Chris Behr was featured on CBS-2 News, KCAL-9, KNX News Radio, and the Los Angeles Times in September, 2005, regarding the cost of building materials rising due to the Katrina damage.

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Post-Storm Rebuilding Raises California Construction Prices
Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2005.

High energy costs and anticipated rebuilding in the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast are already prompting panic buying and hoarding of construction materials by contractors and others in California's building industry.

Even before Hurricane Katrina, the state's construction boom had tightened markets for all manner of building supplies.

And now, amid surging demand, construction companies are buying up asphalt, cement, rubber, lumber and machinery, pushing prices even higher while fanning worries of possible shortages.

Meanwhile, soaring fuel costs are driving up manufacturing and delivery costs and prompting many contractors to add surcharges.

Chris Behr, Founder of Behr Construction in La Canada Flintridge, figures that Katrina will force his firm - and his customers - to spend upward of 20% more on materials and fuel in the coming months.

Behr said he was asking customers for a 100% upfront deposit on lumber and was including a clause in all new contracts that explained thatt he prices quoted today for materials - including drywall, cement and the gasoline it takes to deliver them - might be higher in the future along with overall costs of individual projects.

"If a job has $200,000 of lumber on it, it might come in at $240,000. And there will be a surcharge for delivery, " he said.

What's more, the 25-year construction veteran suddenly finds himself hedging against risks of higher prices for his lumber purchases, something he never did before Katrina.

Although prices had been falling earlier this year as national supplies grew, the hurricane immediately fueled worries of a possible shortage.

So now, Behr's company is treating lumber "like a commodity" that needs to be hedged.

"We're now telling our lumber yards to give us a 30-day lock-in rate," Behr said...

-Annette Haddad