Why you can not buy good lumber at the big box stores.

If you have timber on your land or can buy someone else's logs please at least consider using them. Your best friend is the local saw mill. You will end up with full size lumber, 2 in by 4 in 2 by 4 instead of the store bought 1 1/2 by 3 1/2, as they charge you for the saw cut and the planning waste. You can plane it down or if you use all "rough cut", it will match. Back to my old grand dad again. You must pile the lumber in piles to allow the weight to hold it straight, you must use "stickers" to separate the layers of lumber and let air thru, cover it with tin or canvas to keep the water off of it, and the old rule was it took a year per inch to dry wood, so it was 2 years for a 2 by 4. We always had a couple thousand board feet drying so just used the older dry stuff. It is for me a pleasure to talk to a good sawyer or some one used to using home sawed lumber.

Steps for Air Drying Lumber | Woodworkers Guild of America

The following video explains what went wrong with the US timber industry and the situation that the best of our logs are now either exported or used for fuel or pulp wood. The sad fact is that it is impossible to buy good boards any more'

 

I have been told that in most cities only graded lumber can be used in construction.

I live in the most densely forested state in the nation, we have over 92% of the state is forested. But for some reason I have yet to determine nobody is allowed to inspect / grade our local lumber. So the big box stores can only carry imported lumber [from Canada].

It feels odd to live in amongst so much forest and not be able to buy lumber for construction.

I know a few guys who sell rough cut. Though I have never bought any.

 

Twice in the recent past, I have bought wood and a lot of it was unusable, twisted, and warped. Yes, they want "approved" lumber with a stamp. I'm using steel or aluminum for my next build.

 

SC home cut lumber can be used for siding and floors but not structural which is BS. I have 3 acres of mature yellow pine(>70yrs old) wanted to get a saw mill and cut (sons house) till I found out can't use it. As I have posted before -- houses in town over 100 yrs old made with southern yellow pine still standing after Hurricane Hugo. Just more government bull shit along with the big lumber companies. Cut the trees now for fire wood waste of good timber

 

My old house has actual 2x4" good ol yellow pine rafters. Its a sturdy shack.

 

Those 100-year-old houses were most likely built using heartwood of the pine trees rather than the sap wood. My sister's house was built just after WW1 from heartwood pine, and you can't drive a nail into that stuff. The floors are heartwood pine and show almost no wear. Unfortunately, you can' find trees that big anymore.

 

We have heart pine floors re sawn from old timbers taken out of old warehouses from up north. Had a lot of leftover lumber and made a lot of furniture from it --replica southern hunt table, replica Carolina cabin cupboard, end table, House ever catches on fire all that heart pine it's going to be a hell of a fire. I go out in the Frances Marion forest and look for old heart pine stumps cut it up makes great fire starter one small piece does the trick. Heart pine comes mainly from long leaf pine trees grow on higher elevation than loblolly pines. I worked briefly for the Forest Service and they had private companies come in and harvest old stumps roots and all make turpentine out of them. There are still some heart pine trees that have what they call cat face cuts in the tree. Tree would bleed resin and it was collected this is going back many many years ago. We have many plantions that survived Shermans horrible march through the south all the sills are heart pine --rot and insect resistant. Everything you wanted to know about heart pine but were afraid to ask Ha Ha

 

It definitely don't take a year per inch to dry in new Mexico. More like 3 inchs per year.

 

All i know is when im building and tearing walls out or repairing it sucks. A new 2x4 dont fit flush

 

You gotta lay those boards on the floor of the Big Box Stores and check ALL four sides to make sure they are straight. It can take most of the day just to find a dozen good boards for a project, I'd hate to be building a house!

 

Problem you'd run into, too, with using true 2x4 lumber, is when you went to insulate the walls. Insulation is sized to the dimensions of modern lumber. So insulating with true dimension lumber, you're going to have a 1/2" gap to fill. Only solution I can think of (other than laboriously separating thin layers of fiberglass to fill in) would be to have your walls sprayed with foam.

 

Lumber today sucks you tell by the growth rings. Big box store lumber you have to dig through it. to find lumber that is straight and not riddled with knots. How some of this can be certified for structural building is amazing. Imo opinion it's a scam the lumber industry paid some one off

 

The lumberyard in Georgetown used to get grade 1 2x lumber. A 2x4-8 from Lowes at the time was $1.98 and the grade 1 at the lumberyard was $5.50. Totally different look and feel. He told me that all of the grade 1 goes overseas for even more stupid money. The grade 2 (their label) in the big box stores is more like grade 3 waste lumber usually seen in the cheap furniture industry.
My first home was built in 1912 with local real 2"x4" lumber, real 2"x8" floor joists and asbestos siding. It will be there until it burns down because it isn't going anywhere otherwise.

 

I know the lumber yard in Georgetown Dawson Lumber go there a lot. The son recently took it over and has made a lot of improvements. That's where I got my re sawn heart pine floor from in 1995. They had a saw mill which caught fire and for years wasn't operating they since have replaced it and if you have logs they will cut it. The old wood shed they replaced with a very large metal building. If I want better grade lumber that is my go to place. Just picked up some railroad ties last week only place I know still carried them

 

Part of problem is in old growth forest you will see 3 in trees that go up 20 to 30 feet before any limbs. Little sun near ground level. Cut when mature 3 feet and a hundred years or so, good heart wood, tight growth rings, and no knots in first 4 eight foot logs. Plantation wood cut at 25 years. Grows fast, big growth rings, knots on logs at ground level. 4 or 6 boards cut out of 12 in log, good chance of places where board is less than dimension because bark was there instead of wood. Growth pattern, wide rings in wood, and drying process, wood dry but have to wear gloves because of sticky sap, all but guarantee that it will warp, bow, twist, knots fall out, have wains, etc. If you want, good sawyer can cut the rough cut to 1 1/2 by 3 1/2 or you can plane them to 2 by 3 1/2 and then they will fit. Have done both ways.

 

I've got a lot of southern yellow pine-- Long leaf and loblolly pines mature trees straight as an arrow and 40-50' no limbs many at least 3' at DBH.

 

I got a lot of pines too; most are about 50+ years old. They were giving the trees for free, and my Daddy could never resist anything free. I cut most of them down with a lawn mower, THANK GOD, or there would be no grass around the house for the shade. I need to count them someday...must be a couple of hundred at least.
Several years back someone told me that if I ever wanted to cut them to let him know and he would give me a good price. I asked what he was paying, and he gave me a funny look because he expected me to pay him! I told him that was timber!

 

When choosing lumber I look at the end and avoid the core and eliminate the problem with twisting and such.
one carpenter I worked with would glance at the load on the truck and if he saw too many core boards the denied the whole load.
Dad would take the cores and lay them in the sun and either they got better or worse. the bad ones were use for making stakes for forms, which only got used once or twice and thrown away or made kindling.
On a side note, and old carpenter cabinetmaker taught me to paint the ends of hard wood I cut to prevent cracking.
Actually, I've gotten into such a habit with it I paint all the ends of wood I cut, thus taking longer to dry out.

 

There is a tree farm outside of Georgetown that touts harvest ready pine in 12 years.