19 hours Ago
HASLET, Texas — For roughly 18 years, Maben May has built custom fences for a living. The Springtown owner of Fort Worth Custom Fence said a daily part of doing business now consists of following the news surrounding tariffs. On Wednesday, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs , including a 10% baseline tariff rate on all countries and reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 countries.
May, who says more than 90% of his material comes from foreign countries, said his lumber distributors are already warning him that prices will increase as a result of tariffs. May told WFAA he saw the price of metal increase 15% several weeks ago. While lumber was exempt from new tariffs on Wednesday, the National Association of Home Builders said in a statement on Thursday that it anticipates that lumber tariff rates will increase later this year.
“Prices for metal goes up, wood goes up, price goes up. Just the way it is,” May said. He may have passed any potential price increases onto customers, and he’s encouraging potential customers to begin building projects before prices increase.
“I’m nervous about the increase in tariffs,” May said. “I don’t know what the future’s gonna hold with materials. I’m remaining positive.
I’m being proactive when I’m sending out quotes to homeowners. I advise them if they wanna lock in now. That way, if it does go up, I’m gonna take a hit for my customers.
” In an official statement to the media, NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes said: “While the complexity of these reciprocal tariffs makes it hard to estimate the overall impact on housing, they will undoubtedly raise some construction costs. However, NAHB is pleased President Trump recognized the importance of critical construction inputs for housing and chose to continue current exemptions for Canadian and Mexican products, with a specific exemption for lumber from any new tariffs at this time.” One of May’s customers, Haslet homeowner Randy Robertson, decided to rebuild his backyard fence ahead of potential price increases that may come from tariffs.
“It makes me want to just stay where I’m at and not spend,” Roberston said. “We have a lot of projects we’d like to work on around here, but it keeps me from moving forward on a lot of them. It puts other things on hold.
” Robertson said he planned to remodel his kitchen and bathroom, but those plans are on pause for now. His situation is just one example of the tariff domino effect that has begun to take shape..
