[Bill Schwab]

It seems Katrina is taking it's toll anywhere she can. In the NO area, there were 3 resin factories that manufacturerd most of the PVC irrigation pipe, and SDR drain pipe on the markets.

As of yesterday and today, there is no SDR-35 3, or 4" pipe available. Only michael jackson pipe, which is about the same as black flex pipe.

A month ago, I was paying $28.00 per 200' of 3/4" Schedule 40. today, I paid $58.70 for the same pipe.

What this means is that 8 valve system we built for $6,000 is now going to hit $7,400.

Anyone else who uses PVC for irrigation getting the same feedback?

[Black Water]

No fluctuation here. I've been paying $.15 a foot for 1" (the smallest size I use) Class 200 for the last eight months.

[Stonehenge]

Availability for conduit and PVC just went away - I had to rush out and buy up the last of the conduit in my area to finish a project, and of the suppliers of PVC, many are totally out of 3" and 4". Store employees also blamed Katrina.

I didn't really notice a price difference, though.

[NCSULandscaper]

no shortage here, been payin the same price for it the last 3 years

[Bill Schwab]

Black Water:

Can I ask you? You use Class 200. Is there a reason you use that over Schedule 40? We have had numerous issues with Schedule the lighter weight pipe in our rock hard ground, and after I switched, those issues went away. I know 200 is a little less costly, but what is the primary reason that contractors use it?

[Dale Wiley]

We use Schedule 200 up here, but our soil is not rocky at all. If we used schedule 40, we would never get a job.

We having been buying by the lift all summer and we have about 2 lifts, 14,000 feet in inventory right now. .15 a foot up here as well.

I generally don't like to keep a lot of pipe and fittings in inventory, but we have this year to hedge pricing a bit.

[Bill Schwab]

Ok.

Just for yuckos....If you all can gouge out a few minutes from your schedules, call your suppliers. Ask prices and availability for SDR-35, 3" and 4", then ask prices for Schedule 40, 3/4 and 1", or do Class 200.

I'm telling you I was floored yesterday. I went in and bought 50- 1/2" threded PVC plugs, and 50-1/2" threaded PVC caps for a little project we are working on.
There was $4.45 from a ticket the day before we needed to clean up, and the check I wrote was for $83.21.

GASP...I made them check the price 3 times. Thems the numbers.... That's when they told me those resin factories were wiped out. Not damaged, simply wiped out.

My bigger fear is not the initial hits we are taking on supplies. It is after this rebuold thing goes into full swing, then factor the tolls the chinese are taking with the cement we ship to them, and the steel they hold back until their dam is built, and add to themix fuel is about 2.50 per gallon overpriced, then the fact that plywood has gone from $15.00 a sheet in 03, to near $40.00 a sheet now, and you got a full blown inflationary cost grid, which, can slow building dramatically. At present, we have $130K in environmental compliance rules we have to follow for every new home built. That gets recovered from the end user. Same as us.


Anyway, sorry to off track here, but it's all relavent.

[Bamboo]

Bill, I heard the same here. we can barely get it. Also it dosent stop there the sur charges on trucking are going up too so bidding is a total nightmare. Its like going high and hope for the best.(competition)
I have a big stack on the side of my house so I know I can bang one out in case of the worst. Other than that who knows.
Mabye they will be able to stop building thoes emergency pvc stuctures around the world???? Thats the main reason for the pvc supply problem in my opin?????.

[Pelican]

Yesterday I bought 2 22 1/2° elbows in 4" PVC for septic lines, I used to pay $1.29 for these. When my bill came to just under $10, I did the same thing, made the guy verify that he had entered the right product on my invoice. The current price is $4.59 a piece!!! This pricing is definitely having an effect on my business, I had 3 jobs cancel last week due to lack of funding. I'm located in a commuter community, many people here travel 40 miles or more to work and their budgets have been impacted by high fuel costs.

[Black Water]

Originally posted by Bill Schwab
Black Water:

Can I ask you? You use Class 200. Is there a reason you use that over Schedule 40? We have had numerous issues with Schedule the lighter weight pipe in our rock hard ground, and after I switched, those issues went away. I know 200 is a little less costly, but what is the primary reason that contractors use it?

We use Class 200 because we have mostly sandy soil and little if any frost line. In some towns around here it's ok (by code) to pipe up the back-flow (RP) with 200. I don't understand this at all. We will have about 20 to 30 nights a year where it will get well below freezing and 200 will shatter in the winter. Hell...... besides that, just the fact that UV Rays degrade PVC over time should keep guys using copper. But i've gotten way off topic. We have used 200 for years and have never had any problems from being thin wall, and like you say it saves a little off each job.

[All Wet]

I just got our new prices this week for pipe. For 1/2"- 1 1/2" Cl. 200, the increases average 33%.

[start2finish]

i know this is a late reply, but the PR200 has a thinner wall, and the OD is exactly the same as schedule 40, so the ID is larger, more flow. not to mention price, but the flow increase is a selling point to me..

[Dragonfly]

In my opion class200 is junk. Commercial guys use it to save money. I find that if you have to go back and do repairs down the line the 200 gets brittle and simply breaks when you try to cut it. We maintain most of our projects so it makes sense for us to use sch 40.

[Stonehenge]

Funny this thread was bumped back up - we did a project recently requiring some schedule 40. We ran short, so I sent a guy to get 2 - 4" x 10' pieces, and gave him $40. He came back with the pipe and told me I owed him $2. My jaw dropped. Prices have climbed a ton since my post in November 2005.

[sleepy]

Originally posted by Dragonfly
In my opion class200 is junk. Commercial guys use it to save money. I find that if you have to go back and do repairs down the line the 200 gets brittle and simply breaks when you try to cut it. We maintain most of our projects so it makes sense for us to use sch 40.

True, but better watch your pressure loss!
If you have to bump up to 1" sch 40 on a small job damn lats alot of lost profits. Go with funny pipe or triple swings on your heads and you should be good to go. Ive never had my pipe get brittle in the ground. You might just need a sharper blade on your pvc cutters. $35.00 new victor blade.