MONROE — The past few years has been quite a ride for local building contractors, but they are grateful for one thing: Demand for their building services continues and design work for future projects is also good.

Once the initial fear of the COVID-19 pandemic started to ease, people relegated to work from home decided they liked it and began looking into massive improvements in their living spaces. Indeed, area contractors are thrilled to have the work. 

That building and remodeling trend has continued unabated local contractors say — especially amid a red-hot housing market — but with a variation on the theme: Nationwide supply chain issues and labor shortages have been thrown into the mix, forcing some to get creative to continue to address soaring demand.

“With the supply chain issues, we’re seeing in production and costs of new materials really are a factor,” said Jordyn Van Matre, office manager of TruHome construction based in Monroe. “But slowly but surely things are getting better.”

For example, she said, a quality bathroom vanity for a remodel earlier in the pandemic could take as long as 6 months on order before it finally came in for installation. That wait time is now down to less than two months, and figures to continue to improve almost daily.

That’s not true of every item she said, but notes that the backlog is finally starting to ease bit for most materials and new projects are both getting done and in the pipeline. “Things are slowly getting back to normal,” she added.

The same goes for Edge Construction of Monroe, where that contractor’s focus on kitchens and baths is really picking up steam. But she said demand in another area, additions, has also picked up markedly as the work from home trend may be here to stay for many workers who still have that option.

“People really need more space at home but they don’t really want to move,” said Kandye Kasten, an interior designer there. “This (remodeling) gives them another option and they are taking advantage of it.”

Typically, she said spring and summer are their busiest seasons, but this year they are booked for most of the rest of winter, said Kasten. 

Over at Lucas Rittenhouse Construction of Monroe, business is also quite brisk. “Everybody I know in contracting seems to be way booked lately,” said owner Lucas Rittenhouse, adding that his local company and others are managing to keep up with the ongoing demand. “Business is still very good.”

Supply-chain issues are having somewhat of an impact here and there he said but for the most part Kasten said contractors and buildings are able to find enough materials for their current projects.

At Bruni-Miller, another Monroe contractor, co-owner Konnie Thompson also has noticed some supply chain issues, particularly for doors, windows and even overhead doors.

“We are still feeling the impact but it’s definitely getting better,” she said.  “We are still very busy coming into the spring season and look forward to that continuing.”

All the contractors contacted for this story said locating skilled labor also is contributing somewhat to the bottle-neck of projects. They urge customers to be patient and book their projects as soon as possible with a local company who knows the area.