BJ Howes Avro Metaland reveal massive wait on timber as national shortage worsens

In some cases, materials are taking significantly longer than usual to arrive, hampering local suppliers, builders and those hoping to build their first homes.

BJ Howes Avro Metaland Tamworth manager, Brian Farmer, said it was extraordinary to see how busy things have become, and the business is having to adapt to the new demand.

"We're just going further afield to find more stock just to keep everybody happy," he said.

"There's some items that we've had on order for about six to eight weeks, and normally the turn around is three to four days but such is the demand for the stuff, it's just incredible."

While there is a housing boom across much of the state, Mr Farmer said things have become particularly manic in Tamworth.

He revealed some builders are even putting off further orders until next year in order to clear a backlog of projects.

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"Every handyman that comes in, they normally go from month to month but most of them have got six moths work ahead of them," he said.

However, he said Tamworth is actually lucky compared to some other places, which are having to find ways to get around the lack of available timber.

"Down on the Central Coast we have a number of centres down there, we've got one at Charmhaven, one at Lisarow and then one at Cardiff, and they do a lot of mezzanine floors down there," he said.

"But we're finding that people are coming up to us and saying there's a shortage of good timber so they're going back to steel, but of course steel is now getting to the stage that there's a shortage of that now too."

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