The price of lumber has more than doubled over the past year, and economists warn that things might stay this way for a while. That’s why people like Hans Dow are getting crafty.
“I was like, well, I want a sawmill. I can make a lot of stuff with it. I also need to learn how to weld …,” Dow says as he hefts a 9-foot log onto the deck of his hand-built sawmill. It sits in the corner of his South Anchorage, Alaska, backyard.
Dow spent the winter in his garage building this sawmill from scratch. He collected the scrap metal and the machinery parts from all over the city. He says his brother urged him to take on the project.
“He was working on his house and we were kind of joking like ‘man, lumber is really expensive. We could probably build or buy a sawmill and make our own siding and break even or come out ahead.’ And then I started to do the math,” he says. “And I was like, ‘oh yeah, it would be cheaper.'”
It took him three weeks and $3,000 to build.
Dow says furniture projects are in his future. But his first major home improvement effort is to build garden boxes for his wife. If he were to buy this lumber today, it would cost him at least $2,000. But for Dow, spruce logs are free. He picks them up from Paul’s Tree Service in Anchorage, where he works as a crane operator. The company removes beetle-infested spruce throughout the city.
