Up, Up and Away!

The home owner market-contractor and do-it-yourself repair, remodeling and additions-continues to grow at an impressive pace.

The Department of Commerce has reported that home repair and remodeling contracts for the third quarter of 1974 were 16% above third quarter 1973. For additions alone. the market sector where plywood has the major share, the increase was20%.

These trends are confirmed in a study of maintenance, (epair and remodeling by Robert Simonson of Tucker, Anthony & R. L. Day, New York stockbrokers.

The report, which describes this market as "the growth segment of the building industry," anticipates a 9% future growth rate in repair and remodeling compared with 6% for the past eight years. Maintenance, repair and remodeling expenditures are seen as "significantly less cyclical than those of new housing."

The do-it-yourself sector is seen as not only growing faster than the entire market, "but expanding at an accelerating rate." It adds: "In the most recent three year period, the growth rate has been 12.8'%. This above average growth is the reqult of increasing leisure time for such activities as hobbies during a period of rapidly rising costs for hiring professional labor. The trend

Story at a Glance

New study calls repair, remodeling and maintenance "the growth segment of the building industry" .... kitchen remodeling market alone accounts for $2.3 billion business is "significantly less cyclical than new housing."

toward do-it-yourself should continue."

Pro. Remodeling, amonthly marketing newsletter from Home Improveme nts magazine, expects professionally installed remodeling to hit at least $9 billion in sales volume this year.

The growing momentum of the plywood home owner market has been increasingly recognized in recent American Plywood Assn. programs emphasizing closer liaison with dealers and distributors.

Market tests aimed at increasing the sale of plywood through dealers are in progress, with encouraging preliminary results. Plywood volume in home owner applications is already at an annual rate of 3.4 billion sq. ft.

Exterior products account for 58% of the market and interior products for 42%. Three categories, siding, roofing and kitchen remodeling, each represent billion dollar market segments, with kitchen remodeling alone hitting $2.3 billion.