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Posted by David Sherman [216.18.131.58] on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 13:50:13 :
In Reply to: Re: Just the opposite here.. posted by Fleabag [75.100.143.229] on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 11:24:03 :
Around here (Coeur d'Alene), the big box stores have good lumber and the best prices, probably because this is lumber country and they buy from the nearby mills where most of the production is "D FIR/L" (douglas fir or larch), and the fir is tight-grained being a relatively dry area. Lumber isn't worth shipping any distance so I'm sure in other areas, they get "SPF" (spruce, pine or fir, mostly from the South) and "HEM-FIR" (hemlock or true fir, from the coast), both of which are well below doug fir and larch in strength and rot-resistance.
Actually the crummiest lumber around here is sold by Ziggy's, a small local chain that always advertises the cheapest lumber prices. People say that if you buy your lumber from Ziggy's you better strap it down tight and quick in your truck before it has a chance to tie itself in a knot. Yeah, it's doug fir, but it generally has a grading stamp on it, but it's clearly been sorted at the mill to be entire units of stuff that most lumber yards would be embarrassed to sell.
These days, with construction way down, the quality of lumber has gone up. When I'm in the big-box stores, I'll generally take a quick walk through the lumber department and see if there are any clears mingled in with the regular lumber. I generally first look at the end of the unit and see if there are some sticks that are from near the outside of a big log, and if there are, I'll look in side and see if they're clear. I've accumulated a small pile of clear tight-grain 2x4s that way, which are good for making molding, trim, and millwork out of, and I recently found a clear 12 foot fir 4x10 at Home Depot that was from a log at least 4' in diameter. It was even on close-out for 50% off. I still don't know what I'll do with it, but I have to put it somewhere that it will be visible.