# Why is wood is so Expensive



## andy6601

I really just want to rant here I guess but, why is wood so da#% expensive anymore! I have been woodworking for about 5 years now and wood does nothing but keep going up! No wonder no one can afford good furniture anynore, but even "cheap" wood like pine and poplar is getting stupid! I troll craigslist looking for "deals" but those are almost non existent and I try to find saw mills but those are going away too. So does anyone have any ideas or solutions as to how they aquire wood. I am not looking for exotic stuff just the usaual cherry, walnut, maple and of course pine and poplar for interior furniture parts. I really wonder what is going to happen, because even if you want to make a simple chest of drawers you can plunk down $600.00 just in wood and that is not tiger maple or birds eye type stuff. Or should I look into trying to incorperate some plywood into my furniture building? Really I would love to hear what other fellow LJ's have to say about this.
Thanks,
Andy


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## knotscott

It even grows on trees, and it's still expensive!

...Mom & Dad have some explaining to do….. ;-)


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## a1Jim

Just keep an eye out for when your neighbors are out of town and then grab your chain saw and clear off all of their trees LOL
I'm afraid it's like everything ,it cost more for power to mill the trees it cost more to ship it , employees need better wages,advertising cost more…. Even if all these things don't effect the mill you buy from they still feel like they should get the same amount for their product as the guys who does charge more.


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## BillWhite

Find it, cut it, haul it, saw it, dry it, plane it, sell it, haul it again, sell it again to us who want only the best…..
Yep, its pricey, but I don't own a sawmill (darn it).
Bill


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## richgreer

I advise everyone to keep an eye on Craig's list in your area. You will often find good deals on lumber.

I once got a great deal on some walnut and cherry when, via Craig's List, I found a family that was selling their deceased father's material.

Make certain to search Craig's list using multiple search terms such as: lumber, wood, walnut, cherry, etc.


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## dbhost

Seek out free wood where you can. At least for small project wood, if you have a band saw, it's pretty easy to rig up a resaw sled and cut down smallish planks to use once dried. I try to find firewood sellers that will work with me. I save them a bit of labor as I have them cut up the pieces into 36 to 48" long segments instead of the typical sub 18" chunks used for fireplaces… I then run it through my band saw, typically to about 5/4, sticker it, and let it dry for a year or so. Once dried just S4S the stuff and get busy…

Another source for free wood is reclaiming wood from various sources. Once source for free wood to reclaim that I have had good luck with is people throwing out old waterbed frames. If nothing else, the side rails tend to be solid wood, and more often than not, I have found red oak in there. Yeah it's rift sawn, but it's also usually 6/4 stuff… You can do something with that…

Like is mentioned above, Craigslist is often a good source. I have gotten my walnut, maple, and cherry from CL and haven't paid more than $2.00 bd/ft for it.

If appropriate, you might consider plywood for interior / non exposed parts. Like flat panels for frame and panel construction…


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## a1Jim

Here's another way to save
have good friends

http://lumberjocks.com/Trev_Batstone/blog/28381


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## Tokolosi

I cant say why its so expensive but I agree. Its horrendous. And by summertime you wont be able to afford the gas to go anb buy it anyway. Buts thats another story.

I use Craigslist. Pick up peoples throwaway end tables and shelves and the like. Mostly get pine and oak but have had some luck with small pieces of walnut and Maple. I sure think 3 times before I cut thats for sure!!


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## renners

I don't know about timber prices where you are, but I have a couple of theories as to why even in this challenging economic climate, prices have gone up, up, up…

The places I go to for materials don't carry half as much stock as they did four years ago. Anything you want out of the ordinary is brought in - and guess who pays for the transport? It wouldn't be so bad if you could have the pick of the bale, but what they bring in might be only a dozen planks, and some of those might only be suitable for boatbuilding.

There is less competition now. Sadly, one of my favourite timber suppliers (who had the whole lot) closed down about three years ago. This place was within a stone's throw of the more established specialist timber merchant in town. 
This other guy has put up his prices to pre competition levels.

There isn't the same volume of business as there was four years ago… overheads are the same, they have to be met somehow and tacked onto fewer bd ft than before.


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## lazyoakfarm

I have to travel 120 miles to Jacksonville FL or pay freight. when i have it shipped in, I think I am getting the stuff nobody else takes.  it is very frustrating.


