Lumber Rant...

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ramcharger

ramcharger

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Went to the lumber yard last weekend to get supplies to build benches in the garage and once again, 2x4's are getting smaller and smaller and 3/4" plywood is getting thinner and thinner. At least the length is correct...for now. I wouldn't be suprised if 10' 2x4's start measuring in at 9'11" in the near future. :wack:
 
Also the bags at the stores are getting thinner, napkins are getting thinner. It is a cost reduction so they don't use as much material, and they think that we won't notice...

Listen a-holes in charge, I have calipers and micrometers and can prove it is getting smaller.


It is so disappointing when your wood gets smaller....
 
krazykuda said:
.....Listen a-holes in charge, I have calipers and micrometers and can prove it is getting smaller.
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X2 brother! I drew up my plans based on some 2x4's and plywood I bought about 4 years ago and had to recalculate everything. :protest: Maybe a 1/32" here or there doesn't bother most people, but it annoys the hell out of me.
 
Hear that! A year ago I was buying Jr Whoppers of the $1 menu, now their $1.99. Naaa...........there's no inflation. My ***!
 
MVRCorp said:
Hear that! A year ago I was buying Jr Whoppers of the $1 menu, now their $1.99. Naaa...........there's no inflation. My ***!
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I remember when a 100 bucks used to buy three carts of groceries, now it won't even fill one. :wack:
 
Not long ago I searched thru bunk after bunk for enough car siding to do a small twenty by five porch ceiling. SCALE OF 1 TO 10..quality rates a high zero. At least the thinner ply is easier to throw up on the roof.
 
ramcharger said:
Went to the lumber yard last weekend to get supplies to build benches in the garage and once again, 2x4's are getting smaller and smaller and 3/4" plywood is getting thinner and thinner. At least the length is correct...for now. I wouldn't be suprised if 10' 2x4's start measuring in at 9'11" in the near future. :wack:
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I cussed like a sailor when I redid my old house that had true 2x4 lumber. I had to add a piece to each stud to get 4 inches. If I had realized the difference I would have bought 2x6s and cut them back to a true 4 inch board.
 
ya I bought a what thought was a 1/2gal of ice cream and guess what its only 1.5 quart now the wife beleves me wen I tell her im not eating more of it.lol...............Artie
 
Lumber has been standardized for quite some time now, and has a domino effect when it is not used in accordance with the standard.

For instance, a door jamb is 4 5/8" to accomodate a 2x4's 3 1/2" depth. Then you add 7/16" sheathing on the outside and 1/2" drywall on the inside and voila, 4 5/8"!! But where did the 3/16" extra go??? Have you ever looked down the beam of most 2x4"'s?? You need that 3/16" fluff factor to get a blend!!

Thats just the way it is nowdays. Everything has been engineered and the quantity of material minimized to keep costs down and strength at sufficient levels. If you do it every day, it'll boggle your mind trying to remember all of the thicknesses and tolerances of all the different products available, and more being re-engineered every day. Thats why my mind is so cluttered, well, that and all the 70's sitcom trivia I have to remember to wow the minds of the unsuspecting!!!

"The suit never did fit quite right in the shoulders"!! Geof
 
Has anybody seen the new $5.00 dollar bills?? Just got one today!!!.....
 

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I got into a HUGE pissin match at Lowes awhile back, mostly because two of their guys damn near acted as if "I" was the problem, and ran me around

Was going to buy some shelves, HERE IS PART OF THE INSULT

We have a COMPUTER age, right??? Why don't "we" make use of it? Some lumber has stapled on bar graph tags, so you can remove one tag, count your pieces, and simply hand your bar tag to the checkout person. GREAT, I'm OK with that

BUT SOME products has GLUED on tags so you must take a notebook and write down the info off the sign on the rack. WASTE OF TIME

I decided to get 5/8 chip board for more strength, but THEY HAVE GONE to 19/32. So I write down all the BS on the sign, BUT THE CHECKOUT woman "doesn't compute" So she has to get this PRINTED cheat sheet out, IN PLASTIC, with INK notes written OVER the plastic. The plastic an "slip around" so you don't really know what the scribbled notes and arrows are pointing to.

So I wasn't really aware that there was a problem, turns out she charged me for 7/16, rather than the thicker material.

So I get out to the exit

The guy there JUST HAPPENS to have a few pallets of OVERSTOCK of 19/32, takes my receipt, frowns, walks over to the overstock, comes back and says "YOU didn't PAY for 5/8, YOU paid for 7/16.

I said "I didn't BUY 5/8, I bought 19/32, and the girl charged me seemed to know what she was doing.

"YOU," said he, "YOU are going to have to go back and pay for WHAT YOU BOUGHT.

GOAUD I was freeking PISSED. There were 4 people, phone calls, 15 minutes of time wasted while everybody argued what to do, and I AM SURE I ended up paying for 5/8 in the end.

At one point I told this woman, "If you guys can't figure this out, I'm gonna unload the whole mess out there on the floor and leave."

Now 1/32 doesn't sound like a big deal, eh? But I bought 12 sheets, so it DOES add up.

