Stay-at-home order has spurred increase in home renovation projects

Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order has allowed Albert Trombi to devote more time to do-it-yourself projects around his Vandergrift home.

“I can’t do anything else,” said Trombi, 72, who has built a deluxe woodshop above what a relative calls Trombi’s “Garage Mahal.”

These days, Trombi is staying busy doing work such as cutting the joints for crown molding, baseboards and trim for a 16-by-19-foot addition to his home. He also is renovating a rental house down the street.

Before the pandemic, he said he could only “work a couple of days, then be off a couple of days.”

Once Trombi is done with the addition to his house and renovations down the street, he said, “I’ll have to think of something else to do. My wife helps me out with that.”

A surge in do-it-yourself projects has accounted for a good deal of the foot traffic at area lumber yards and home improvement stores, according to the businesses.

They said that’s good news for them, because many contractors have stopped buying building supplies since Gov. Tom Wolf ordered an array of businesses deemed nonessential to close in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Nationally, covid-19 restrictions have spurred more people to consider doing home renovation projects, according to LikeFolio, a company that analyzes social media data to predict consumer trends.

The number of people talking on social media about doing improvements around the house has doubled in the past two weeks alone, and people talking about buying supplies from stores such as The Home Depot and Lowe’s is up significantly, LikeFolio said.

LikeFolio said kitchen renovations are among the most popular do-it-yourself projects, along with painting.

At Allegheny Lumber in Tarentum, sheets of drywall and two-by-fours have been hot sellers, said manager Bill Schrecongost.

“There obviously is no new construction,” he said. “Everybody is home and bored and fixing things around their house.”

Although there is a steady stream of customers at the Tarentum lumberyard, “No one is sticking around to hang out.”

There are more do-it-yourselfers showing up at the Stanford Home Center in Allegheny Township, according to customer service manager Patty Aikins.

“It’s decking season, and the composite and treated-wood decking is selling. Other than that, there is no one particular hot item,” Aikins said.

The foot traffic at Busy Beaver in New Kensington may have slowed a little, but sales manager Amy Tady noted that the store has limited customers to 10 at a time inside the store.

“We had a spurt and I had to stop people, but within 15 minutes we were good,” Tady said.