Hundreds of businesses board up their shops with plywood
boarded-up-store-boston.jpg
Photo taken in Boston

Over the last few days, I've come across reports that many businesses have opted to board up their shops amid fears of looting and destruction.

Bridge Michigan reported that it spoke to several businesses in Kalamazoo, Michigan that boarded up. So did businesses in Greensboro, Los Angeles, Boston, Milwaukee, Chicago, and most certainly many others. OregonLive reports that Portland, Oregon, is a "city of plywood."

I don't have data on it yet, but I expect big sellers of plywood, like Home Depot and Lowe's, to see its sales rise over the coming days. During fears of Hurricane Florence in late 2018, both retailers saw their sales rise considerably. Home Depot saw its shares hit an all-time high, rising two percent right when fears peaked. Roofing supplier Beacon saw its shares rise 7.3 percent, while Louisiana-Pacific and regional construction company Fluor saw a 1 percent rise.

New Jersey-based lumber supplier Ritten Lumber released a guide to boarding up a building.

"Plywood is a thin, durable wooden board that consists of several compressed layers. Before you purchase plywood for boarding up your windows, you should first measure the width and height of each window you will be covering. This will allow you to determine how much plywood you will need." 
 

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Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].