wrote:
On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:44:19 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

wrote:

Big Orange Retailing Giant, generally Home Depot.

I was walking around there today and I found wood ranging from the
cheapest white pine, nasty cuts only suitable for furring strips, then
"white wood" with a lot of knots in it, suitable for shelving to a
select grade that looked like SYP and pretty much clear and then you
got to the premium woods like the red oak and poplar. They were
cabinet grade if you picked them over.

There were also a few grades of 2x stud and framing lumber.

You get what you pay for.

If you have a real lumber yard nearby I would suggest you go there for
anything that you really want to look good. You can still pick and choose,
but - at least where I go - you always get someone to help you because they
want their stock kept neat. They don't want customers crawling on their
racks messing stuff up. One lumber yard I go to has racks up so high that
they have a cat walk. The guy climbs up and hands you down the wood. The
guys won't even bother handing down the bad stuff because they know you'll
just hand it back up for them to put away.

In general, the vast majority of the wood is much better than the stuff at
the borgs so picking and choosing is much faster.

My wife built over 100 houses and she will tell you plenty of horror
stories about what a "real lumber yard" will send you.
Most I have seen are not really interested in letting people back in
the lumber and they cite insurance issues.

The reality is they all get the same lumber.. As long as your BORG
turns it over fast enough that it doesn't warp on the rack and you are
careful picking out what you want, you will do as well as you can
anywhere.

Where the BORG falls down is when you want PT lumber. The stuff they
sell is usually the lowest concentration they make, in a generally
lousy grade of lumber to start with and CCA is out of the question.
For that sort of thing, you need to go to a marine contractor supply.

Your/your wife's experience is certainly not the same as mine, but then I
never had a house worth's of lumber delivered.

The 2 lumber yards in my area have never prevented me from going into the
yard. In fact, one yard has a storefront where you tell them what you want,
they write it up and you drive around the back, get out and walk into the
storage area, hand the receipt to the worker and between the two of you,
you pick out your boards. If you want something cut, you stand right next
to the saw while the guy cuts it.

The wood might be the same, but I have never had to sift through board
after board after board, by myself, to get to the good boards. I've never
seen the warped, curved and twisted boards that I see at the borgs.