You know all about delays with garage doors, appliances, windows, and exterior doors. Add one more to the list: There are reports of up to two-year waits on electric transformers, the energy heart of lot development.

It’s a challenging time; industry sources are reporting that building cycles times are one to three months slower than just a year ago. Home builders have responded with a can-do spirit, making on-the-fly adjustments to home feature specifications, buyer requests, closing times, budgets, you name it to keep crews busy and income coming in the door.

Interior Finish Confidence

Suppliers, distributors, and installers have had their share of disruptions, too. At least one leading national building material supplier and installer, Interior Logic Group (ILG), is rushing to home builders’ defense with a private label program designed to all but end home closing uncertainty on interior finishes including:

  • Vinyl plank
  • Tile
  • Laminate
  • Hardwood
  • Carpet

Palette by ILG is a new program that offers residential and multifamily builders market-competitive interior finish pricing, turnkey installation, and SKU selection. “We asked builders what we could do to help ensure more on-time closings,” explains ILG’s Jeff Trapp, the initiative’s lead and executive vice president. Palette is the solution.

Certainty of Supply

Economists say material delivery delays and pricing uncertainty aren’t going away anytime soon. That presents a continuing predicament for buyer, seller, and supplier.

“Interior finishes are the last mile to closing. Time lost in other construction stages means there is no room for further delay, price shocks, or design disappointment. Builders need sustainable pricing and delivery confidence for on-trend interior design styles and colors, from farmhouse and modern edge to new traditional and industrial chic,” he says. “Palette is certainty of supply.”

Uniquely Qualified

It’s also welcome news for an industry that could use it. The April NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index finished at just 77, despite low existing inventory. A program like Palette demonstrates how a leading industry name can leverage supplier relationships, insights gleamed from nearly 130,000-plus home installations each year, and technology for interior finish options including visualization.

Made in USA

The Palette design gallery features on-trend products from familiar U.S. companies like Shaw, Emser Tile, Mohawk, and AHF.

Domestic sourcing is a central program pillar. While U.S. West Coast port facilities now report reduced import congestion, the damage has been done. Building material manufacturers have rapidly pivoted to domestic production, but that transition took time. Meanwhile, offshore suppliers slowed production because of the pandemic or had inventory stacked up in clogged seaports. “The majority of Palette products are made in the USA,” Trapp reports.

No one has a perfect way out of the industry’s present challenges. With a distinguished program and a sustainably priced product portfolio, Palette should help return normalcy and confidence to a key part of the home building process.

Learn more about how Palette can help deliver on-time closings with wide interior finish selection, consistent pricing, and on-trend styles and colors.