-MIKE- wrote in :

On 2/8/15 8:39 AM, Doug Miller wrote:
"dadiOH" wrote in :

Maybe 2x4s were once actually 2" x 4", don't know, best I remember is 1
5/8" x 3 5/8".

2x4 is the rough-sawn size. Our previous house was a 1928 farmhouse framed with
rough-sawn
lumber: the wall studs were actually 2 inches by 4 inches, floor joists a full 2x8, etc.

The main advantage of dressing rough-sawn framing lumber is to provide consistent
dimensions: the actual size of the rough-sawn material varied +/- about 1/8".


2x4 finished dimensions have changed over the years.

Possibly I didn't state my point as clearly as I intended -- which was that, regardless of the
actual finished dimension, when you're building a house from two-by lumber that has been
finished, it's all been finished to the *same* dimension: all the 2x4s are the same size, all the
2x8s are the same size *and* they're the same thickness as the 2x4s, etc.

In a house built with rough lumber, most of the 2x4s are actually pretty close to 2" x 4", but
some of them may be 1 7/8 x 4, some may be 2 1/8 x 3 15/16, etc.