Hold on to your hammers, folks! We’ve got a midweek special that’s juicier than a ripe peach in July. Picture this: hardwood plywood and hardwood flooring are on the verge of being the next big stars on the import tariff hit list. Yes, you heard that right! A gaggle of big wigs from the decorative hardwoods industry are practically begging President Trump to slap those tariffs on. Why? Because imports are flooding in and taking over 80% of the U.S. market, forcing manufacturers like Roseburg Forest Products to close up shop. It’s like watching a slow-motion train wreck, but with fewer explosions and more lumber. If you’ve got home improvement plans involving cabinetry or flooring, you might want to hit the panic button—this could mean price hikes and supply shortages are on the horizon. So, better stock up before your dream kitchen becomes a Pinterest fantasy!

And speaking of dreams, let’s dive into the chaotic world of corporate buyouts and market shifts. It’s like a game of musical chairs, but instead of chairs, it’s companies merging, buying out competitors, and leaving consumers to pick up the pieces. We’re here to break it down for you because let’s be honest, no one wants to be stuck with outdated specifications when the big names start changing their game. So, keep your eyes peeled and your wallets ready—who knows what could happen next?

Lastly, if you’re thinking about rain harvesting, brace yourself! It sounds eco-friendly and all, but if you mess up the setup, you could end up with a mini swimming pool in your basement. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen—water tanks too close to the house can crack your foundation faster than you can say “DIY disaster.” So, if you’re going the rainwater route, grab a structural engineer and make sure that water is flowing away from your home, not straight into a costly renovation project. It’s all fun and games until someone’s basement turns into an indoor lake! Tune in for more wild tales and practical advice in this episode that’s packed with enough information to keep you entertained and informed.

Takeaways:

• The hardwood plywood and flooring might soon be under import tariffs, so brace yourselves!
• If you're planning on buying cabinetry or flooring, do it now before prices skyrocket.
• The hardwood market is in chaos with companies merging and buyouts happening left and right.
• Rain harvesting can be great, but placing tanks too close to your house? Bad idea.

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehouseonline.com
• youtube.com/aroundthehousewithericg

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Roseburg Forest Products
• Mantho Wood Products
• Columbia Forest Products
• Akora
• Nanoleaf
• Jackery Explorer

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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Around the House YouTube

Foreign the House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.

G. Is here to guide you through.

The latest tips, tricks and trends.

So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.

Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining today.

This is our midweek update.

This is that show that covers the stuff that we're not gonna catch this weekend and we didn't have the time to grab last weekend.

This is our midweek.

Thanks for joining me today, guys.

It is Wednesday morning here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest or as we call the war torn streets of Portland.

We had the news all over us yesterday here in the Pacific Northwest and that always gets interesting to see what's going on.

And don't worry, we're not talking politics today.

It's just what dominates the news cycle down here where we are.

But I wanted to talk about a few things today that are coming up that we should keep an eye on, especially if you're in the middle of a remodel or a new build.

For instance, couple days ago the decorative hardwoods industry leaders urged President Trump to add hardwood plywood, engineered wood flooring and hardwood veneer to the Section 232 tariffs on wood products.

So nine presidents and CEOs basically representing American manufacturers of hardwood plywood and all of that have asked to include that.

So Roseburg Forest Products said that this flood of imports dominates 80% of the US market is the reason for closing their last hardwood mill and of course exiting the hardwood plywood market.

Mantho Wood Products, family owned manufacturer of hardwood plywood and Petoskey, Michigan had some stuff.

So there's really a lot going on here.

So I expect, you know, Columbia Forest Products employee owned manufacturer hardwood plywood and veneer headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, they were involved in this.

So they came out and they're asking for that.

So I think with that ask you are probably going to see something come out with that.

So if you're in the middle of getting ready to buy cabinetry, if you're in the middle of buying hardwood flooring, I'd probably get on it sooner than later because that is our kind of bellwether saying, okay, they're asking for it.

Tom I would not be surprised to see that change.

So that's going to be a huge deal.

So be careful with that, guys.

Cabinetry flooring, that's where a lot of that stuff's coming in.

And the other issue that I see is if they've got 80% of the market, that means most of those things are going to go up until these guys can hire, get plants going again.

So that could be up to a year of turnaround.

So be very careful, guys.

So that's one of those things that you want to keep an eye on.

Now, another thing I wanted to talk about today too is we're seeing a lot of different buyouts, changes, things in the marketplace out there.

We're seeing a lot of things moving around, so keep an eye out on stuff out there.

We're seeing companies buying out others.

There's a big shift out there in the home improvement market, so we'll see what happens.

I'm curious to see what's going on, but you're seeing companies buying other companies.

A lot of things combining.

We're seeing a lot of things happening out there.

So be really careful when you're working on stuff because those specifications, if, hey, I'm gonna put this in, that might not be changing and it does cause issues.

I'm not gonna go into some brands, but I'm working with some brands right now on some replacement stuff and there's some issues going on.

And I tell you what, these buyouts and combinations probably will be the best for these companies in the long run.

But the headaches on the short term is getting a little crazy out there.

So be really careful.

Another thing I wanted to talk about today, guys, is just be really careful.

