Crews from Rampart Roofing, along with other Springs-area contractors, have had to work around supply chain issues.

Crews from Rampart Roofing, along with other Springs-area contractors, have had to work around supply chain issues.

For Josh Osborne’s fencing business, the past two years have been full of curveballs.

The COVID pandemic unleashed supply chain snarls that raised prices and made materials harder to get. December’s catastrophic windstorm created a backlog of fence repairs and replacements; May’s massive snowstorm piled on new damage. Now record gas prices are prompting delivery cost hikes. 

He’s not alone — it’s a collection of challenges all too familiar to fencing and roofing contractors across the Pikes Peak region.

For Osborne, the president of Colorado Springs Fence Company, projects lined up for the already busy summer months are being slowed by a lack of supplies.

Though this year has been better than 2021, which Osborne described as “horrible,” some supplies are still taking longer than usual — or aren’t available at all.

Osborne can get standard white and tan vinyl fences, for example, but if a customer wants woodgrain-colored vinyl, “I just can’t even get it right now,” he said. “Same with chain link. There are certain colors in chain link: brown, black, green. I don’t know if I can get green yet. Brown, probably not. We can get black and traditional galvanized, but there’s certain colors that we just haven’t been able to get.”

Matthew Munro, president of Rampart Roofing, said while the company isn’t seeing many supply chain delays on the residential side of business, on the commercial side, “there’s no telling how long it could take.” 

A project the size of a shopping center, he said, could face wait times of up to a year due to supply chain delays. Those slowdowns started last year and haven’t improved, he said.

Supply chain unpredictability has also been wreaking havoc with prices, and it’s been a persistent problem. Osborne said when a client signs a contract with his fencing company, installation work usually begins around three months later. That gap leaves plenty of time for prices to change. In 2021, he’d book a job at one rate, and by the time he was ready to start the project, the price of materials had gone up dramatically. 

“I would always just eat that cost,” he said. “A lot of my competitors didn’t do that. ‘Oh, now your price is this.’ Or they’d just give them some crap material.”

Osborne actually lost money on some jobs, he said, before he “got smarter” and started bidding jobs higher in anticipation of the rising costs. That’s leveled off this year, he said.

“Knock on wood. I’m always a little bit fearful — wood [prices have] tapered off, but steel can always [go up] at a moment’s notice — you know, because we’ll just get an email from our supplier: ‘Oh, price goes up 10 percent next week’ and there’s nothing you can do,” he said.

Gas prices are also affecting rates. The average price for a gallon of gas is $4.907 in El Paso County as of July 6, according to AAA — and that’s driving up the cost of deliveries.

Oil prices also affect the price of shingles because they’re all made from petroleum products, said Rory Huskin, owner of Cornerstone Roofing & Gutter.

The rising price of materials has forced him to raise rates as well, something he said has been happening year after year.

“So we get a lot of paperwork out there, a lot of estimates. … Then all of the sudden, overnight, they decide to raise the prices on us,” he said. “It hurts us, definitely.” 

That’s an issue Munro, of Rampart Roofing, has had to contend with as well.

“Prices are so fluid,” he said. “We can hardly bid a job without knowing exactly when they’re going to sign it, because the price could change in a week.” 

That’s forced them to add price escalation clauses for commercial work. It’s not something they’ve needed to do for residential projects, which have been more stable. However, Munro said residential-side prices have been increasing more frequently than they’ve seen in the past.

“So I’d recommend people act soon instead of waiting,” he said, “because the price is only going to go up.” 

Though they’re now “mostly caught up,” recent severe weather created a backlog for the Colorado Springs Fence Company; the big one that “loaded everyone up for several months” was the windstorm in December, said Osborne, though May’s snowstorm caused branches to fall and damage fences as well.

His company usually has wait times of around three months or so. The storms may have pushed them back an additional month, he said, though this has been improving as they’ve been clearing the backlog.

The storms haven’t affected his company as much as others; Osborne estimates that two to four months is likely the standard wait time now, even for companies that usually carry a smaller backlog.

While some companies may get a boost in business after severe weather, Osborne isn’t a fan. Business for his company is usually consistent, but he’s had to remove his phone number from Google during previous storms — otherwise, his phone would be ringing nonstop.

“My voicemail was full, and by the time I actually emptied it, it was full again,” he said. “It’s just constant.”

Osborne said he’s able to be picky about the work the company accepts. 

“As nice as you can put that … [customers] are not the ones calling the shots,” he said. “I choose jobs. I’m not desperate for work. In 2008, 2009, I’d do anything for a fence job. I’d do it for free just to be working — but this is a completely different market.”

Summer gets busier because of what Osborne calls a “seasonal mindset” among customers.

“They’re outside, they look at their fence, they say ‘Wow, I should get that fixed,’” he said. “Or they don’t think we work in the winter — although every fence contractor I know works year round.

“Most people, when they do finally make contact, they are shocked when they find out how long it’s actually going to take,” he said. 

Huskin, of Cornerstone Roofing & Gutter, said work has been steady and the company doesn’t currently have a backlog, but the Front Range could see a hailstorm at “any given moment, and things would change.”

It’s a mistake to put off repairs, he said.

“Even when it hails, I notice a lot of people — they tell us, ‘I want to wait until we’re farther away from the hail season’ — which just means we’re closer to next year’s hail season,” Huskin said. “…If you’ve got a roof that needs attention, I would not wait.” 

Increasing insurance rates are also a concern in a region that sees so much destructive weather.

Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association , said there’s been a spike in both volume and cost of home insurance claims.

Supply chain issues, inflation and labor shortages have all taken a toll, she said.

“I know it’s a cliché, but the new normal we’re living in is really affecting what we see for insurance,” Walker said. “And of course that’s all linked with a straight line to what we see for construction and construction costs.”

Insurance companies also factor in the rising costs of homes in the area when setting insurance rates.

“Probably the biggest factor for our homeowners is that the value of our homes are going up, and in order to be adequately prepared and insured, you have to match that,” said Kevin Gainey, COO for Elite Insurance Services, an insurance brokerage that works with more than 30 insurance companies.

Walker said over the past 20 years, catastrophe claims — or claims from a natural disaster that cause at least $25 million in insured damage — have increased in Colorado by 275 percent. 

Among natural disasters, wildfires are the most expensive per-claim losses, said Walker, while hail damage is the most frequent. However, Gainey said many insurance companies in the state have raised deductibles for wind and hail damage. For less severe damage, homeowners may find themselves paying out of pocket.

Data from the Insurance Information Institute based on 2019 home insurance premiums showed Colorado is the 7th most expensive state in the nation, with the average premium being $1,618.

Gainey encourages consumers to shop around with a local broker, and Walker advises those who already have insurance to undertake a financial review with their insurance agent each year to make sure they have the coverage they need. 

“People really need to think about their insurance policy as: You’re protecting what, for most of us, is our biggest asset,” she said.

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