aemeijers wrote:
Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

I'm not an expert carpenter by any means, but sometimes it seems to me
that lumber one finds at home depot is to bowed and twisty for most
things such as building a wall. Yesterday I went to hd to by some
2x10's to replace a few joists in kitchen floor and once again, the
lumber is a little bowed a litte twisted a little chipped and a little
banged. But for joists (with plywood and hardwood to go on top), does
it really matter? Should I stick with HD or go to a lumber yard and
pay double or triple? How about lowe's?

Many thanks in advance,

Aaron
Have you actually called your local lumber yards and gotten a price? In
my experience, the price isn't usually much higher, and the quality is
better. They deal with working carpenters, and a working carpenter
doesn't have time to pick through the pile looking for stuff that MAY
work. Don't expect much hand-holding from the clerk, though. If it is
more than a pickup load, most real lumberyards will deliver as part of
the price, though.

And they are often cooperative on small loads if you work with them such
as waiting a day or two until they are making a delivery in your area.
As you said the nice part about real lumber yards is that there is no
picking etc because they buy better quality wood so even if you have
them deliver it sight unseen you get good stuff.



Big-boxes are mass-market, and are open other than 6:30 am to 4 pm M-F,
so that is where DIYs go. For a while, real lumberyards were trying to
soften their 'trade only' image, but since the big boxes came along,
most of the ones around here don't even advertise, and are back to short
hours. The more marginal ones have been driven out of business. The ones
that are left don't really even want to deal with civilians- they want
customers who know what they want, get in and get out, and don't come
back later crying that they got the wrong thing. They are supply houses,
not retail stores.