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## HamS

You are in Ohio so there should be some local mills in a reasonable distance. I am priveleged to work at a company that pays profit sharing bonuses. Every six months I go to the local sawmill and buy common hardwood at 50-75 Cents a bd ft. I buy $300 at a time and then take it and stack and sticker it in my barn. Yes, I waste a lot cutting around knots and planing out twists and checks, but for cherry and walnut that is a great price. They have a hard time selling less than first quality to the furniture guys who need to feed machines with perfect stock. Search on Wood Web. If you are near Indiana, I know of several small mills that will work with a small guy because their bad lumber can be used with some effort and they can make some $$ out of it.


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## bondogaposis

Lumber is heavy it has to be transported to a sawmill as a log, then again to a lumber yard. It takes fuel and lots of it to make boards available to the consumer. As long as fuel prices continue to rise so will lumber prices.


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## HamS

http://www.woodweb.com/index.html
I know every question can be answered here at LJ, but this other site has interesting information. One of the pages has a listing of sawmills.


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## patron

i saw a patio table on sale
from northern tool yesterday
$17 (then shipping)

i cant even buy the wood for that price

maybe i'll get one
and sell it for $20
and work my way up to a corporation

so i can buy my own president
who will give me free wood


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## shipwright

One good way to save is to make better use of the material in the first place. Build your casework out of cheaper materials and veneer with the exotics. Yes, I know that veneer is getting more and more expensive too but in many cases you can saw your own and make a single board go a very long way.


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## DS

The inverse of this same question is, "Why are we so broke?"

Someone devalued our currency… hmmm (Starting to sound poilitcal-I'll step off now.)


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## MoPower

Find a local saw mill and check with your local tree service. I get tons of wood from the local tree service, they call me when they have a tree they think I might want and I go to the site and get it.


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## Grandpa

When I listen to the news on TV they say we are a part of a world market so our gasoline is going to China and that is the reason it continues upward. I can assure you that people having an interest in oil wells are not making anything.


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## JAAune

Higher gas prices and wages not rising with inflation are probably the biggest culprits. I've not done serious research on wood prices though.


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## andy6601

I guess I am really just wanting to vent! I am an estimator at my day job. So it is my job to know how much things cost. I also know it is not just wood, everything is gone up and is not comming back down any time soon, if ever. Lumber is a commodity like any thing else and as demand goes up so does prices and all the inputs fuel, labor, etc. all have to be accounted for. I am glad to hear about what some of you guys are doing to find deals. Although I just had a great idea I am going to "occupy" my local saw mill until they give me free wood! LOL! I might be a while so if you don't hear from me send me some food. Everyone has some great ideas so I will keep my eye out and I'm sure I might find some deal…..somewhere.


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## WDHLT15

I have a sawmill and cut hardwood lumber for furniture and I sell some to local woodworkers. Try to find your wood as close to the source of sawing as you can. Every time a different hand touches a board, the price goes up. I don't sell cheap, but I sell fair given the cost of the logs and the time and equipment that it takes to saw and dry lumber. Craigslist is a very good place to find local sawyers that will sell you wood for reasonable prices.


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## saw4fun

If you like Walnut I have a few hundred board feet for sale in the $3.50/bdft range. The local freight company has treated me well and I have shipped some decent loads half-way across the country for under 200.


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## helluvawreck

We're in the molding business and buy it by the truck load. when it goes up we get squeezed because it's hard for us to raise our price every time they do. Back in the housing crash a lot of saw millers went under and they have never recovered. That was where a lot of the increases came in. Most hardwood companies use other people to harvest it. China imports a lot of lumber and turns it into furniture and ships it right back here. We have to look all over for good deals to stay in business.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com/


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## BillWhite

Just an add-on…..
I want bto Wally World to pick up some odds and ends groceries. Saw some oranges for $.98 EACH. WAHAAA!
Bill


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## Nomad62

I can tell you exactly why. I cut logs for fun not as a business and it costs a bunch of money to get the wood useable. I get the log to my place, averages $150 and the time for a days work; that's 1 day, double it for a whole weekend… anyway, gas is only going up and that does not include "pay" for the work. That doesn't include the cost of having a tree taken down. It takes a while to cut a log, maybe an hour for plain sawing maybe 3-4 for figured woods. Costs money to run the saw. Then it needs kiln dried because nobody buys air dried wood except turners; bare cost on that can be 50 cents to a buck a bf. Then a person needs to sell the wood, that is hard! Buyers will generally pick thru about 25% of it and leave the rest; that rest holds value that doesn't return, which has to be made up for in the wood that did sell. It is impossible to express how much work goes into this process, and the basic costs of running a business to do this is, of course, large, and needs to generate a profit in order to continue. I used to wonder why wood costs so much, too. Now I know. If I can get $5 a bf on wood I might break even.


