I was shopping for better framing lumber for a small stick frame outdoor shed, and found some outstanding quality lumber I had never seen before. It's called Weyerhaeuser Framing Series dimensional lumber. Same size and configuration of everyone else, except this stuff is straight, dry, few knots of consequence, minimal wane, and good density. It costs more, but I won't have to mess around with each board trying to figure out exactly where to use it to minimize negative side effects. When I bought it I didn't recognize the label on the wood until I looked it up after restacking it near my project:

https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/w...umber/framer-series/

So if you don't want to mess with dicey lumber from the big box stores or your local lumber yard (yes there are great yards but not everywhere for sure), I would recommend this stuff.

Now you tell me! I just finished the deck and had to say a lot of bad words about the big box lumber quality.

I am one person that will pray premium for a better product. I hate spending hours at the box stores sorting through all the bad lumber.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
I hate spending hours at the box stores sorting through all the bad lumber.

And then getting the stink-eye from the staff for messing up their pretty pile of wood.

Got into an argument with guy at Lowes one day a few years back when lumber was REALLY high. I told him that I'll be damned if I'm paying $XX for warped and useless for my purposes 2x4s and that I'd keep looking for straight ones. He continued to complain, so I went to HD.

While sorting through all the crap lumber at a Lowes, my father-in-law blurted out, "They should just leave the poor trees alone!".

I worked in a lumber yard. They come stacked and straight. Not all perfect but most not bad.
Then the first ass-hole pouring a driveway comes along and has to go through about 150 of them looking for the best 6.
The 144 he tosses aside into a pile of spaghetti, left to warp.
I've only got so much time in a day to go behind them and re-stack everything for their minimal purchase. They were eventually told to not come back.

Keep your lumber stacked properly and in the shade and it will stay straight for years.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
I worked in a lumber yard. They come stacked and straight. Not all perfect but most not bad.
Then the first ass-hole pouring a driveway comes along and has to go through about 150 of them looking for the best 6.
The 144 he tosses aside into a pile of spaghetti, left to warp.
I've only got so much time in a day to go behind them and re-stack everything for their minimal purchase. They were eventually told to not come back.

Keep your lumber stacked properly and in the shade and it will stay straight for years.

I don't understand. Once it comes off the pile it will warp? So I buy straight boards but end up with warped boards later?

I was surprised at the difference between box store wood and lumber yard wood. I purchased ground contact 4x4s and the lumber yard wood was about half the weight as it was kiln dried. There was about a 25% cost premium. The box store wood was literally still wet.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
I worked in a lumber yard. They come stacked and straight. Not all perfect but most not bad.
Then the first ass-hole pouring a driveway comes along and has to go through about 150 of them looking for the best 6.
The 144 he tosses aside into a pile of spaghetti, left to warp.
I've only got so much time in a day to go behind them and re-stack everything for their minimal purchase. They were eventually told to not come back.

Keep your lumber stacked properly and in the shade and it will stay straight for years.

I don't understand. Once it comes off the pile it will warp? So I buy straight boards but end up with warped boards later?

Yes, depending on how you store them. Lay them flat in your garage, out of the sun, you are fine. Throw them willy nilly in the back of your pick-up where they are all criss-crossed like a pile of toothpicks, they will bend and twist. And even faster in the sun.

I just saw a clip last night with dimensional lumber that’s pieced together to make perfect straight boards. They used finger joints and each piece wasn’t more than a foot long…

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
I worked in a lumber yard. They come stacked and straight. Not all perfect but most not bad.
Then the first ass-hole pouring a driveway comes along and has to go through about 150 of them looking for the best 6.
The 144 he tosses aside into a pile of spaghetti, left to warp.
I've only got so much time in a day to go behind them and re-stack everything for their minimal purchase. They were eventually told to not come back.

Keep your lumber stacked properly and in the shade and it will stay straight for years.

I don't understand. Once it comes off the pile it will warp? So I buy straight boards but end up with warped boards later?

