Ordering Lumber
HOW TO ORDER LUMBER
1. DETERMINE WHAT THICKNESS IS NEEDED
o When buying hardwoods, you won’t see lumber thickness marked in inches. Instead, the convention is to use a measurement in quarters.
§ 4/4 = 1” ROUGH | § ¾” SURFACED |
§ 5/4 = 1 ¼” ROUGH | § 1” SURFACED |
§ 6/4 = 1 ½” ROUGH | § 1 ¼” SURFACED |
§ 8/4 = 2” ROUGH | § 1 ¾” SURFACED |
§ 10/4 = 2 ½” ROUGH | § 2 ¼” SURFACED |
§ 12/4 = 3” ROUGH | § 2 ¾” SURFACED |
2. NOW CALCULATE BOARD FOOT
o A board foot is the unit of volume used to measure hardwoods. Since hardwoods are sold in a variety of lengths, widths, and thicknesses, it is simpler to have a kind of measure that can account for all of those variables at once, like volume.
3. MILLING SERVICES
o It can be beneficial to order lumber already milled from our distributors. Here are commonly used terms.
§ Rough Lumber - A saw that cuts lumber from a log is very large and aggressive, so the resulting lumber is known as “rough sawn” and the surfaces of the boards are . . . yes, rough and inconsistent.
§ SL (Straight-Lined) - Rip one edge of a rough board straight
§ S2S (Surfaced 2 Sides) - Both faces lightly planed
§ S3S (Surfaced 3 Sides) - Both faces planed, Rip one edge straight
§ S4S (Surfaced 4 Sides) - Both faces planed, both edges planed parallel