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Lumber at the big box store???

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have not purchased lumber at a big box store in years. But this weekend I am visiting the inlaws and wandered into one. I decided to walk down the lumber aisle to see what was there. $10/bd ft. for red oak?? Are you kidding me? I now remember why I don't buy wood at the big box store.
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
HD sells by foot and we all know that goods are much cheaper when buying in bulk. If you show up at my local lumberyard and ask a foot of read oak they would promptly show you the door.
Besides thar hardwood sold in HD is dimentioned on 4 sides to specific width. Plus the wood is of very high quality, no knots, gouges, cracks … A lumberyard on the other hand shifts much of the wate associated with the dimentioning onto the customer.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
If you show up at my local lumberyard and ask a foot of read oak they would promptly show you the door.

- Carloz
You should find a friendlier lumber dealer. Here in Tucson, I'm fortunate to have Woodworker's Source, who deal in a wide variety of premium hardwoods.

Their policy is, you can buy one foot off a board, and they'll cut it for you for free. The rule is that the board has to have six feet left on it after your cut - four feet for an exotic. Since their boards are all FAS, that's not a problem.

Your guys sound like real jerks.

Edit: Regarding the big box S4S, there are a number of issues. First, the waste from dimensioning S2S myself is minimal, especially considering the cost differential. Second, the big box S4S is 3/4" thick precisely. That means that if the board has even the slightest bend, you can't get a straight piece of 3/4" out of it.
 
#11 ·
The big box wood is very pretty and completely surfaced, plus you can select your boats from the entire stock, no rules. Convenience is also a big plus when you just need a single board.

But….

The prices are truly exorbitant and only to be paid in times of desperation. My local hardware/lumber yard had a beautiful piece of red oak, excellent rift saw grain, even color, perfectly flat/straight, 10" wide, $50/bf.
 
#12 ·
The big box wood is very pretty and completely surfaced, plus you can select your boats from the entire stock, no rules. Convenience is also a big plus when you just need a single board.

- splintergroup
It's surprising to read these supposed benefits to big box S4S lumber. First was the one that asking for a single foot off a board would be refused, and this one that you can select board from the entire stock. I already wrote about my dealer's policy allowing small pieces to be cut from longer boards, but they also allow me to pick and choose from their entire stock.

Makes me wonder how other hardwood dealers handle things. Is it rare to be able to choose boards and buy short cutoffs?
 
#13 ·
HD sells by foot and we all know that goods are much cheaper when buying in bulk. If you show up at my local lumberyard and ask a foot of read oak they would promptly show you the door.
Besides thar hardwood sold in HD is dimentioned on 4 sides to specific width. Plus the wood is of very high quality, no knots, gouges, cracks … A lumberyard on the other hand shifts much of the wate associated with the dimentioning onto the customer.

- Carloz
If you've ever been able to find a straight board at a big box store, you're doing better than I am. They store their lumber stacked on end at an angle, which virtually guarantees it'll end up as a ski jump and not a flat board.

Big box lumber is only good when you absolutely need something on a Sunday when no real lumber dealers are open.
 
#15 ·
find a sawyer, and clean it up yourself,
You end up with a better product, and it really is your own work
last oak I bought was 98cents a board/foot. rough, random lengths and widths, not graded but he let me sort through it. same price red or white and as much as I wanted to buy
local guy, air dried. that was a couple of years ago though,

You are always better off if you buy from the source. The more people who handle it the more you will pay.
 
#16 ·
Makes me wonder how other hardwood dealers handle things. Is it rare to be able to choose boards and buy short cutoffs?

- RichTaylor
RIch,

My main source (one of only two) let you dig down 3 levels into the stack. The latest dealer I found lets you choose from they entire stock and will cut to length if you need shorter pieces to haul or only need a few feet. (they are a tad cheaper too!)
 
#17 ·
What's truly amazing (and saddening) is that home depot / lowes could easily attract business from a lot of woodworkers if their so-called "pro desk" actually knew anything about anything at all. I am fortunate to have a decent selection of hardwood dealers in my area (Portland, OR), but if I needed say, 100 board feet of rough 4/4 poplar, and I was buying other stuff from HD, i would gladly buy it from them if it was something they could order, because it would save me a trip across town. HD and Lowes are HUGE businesses and have deep relationships with a lot of suppliers and vendors. If they leveraged this buying power, they could probably strongarm the larger mills into giving them very competitive pricing.

I made the mistake one time of going to home depot and asking at the pro desk if I could special order lumber by the board foot. I got a blank look from one guy and the other guy offered to walk me to the aisle where they sold "premium hardwoods".
 
#18 ·
Rich, woodworkers source is my go to place also. Five hours for me but got kids in Tucson.
Spellman, out of Phoenix, has a yard in Flag. A lot closer. They'll let you pick all you want and help you re stack. But, there isn't a saw in the place.
Hood Dist. Is a neat place, too. Do you know of any other yards down there?
 
#19 ·
Rich, woodworkers source is my go to place also. Five hours for me but got kids in Tucson.
Spellman, out of Phoenix, has a yard in Flag. A lot closer. They ll let you pick all you want and help you re stack. But, there isn t a saw in the place.
Hood Dist. Is a neat place, too. Do you know of any other yards down there?