I still have the receipts. If I ever cool off, I'm gonna leave my Ruger at home and go down there and yell at some people. What REALLY pisses me off, is Lowes is the ONLY really handy place to buy lumber in town. One outfit, along with Ziggys, has much of there lumber in the weather, so it's ALWAYS wet and warped.
 
cosgig said:
Has anybody seen the new $5.00 dollar bills?? Just got one today!!!.....
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If you take a bunch of those and fold them into a wreath, you will have...

A wreath of Franklins.... Get it?

A wreath of Franklins... Aretha Franklin...

Anybody?? Tough crowd...
 
ramcharger said:
Went to the lumber yard last weekend to get supplies to build benches in the garage and once again, 2x4's are getting smaller and smaller and 3/4" plywood is getting thinner and thinner. At least the length is correct...for now. I wouldn't be suprised if 10' 2x4's start measuring in at 9'11" in the near future. :wack:
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I went to the local lumber yard last year when I was building a small building, I only needed a few studs to finish the walls. I picked through a pile of about 300 studs before I found one that wasen't twisted all to crap, these were suppost to be grade one studs and suppost to be good.

pretty bad a 2x4 is still called 2x4 but its not by anymeans at most is a 1-1/2x3-1/2 and then they say its planed so its stronger?:wack: strong is lumber that is rough cut


on another topic my neighbour built a barn all proper with all the proper permits and everything was done properly, he wanted to use rough cut lumber from a semi local mill for looks and so it was stronger, in order to do that he had to get the mill sign a special permit to say it was safe:banghead:
 
66plyValiant said:
I picked through a pile of about 300 studs before I found one that wasen't twisted all to crap, these were suppost to be grade one studs and suppost to be good.
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Unfortunately, the majority of the readers in this thread are from the U.S. so they have no idea of what you speak lol.. I'll explain it to them for you.

Here in Canada we ship all of our best wood to the US to be sold in stores. The crap that is left over, we keep. The best part is we pay more for the crap, then you do for the good stuff.

I remember standing at the bin here with an American friend who was up for the weekend. I started the inspection of each piece, the one eye scan for warps, followed by the 90 degree rotation and recheck for twists. Maybe even a concrete floor bouce test to see how much bow my wall will have. After a couple of minutes of culling, with about a 25% retention rate, he looks at me and asks "what are you checking?".

haha..

Grant
 
If you buy your lumber at an indoor warehouse such as Lowes or Home Depot, your chances of finding straight lumber are much less than an outdoor lumber yard. Why?? Cause they heat the place and the heat dries out the lumber causing it to warp, where the outdoor storage of lumber helps it retain some level of moisture. You need that level of moisture to give you time while the material is still relatively straight to get it installed and get it covered so it can have some lateral support while it dries out. Having drywall or sheathing attached to it will greatly decrease the tendency for lumber to twist and warp compared to to uncontrolled drying and warping effect of sitting in a scattered pile in the heat while waiting to be used.

Same goes for lumber used outdoors in the summer. How many times have I framed a deck in the hot summer sun with lumber that has a level of moisture only to come back to deck it the next day and find it dried by the hot sun and twisted. Thats why we never frame a deck on firday and leave it for the weekend, it may be undeckable by monday!!! Ahh, the wonders of kiln drying wood un-naturally to get it to market faster!!! Geof
 
OneOfMany said:
Here in Canada we ship all of our best wood to the US to be sold in stores. The crap that is left over, we keep. The best part is we pay more for the crap, then you do for the good stuff.



Grant
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I was buying 2X4's at the store. Big old stack of them. I walked down to the end and sure enough not one of them suckers was free of heart. :banghead:
 
Bought two 12' 4x4s at Home Depot last Sunday along with some 2x4s. My plans require four 4x4s, so I had them cut the 12 footers in half.

Knucklehead at the register tried to charge me for four 12' 4x4s. Just scanned the tag and didn't have the common sense to realize that the four pieces weren't 12' long.
 
cosgig said:
If you buy your lumber at an indoor warehouse... chances of finding straight lumber are much less than an outdoor lumber yard..... Cause they heat the place and the heat dries out the lumber causing it to warp, where the outdoor storage of lumber helps it retain some level of moisture.
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This certainly has not been my experience. Maybe the two joints that leave their stuff out just started out with crap in the first place, don' know.
 
first off 2x4s haven't been 2x4 in 50 years and if you buy "studs" you get "stud" length which is shorter than standard 2 ft increments because it is sized to account for the top and bottom plate , some of you guys need to just call a carpenter and get it done right I don't do brain surgery or build motors cause I'm a carpenter not a mechanic or a brain surgeon , man you guys crack me up bitchin about crap that realy hasn't changed in our lifetime , you just didn't know they sell 2x4s both as dimension lumber and in "stud" lengths and yes there are different "stud" lengths available for different ceiling heights , the only thing that has changed is grading gas gone to crap but that's because they don't log as much truely mature lumber anymore most trees don't get to the old growth size they are 2nd growth cut now.And lowes and Homo depot are the walmarts of the building industry so shame on you for killing the local guy
 
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