I know a lot of people in the fall and winter months in the out west.

I will say love to get into rain harvesting, where those fall rains, they love to grab the water, store it and use it later.

When you get up north too far, of course it's snow, so that's stuff that just freezes up so it doesn't work.

The other thing is maybe your area, you're drier in the wintertime versus where I'm at, where we're wetter in the wintertime.

Be really careful of rain harvesting systems and how you do this.

I have seen people go out and buy big plastic tanks, put them next to their home, collect all the rainwater.

Not a bad thing, except they put that tank right next to the basement wall.

And in my career I have seen four basement walls with huge cracks and are failing and are tipping into the basement because of the thousands of pounds of water that they were storing in tanks up against the side of the house.

So if you're going to be doing something more than just a few barrels of water and you have a basement, you're putting it within 10ft of the house.

Make sure you consult a structural engineer to make sure that you're not causing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of foundation damage in what could be a very expensive mistake.

And make sure that if you've got that water filling up and maybe you get a big downpour, that you have a way to either automatically or easily control that water so it can get away from the house.

That water needs to go.

If it's hitting the ground outside of your house there, coming off your gutters, that needs to go at least 10ft away from the home and get it downhill from the residents because otherwise that water loves to get into the crawl space or basement.

And the same thing goes with sump pumps, same thing with that.

If you're dropping that outside in many areas, you can't put that basement or crawl space or below grade sump pump into the sewer system without a license or permit or licensing for that.

So many times they won't let you do that.

So be really careful with those things because that can really burn you.

And I don't want to see you creating a fountain with that sump pump just running and running and running and running.

Gets really expensive when you do that.

Now, another thing that I wanted to talk about today real quick is we got those Amazon deal days going on right now.

So there's some great stuff out there that I'm seeing that's exciting.

There's some cool stuff out there as far as what I'm seeing for sales out there.

And there's a lot of cool things out there, a lot of electronics.

A lot of that stuff I'm seeing right now, like my friends over at Akora and Nanoleaf, Aqora, this goes through the 12th.

They've got 20% off their new video doorbell hub, the G410 and the camera hub, G5 Pro.

And I'm looking to see here, they've also got some serious deals here, like on the U100 smart lock, there's a lot of cool things there.

So you're going to see the smart lock's got like a 34% discount.

So you're 20 to 30% off most of those big prime, big deal days to take a look.

So if you're looking at those cameras if you're looking at sensors and hubs and that kind of stuff and smart locks, take a look at that stuff.

That's going to be a pretty big deal for you to save some money.

And Nanoleaf has got some great stuff.

They really are pushing the market out there now.

Some of their stuff works really well.

Some of it I've had some struggles with.

So I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not as big a fan sometimes of this, but you're seeing anywhere from 10 to 30% discounts on their stuff as well.

They make a lot of different products out there.

So they've got lights, they've got red light therapy masks, They've got a lot of different things.

They've got outdoor lights.

So take a look at what they've got.

They've got everything from rope lights to different interior lights.

I like what they're doing.

Some of that stuff, like for instance, I put up their backlight TV option, which was really cool, it worked really good.

But by, oh, three months later, that was falling off the back of the tv wasn't awesome.

And then I had the same kind of thing with their outdoor lights that were rated outside.

They just did not hold up to the Pacific Northwest rain.

Even though they're rated for it, they just didn't hold up.

So something to consider when you're out shopping.

But I tell you what, there are some great sales over there.

So if you're trying to buy some new stuff, if you're doing some early holiday shopping, the prime, big deal days are off to a good start.

Going for the next day or two here, take a look.

I tell you what, some of the things that I've seen out there that were really big this week were coffee makers.

A lot of the things like the Jackery Explorer, that's the power batteries that you can basically power your house with, or small things for tailgating, things like that, 56% off there, some great televisions.

So there's a lot of cool things that are out there.

Take a peek out there and see what you're looking for.

Not seeing a ton on tools and things like that, but I tell you what, could save you a little bit of money on these projects that you're working holiday time.

Not a bad time to be buying that stuff.

I'm sure looking at some things like some of the dash cams and stuff.

They've got some of those, they've got 50% off.

So if you're trying to get some stuff, I'm ready to go out and buy a new vehicle.

So I'm going to be working on that.

I'm like, that might not be a bad deal if I can get half off on that.

That's interesting.

We got a great show coming up this weekend, guys.

I can't wait to share that with you.

We're diving into some new subjects.

It's going to be interesting.

One of them hopefully doesn't come off as negative.

It's not meant to be.

But we're going to talk a little bit about navigating relationships and home buying and remodeling because I tell you what, I've been burned with that and some of the things that I've learned and some of the risks that you have and how to better handle it.

So be careful out there, guys.

So we're going to talk about all those things in the show.

We'll talk about a little bit of that on Saturday as well.

All right, everybody, have a great rest of the week.

It is hump day.

It is Wednesday.

Looking forward to having a great week this week.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in the Round the House show.

We'll see you on Saturday.

Make sure to follow us on social media.

Just head to aroundthehouse online.com for all the links.

Make sure you check out our new YouTube channel.

Just type in at around the House with Eric G. And click subscribe and ring the bell for updates.

We will see you next time.

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