One year I was looking for some 4x4 western red cedar posts 8 feet long. I
walked over to the stack at HD and saw a couple of perfectly straight, knot
free posts. I bought them immediately. Next week I was in the store and
checked out the cedar and found about 8 that were perfect. Each time I was
in the area I would check but after the 8 perfect ones I never saw a good
one again. They were all warped, twisted, bark edged, split, and full of
large knots so big I could break a 4x4 in my bare hands.

I was building a gate system that needed clear 4x4s so that I could cut them
down to 3x4s. To finish my materials list, I had to go to a large lumberyard
that carried specialty products, they custom ordered 10 clear posts for me.
They were great but cost about $50.00 per post. The HD ones that I found
were bargains at about $20.00 per post, the rest that they were selling I
wouldn't give you $2.00 a post.

"Pop`" wrote in message
news:CBQmh.1912$SQ1.1672@trnddc03...
Jack wrote:
Went to a few HD's and Lowes in my area to get a dozen 2x4 studs for a
project. After going through the piles for 15 minutes at each place
to find straight lumber, I gave up. Most of the stuff was twisted.
(Bowed studs I could have used in a pinch).
.
Have you all had similar experiences? Do you have better results at a
lumber yard even though its usually alot more expensive?
Thanks.

The "trick" is to find out what their lumber delivery schedule is. As
people continue to pick over the lumber, the good pieces disappear the
quickest, leaving the culls. Usually when a new shipment arrives the
culls go to the next lower grade of wood and the picking starts again.
That said, Lowes around here isn't all that much cheaper, but they do by
far have a lot better lumber than the local yards, for some reason. I
don't think the local yard has a schedule to recieve wood, but I know
Lowes does here, at least. Oh, "here" is far upstate NY.

Pop`