- Gene Howe
There is a mesquite yard I just discovered down on S. Cherry, across from Standard Restaurant Supply. It must be relatively new, because I've been going to Standard for almost 30 years and would have noticed it. They had two massive trunks on trailers out front with the roots still attached, probably casualties of the recent storms. I was busy that day and had to get some stuff from Standard, so I didn't stop in, but it's clearly a mill, with a large inventory of flitches, stacked with stickers and tied. I'm not sure if it's ready for use yet though. I'll go back down in the next week or two to check it out.

There's a really nice mesquite yard down south of Tubac. They do their own milling and stack in flitches as well, with slabs up to 16/4 and probably thicker.

Frankly, even if there were another dealer like Woodworker's Source here in town, I wouldn't switch. The guys down there are real pros. I'll wind up with a dozen or two boards, 8 to 12 feet long, standing up against the racks to choose and they always tell me to just leave them and they'll put them back. I do it myself anyway. They've even brought out inventory with their forklift that they just got in for me to pick through.
 
#20 ·
So I work at the big blue box, and I can tell you, the lumber carried by the company is not carried for those like us. It's there for the everyday DIY'er that thinks he can build whatever he saw on TV or Pinterest and he doesn't know that other options exist (i.e. local mills). The lumber vendors continually send inferior product, in inferior shipping conditions, and we follow the corporate protocol and stand the boards on end to be sorted through and manhandled by every John Doe that comes in thinking he will find that perfect board at the back of the stack. Don't get me wrong, from time to time there are gems to be found, but the lumber being sold isn't targeted at us woodworkers.

Look at the tool selection as well, it's geared more towards contractors building homes, and the DIY'ers that are just tinkering with the idea of woodworking (i.e. Skill and Black & Decker). Overall, the company is just out for the profit margin, and targets those that are uninformed of other options, or in need of a convenient source.
 
#21 · (Edited by Moderator)
Convenience is also a big plus when you just need a single board.

- splintergroup
It s surprising to read these supposed benefits to big box S4S lumber. First was the one that asking for a single foot off a board would be refused, and this one that you can select board from the entire stock.

- RichTaylor
For ME, Sometimes when you just need a board, it makes good business sense.
Example:
It takes me 30 minutes each way to go to the lumber store, plus approx. 20 minute while there.
So 80 minutes round trip (1 hour and 20 min)
Lowes is 5 minutes away, maybe 10 minute while there, so 20 minutes round trip. (maybe 25 minutes)

By going to Lowes I save an hour of time.
Not only the hour of time, but that's another hour of work I am able to do.
Basically that saves me 2 hours worth of production.
Figure your cost for 2 hours of shop time, and all of a sudden the 20 dollars extra for a board isn't so bad.

You need to figure how many boards you need, then weigh it out to see if it's worth the extra money or making the trip to the lumber yard.

PS, My lumber yard will cut off whatever I need or let me dig to the bottom of the unit if I want. I also have a 25 year relationship with them and always restack the unit, most of the time better than I found it.
 
#22 ·
Aside from a few projects that I made when I first started out, I have not purchased any hardwoods at HD or Lowes.

Just a hobbyist, but there are so many sources for much nicer and cheaper lumber I see no reason for me to bother with HD or Lowes. I don't have any time constraints, so I can order online, but I'm in NYC and there are plenty or decent lumberyards arounds.

I still go to Home Depot for inexpensive sheet goods, pine, Doug Fir, Cedar and assorted soft woods.
 
#24 · (Edited by Moderator)
The big box wood is very pretty and completely surfaced, plus you can select your boats from the entire stock, no rules. Convenience is also a big plus when you just need a single board.

- splintergroup

It s surprising to read these supposed benefits to big box S4S lumber. First was the one that asking for a single foot off a board would be refused, and this one that you can select board from the entire stock. I already wrote about my dealer s policy allowing small pieces to be cut from longer boards, but they also allow me to pick and choose from their entire stock.

Makes me wonder how other hardwood dealers handle things. Is it rare to be able to choose boards and buy short cutoffs?

- RichTaylor
Don't compare "lumber yards" with "hardwood suppliers". They are completely different. Lumber yards are for the building trades while hardwood dealers are for the craftsman. I agree that red oak and any other hardwood sold at a big box store is both expensive and of questionable quality, but where I live, if I need a hardwood, it's either the big box store or an on-line source. I can get it right now at the big box, but on-line has it's disadvantages. You can't see the wood you are getting; it can get damaged in transit; it takes days to arrive and the cost of shipping and handling. I don't have the luxury of having a hardwood dealer near me.
 
#25 ·
Don t compare "lumber yards" with "hardwood suppliers". They are completely different. Lumber yards are for the building trades while hardwood dealers are for the craftsman.

- MrRon
That is at odds with the dictionary definition of lumber which makes no distinction between hardwood and building material. Lumber is simply timber that's been cut into boards, and you buy it at a yard.

Time for me to lumber out to the shop to cut some lumber.
 
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