Yes, depending on how you store them. Lay them flat in your garage, out of the sun, you are fine. Throw them willy nilly in the back of your pick-up where they are all criss-crossed like a pile of toothpicks, they will bend and twist. And even faster in the sun.

Only if they started out as shit.

My house was built in 1936. The outside is triple brick, the inside framing lumber is gorgeous!
When ever I did a remodeling project I saved almost every salvageable 2x4 I had, its all straight, with no knots, I doubt I will ever see lumber like that again anywhere. Its also larger in dimension than the "new" lumber.

I can't imagine what a carpenter from the 1930's would have to say about our lumber now.

My Dad was a small building contractor. When times were slow he would do remodels. I distinctly remember taking the plaster off an interior wall of an old house and seeing honest 2x4 redwood probably 50 years old (so from the early 20th century. It was straight and knotless. I love old redwood.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
I am one person that will pray premium for a better product. I hate spending hours at the box stores sorting through all the bad lumber.

Same here. I have a real lumber yard near my home. They don't allow you through the gates and I don't think they let you sort through their lumber.
I'm about to replace my decking, need dozens of 16 foot boards. Delivered to my driveway for seventy dollars, well worth it to me,
and if I have problems with any boards they replace them free. Labor cost is lunch for my son.
What's the saying? Buy once cry once.

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
I worked in a lumber yard. They come stacked and straight. Not all perfect but most not bad.
Then the first ass-hole pouring a driveway comes along and has to go through about 150 of them looking for the best 6.
The 144 he tosses aside into a pile of spaghetti, left to warp.
I've only got so much time in a day to go behind them and re-stack everything for their minimal purchase. They were eventually told to not come back.

Keep your lumber stacked properly and in the shade and it will stay straight for years.

That statement is 100% correct. Our family business was a lumber yard. Once a load came in my father was adamant (nice way to put it) get the stuff off the truck and stacked properly. That required putting lath down every five rows and two feet apart. A major pain in the ass but our dimensioned lumber stayed strait. We also "tidied" up all bins twice a day due to customers never picking the sticks on the top row. I laugh my ass off when I go to Home Depot and see really sloppy stacks. I would have been in the middle of a major shit storm if I let a bad stack slide and dad saw it.

I worked in a lumber yard several decades ago. 80's and 90's.

What I saw back then was more and more young trees being harvested. The result of that was the heart of the tree being left in the lumber.

When ever possible you want to get FOHC wood. Free of heart center. The heart of the tree will corkscrew on you like crazy.

We were a full service lumber yard so customers for the most part were not allowed to cull through the units and destroy them.

I ate a lot of saw dust working in the mill back then...

HD now has a couple of grades of framing lumber.

The "burril" marked, I am guessing, is the manufacturer, and it is much straighter and has less defects than the regular stock.

It's just a few pennies more per piece.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I'm about to replace my decking, need dozens of 16 foot boards.
...

What's the saying? Buy once cry once.

Then why are you buying lumber?

Go with Trex and don't look back.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I'm about to replace my decking, need dozens of 16 foot boards.
...

What's the saying? Buy once cry once.

Then why are you buying lumber?

Go with Trex and don't look back.

Half of the deck that's in the shade is still good. I won't live long enough to see the benefits of Trex.
Besides.. I like wood, especially in the morning if possible.

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
My house was built in 1936. The outside is triple brick, the inside framing lumber is gorgeous!
When ever I did a remodeling project I saved almost every salvageable 2x4 I had, its all straight, with no knots, I doubt I will ever see lumber like that again anywhere. Its also larger in dimension than the "new" lumber.

I can't imagine what a carpenter from the 1930's would have to say about our lumber now.

My house, brick Colonial, was built in 1951 and the wood also is amazing. The 2x4's are actually 2 inches by 4 inches and HARD dense wood. EVERYTHING is overengineered. I think it was built just before the era of cheaply produced tract housing with crap materials.

The guy from the 1930's would shake his head and probably mumble something about balsa wood.