‘Have You Driven the Site?’
“There’s a service requirement [with multifamily projects], and most of it is logistics,” according to Hutchinson, who says most lumber dealers don’t get it. “They don’t know how to do curb-to-curb delivery at an urban site. They’re used to backing up in the driveway of a house. Here, you have to bring things in strategically and move around power cranes. When I talk to [potential suppliers], I ask them: ‘How do you plan on bringing materials to the jobsite?’ All I get are deep, dark stares.”
Smart pros can overcome this obstacle by driving the route before making the pitch. Many multifamily projects are in high-density, urbanized neighborhoods, where not every road can accommodate a lumberyard’s delivery truck. The site is worth examining, too. Even a small, low-rise apartment building may have a tight site, which means little storage room for lumber and other materials. That creates a challenging scenario at multifamily projects, which essentially require frequent prompt deliveries of large quantities of building materials.
“Service means being able to deliver what we need on schedule,” Wilber says. “A one- or two-day delay doesn’t work.”
Dealers should confirm what those requirements are. “My No. 2 complaint has do with shipping and delivery,” Benner says. “When we start a project, we release one-third of the lumber. The first thing we need is plate and stud. The first thing we receive is plywood. So, we wind up crowding up what little land we have with plywood we don’t need. We need people who can do delivery sequencing and understand our needs.”
Benner’s No. 1 complaint: the plastic strapping wrapped around his lumber. “We have to move and stack our lumber multiple times, and those just snap,” he says.
Benner has other suggestions for would-be multifamily lumber dealers. Provide paperwork that lets builders track lumber usage as they use it. Indicate when an order is beyond the initial purchase order. Don’t send 8-foot 2x4s in “random” orders; stick with 10s, 12s, 14, and 16s. Know your lumber’s strengths and weaknesses in termsof compression strength and chemical treatments, which can affect other building material decisions. “A little bit of working knowledge of the chemicals in wood would go a long way,” Benner says.
–Alison M. Rice is a freelance writer in Arlington, Va. She is the former editor of Multifamily Executive magazine.
