up. Give you an example of plywood, OSB, we could have got it for about $14 a sheet a while back, and now it's around $52 a sheet…every aspect of construction is completely gone up astronomically," said Chris Williamson owner of Affordable Construction.

He has seen prices of materials skyrocket recently but has chosen to keep his prices as low as possible for customers, “we've got to cut our profits to kind of absorb some things and then we're going to do the best we can,” Willamson said.

But prices aren't the only issue construction companies are facing. Ongoing supply chain issues have made it difficult to get materials.

Williamson said, “Windows, it's taking months and months for windows…roofing materials, specialty materials, copper things like that are not even available…flat roof systems for like commercial roofs six months out. And when they ship, that's when they'll tell you what the price is. So you have no idea what you're getting into. It's very, very difficult to put prices.”

Not knowing when materials will arrive means affordable construction cannot always guarantee when a job will be complete, Williamson said, "We're at the mercy of the materials, but it's causing issues. A lot of customers are understanding a lot of contracts that have like a completion date. They they're giving a little bit of latitude on that. So we're very grateful about that.”

Williamson says that high material prices have caused many to buy old homes instead of building new ones- driving the price of a home's up higher and higher.

Williamson is hopefully that prices of materials will decrease soon. He said, “Hopefully it'll start to level out and come down.”