Y'all Been Checkin' Lumber Prices?

[JethroB]

I remember when I was a kid, Dad decided to build a 60'x40' barn. We found some nice maple trees in the woods. We then cut and hauled them to a local sawmill for the lumber. The lumber was full 2x4's for the studs. I remember when we put up the studs and siding that you could not put a nail into that maple without drilling a hole first. The maple was about as hard as steel.

A friend bought about 1500 sq. feet of salvaged 2 inch T&G maple flooring that came from a long ago demolished roller skating rink. He had it planed to clean it up and used it in his home. Beautiful wood but he had to pre-drill for every nail.

 

[civilian]

The same reason I tell people I'm still 6' tall. I've shrunk to 5'11" over the years. So maybe they're just elderly 2x4s.

But my prior house was built in 1930 and had full 2" x 4"s and they did not shrink to today's 2 x 4 size. LOL. Jon

 

[LD1]

It's been almost 60 years now that a 2x lumber has only been a nominal dimension and not a true size. Yet we still argue about it today and people claim they are getting ripped off, or they are selling air, etc.

No. You know what you are getting.

But lumber isn't the only thing that uses nominal sizes.

1/8" schedule 40 pipe fittings aren't 1/8". They are actually over 1/4" ID.

1" pex is actually a little under 7/8". 3/4" pex is closer to 11/16

A 12v battery is just a nominal number. Cause 12v = dead battery

8x8x16 cinder block is a nominal dimension. Actual dimensions are about 3/8" less on all sides.

Lumber is just the most common one and the one people always complain about....even though it's been this way for almost 60 years.

The one that gets me is the new lvl and lsl stuff being 1-3/4" thick. Gotta do a little more planning. Not bad to do on a new construction....but on a remodel....say you wanted to remove a double 2x12 header and replace with a double lvl.....gotta do something to account for the extra 1/2" width.

 

[lman]

Don't forget 2 quarts of ice cream shrunk to 1.5 quarts.

 

[Jstpssng]

This one trumps all though... a 12 oz beer is only 11.2 oz.
(Metric converted to US)

 

[tradosaurus]

This one trumps all though... a 12 oz beer is only 11.2 oz. View attachment 738620
(Metric converted to US)

And the 16 oz pint cans of Guinness have been reduced over the years.

 

[mwemaxxowner]

Why do they call it 2x4 when it's 1.5" X 3.5"?
My old house the 2x4s measure 2" X 4".

This is the standard. It's cut to 2x4 before it gets planed and whatnot. This is why the tags we put on the lumber has to have the "actual" size below it.


To the comments about hoping they aren't selling much at these prices, so far that doesn't seem to be the case. We're busy as ever shipping to Lowe's.

 

[lman]

This is the standard. It's cut to 2x4 before it gets planed and whatnot. This is why the tags we put on the lumber has to have the "actual" size below it.


To the comments about hoping they aren't selling much at these prices, so far that doesn't seem to be the case. We're busy as ever shipping to Lowe's.

That may be changing when interest rates go up.

 

[bindian]

This is the standard. It's cut to 2x4 before it gets planed and whatnot. This is why the tags we put on the lumber has to have the "actual" size below it.


To the comments about hoping they aren't selling much at these prices, so far that doesn't seem to be the case. We're busy as ever shipping to Lowe's.

..........and my sawmill is as busy as ever at 1/2 the price.
hugs, Brandi

 

[s219]

The one that gets me is the new lvl and lsl stuff being 1-3/4" thick. Gotta do a little more planning. Not bad to do on a new construction....but on a remodel....say you wanted to remove a double 2x12 header and replace with a double lvl.....gotta do something to account for the extra 1/2" width.

That is a help on new construction, since a sistered LVL will be 3.5" wide, exactly the same width as 2x4 walls studs below. In the old days when we would sister up 2x lumber for headers, we'd have to put 1/2" plywood in the middle, so it would have been 3.5" in most cases too. But not always, some folks like to do things their own way. When I build my new house in 2012 we went with 2x6 walls and that takes it's own methods for fudging headers to fit.