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## Smile_n_Nod

It's all of you other people who enjoy woodworking who are creating demand that drives up the price of wood. Of course, to everyone else I'm an "other people," so it all balances out.


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## Tokolosi

I was thinking about this thread about an hour ago when I was picking up eight 1/2" thick stock solid Mahogany drawer boxes (23"x23"x5") and two 1/2" thick stock solid Maple drawer boxes (25" x 27"x 7") and a box of Mahogany and Maple cutt-offs from a local cabinet maker's shop. He place the add on Craigslist and I was lucky to be on when it appeared- picked it up for FREE. Based on online prices the Mahogany alone is in excess of $300. This is a good day! So some Lumber isnt expensive after all.










Edited to add: To be fair it cost me my lunch hour and I had to drive about 55 miles which in my truck and current gas prices equates to about $12.


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## Martyroc

Hi Andy , I like Jims solution just to wait until the neighbors go out, but everything said on here is pretty much the truth. If you go to these 3rd world countries they have tons of these exotic woods they use for firewood, but they don't have clothes, food, education, everything we take for granted sometimes. I use a lot of pallets that I get from Asia, and elsewhere around the world, and I come across the standard pine, ash poplar but I also get some good finds, red oak, white oak, walnut, cherry, unfortunately, I still need to work on it in it's present form to get it to where I can make something nice of it.

When I make cabinets I usually use birch plywood, beopfore that I used Baltic birch plywood until it became too expensive, now I started using sandply, it's an HD version and usually anywhere from $8-$14 cheaper a sheet. Use the good wood for what is being seen and the plywood and dimensional stuff for the carcass..


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## KenBee

I really don't think the wood itself is all that expensive, but the shipping if ordered online and the cost of fuel to cut and transport it from point A to point B concerning sawmills or retailers. I live in San Jose, CA and gas for my Mercedes is $4.40 on the average. I buy most of my wood off Ebay or online dealers and every so often run across a good deal on wood and shipping combined. The reason I buy online is because there isn't a sawmill anywhere near me, the retailers are too expensive or I can't find the kind of wood I want. I also look out for free shipping deals on Ebay. I just bought two White Oak boards that are 59 inches long, 6 inches wide, one inch thick for $10.00 and 16.90 shipping. If I had bought that locally it would have cost well over $50.00. All it takes is a bit of patience to search through the various offerings on Ebay. Some are leery of the wood quality that they buy online, but after 20-30 purchases I will say I have never been disappointed to the point I wanted to return it and in many cases the boards are better than pictured or described.


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## Sawkerf

Ken -
Have you looked at Aura Lumber on Phelan? They're just off of Monterey Highway a few blocks south of Southern Lumber. They sell all kinds of good quality plywood and have an excellent selection of rough sawn hardwoods. Most of the cabinetmakers I know buy there.


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## KenBee

Sawkerf….Hadn't heard of Aura Lumber but will look into it one day next week and thanks. I am fairly new to San Jose and also woodworking for that matter. Global has a store in Santa Clara I defiantly want to check out based on what I saw on their web site. I go to Southern for my plywood and MDF when I need it cut to a specific size so it will fit in my car. Until I got hooked into buying lumber off the internet I bought my lumber at Southern which has a fairly nice selection, but also a pretty high price.

I have a Woodhaven Router Planer and am in the process of building a Router Ski to plane smaller stock, so rough sawn lumber is no problem. In fact most of the wood I buy through Ebay is rough sawn or at the very least needs some surfacing like sanding. There is one seller on Ebay I buy from that sells mostly thick boards at 1 inch and over but will re-saw the boards to the buyers specifications. I use mostly 5/8 or less thick wood so they get a lot of my business. Plus they have some very nicely figured Maple and QS White Oak which along with Walnut I use a lot of for boxers and clocks.

Once again thanks for the heads up on Aura Lumber.


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## millzit

this is my solution….......


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## andy6601

Martyroc,
I like what you are saying infact everyone has great ideas. I know that we send China tons and tons of wood and it only makes sense that it floats back to us. I have seen some nice stuff made from pallet wood, but I would think that the time you spend processing it would it make it worth it. Not to mention how many planer blades you go thru when you hit a nail. 
Millzit that looks like a nice set up you have there!


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## terryR

andy, buy some land, then a chainsaw, then a sawmill, then a kiln…and a ton of tylenol…


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