What moves a hardwood quote

A hardwood floor is an assembly of traded inputs — sawn wood, petrochemical-derived finish and adhesive, freight — most of it priced in US dollars before it reaches a Canadian invoice. Every one of those moves independently of the installer. These are the three that matter, live from the Bank of Canada.

3 of 3 series liveRefreshed hourlyJSON

Published so a price change can be evaluated rather than suspected. This is not investment information and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Index values are reproduced from the Bank of Canada, which does not endorse this site.

Forestry commodity index

Monthly BCPI Forestry - v52673502 · monthly

487.23as of 2026-07-01▲ 2.37% vs previous

2024-08-012026-07-01

What it drives

The sawn wood itself — solid boards, and the hardwood wear layer and cross-ply core of an engineered plank.

Why it is volatile

Forestry prices respond to housing starts, sawmill capacity, log supply and trade policy, none of which move together and none of which an installer influences. A mill curtailment and a housing-start surge can land in the same quarter and push the index hard in one direction.

Data: Bank of Canada, M.FOPR · In our work: Installed cost in the GTA

Energy commodity index

Monthly BCPI Energy - v52673498 · monthly

1,432.17as of 2026-07-01▼ 4.73% vs previous

2024-08-012026-07-01

What it drives

Two things at once: freight on every pallet that reaches the GTA, and the petrochemical feedstock behind polyurethane finishes, adhesives and moisture-barrier membranes.

Why it is volatile

This is the most volatile input in the assembly and the least visible in a quote. It moves on geopolitics and refinery capacity rather than on anything in the flooring trade, and it reaches a floor twice — once as the finish system and once as the truck.

Data: Bank of Canada, M.ENER · In our work: What a fixed price actually protects

US dollar in Canadian dollars

USD/CAD · daily

1.3785as of 2026-08-20▼ 0.28% vs previous

2026-07-172026-08-20

What it drives

Almost everything imported. Most engineered product, most finish systems and most machine consumables are priced in US dollars before they reach a Canadian invoice.

Why it is volatile

A quote written in Canadian dollars against inventory bought in US dollars carries currency risk that the homeowner never sees. This is a large part of why an open-ended price is open-ended — and why a fixed one has to be underwritten by someone.

Data: Bank of Canada, FXUSDCAD · In our work: What a fixed price actually protects

The limit

What these numbers do not tell you

An index does not convert into the price of your floor. The relationship is real but not linear: at job level, labour, substrate condition and scope dominate, and a slab that needs flattening will move a quote further than a quarter of forestry movement ever will. Drawing a straight line from “forestry index up 6%” to “your floor costs 6% more” would be a fabrication dressed as data, so this page does not do it.

The published installed-cost ranges are in the papers, and they are what an estimate is actually built against.

Installed cost in the GTA What a fixed price protects