Lumber prices

[Thomas Marr]

I went to a local and lumber yard and I was impressed with the prices. However, I fully admit I'm a bit out of date as I haven't bought much in a while. Most of the lumber was not graded, but was just priced by size. How does this compare with your area?

Ash 8/4: $3.00
Cherry 8/4: $5.30
Walnut 8/4: $6.10
Poplar 8/4: $2.40
Hard Maple 8/4: $3.90

[Paul A. Clark]

We are about a $1 more BF here in Austin TX.

[Blaine Anders]

I just bought 8/4 red oak for 5.95 in Alaska

[Ryan Baker]

Those prices are waaayyy cheap compared to anything around here.

[Jim Becker]

Honestly, those prices sound very economical compared to many areas for 8/4 lumber, but without knowing the quality of the material relative to grain/figure, color, width, etc., it's hard to say if they are actually fair prices.

[Dave Aronson]

We are about a $1 more BF here in Austin TX.


I'm in Austin too. Where do you get your lumber? Austin Fine Lumber is more expensive .

[Paul A. Clark]

Checked last week, Fine had hard maple @ $4.96 BF. About to start bench build

[Curt Harms]

Holy Cow! A local saw mill had nice looking air dried Ash for $1.25, air dried flat sawn red & white oak for $1.75, kiln dried hard maple for $3.00. All 4/4.

[Jim Becker]

Curt, Heacock up the road from you with those prices?

[Curt Harms]

Curt, Heacock up the road from you with those prices?

Yup. They sold out of the ash pretty quick though. Imagine that :). Do bear in mind these are all log run. It didn't sound like they'd have more ash or poplar reasonably dry until spring.

[Danny Hamsley]

I cut hardwood, air dry, and sell to woodworkers. I figure the 8/4 price at 1.5 times the 4/4 price. Takes a bigger and better log to make 8/4 since low grade in thick lumber is not desirable. Also, much heavier to handle, takes twice as long to dry, and is much harder to dry without defect, so the actual yield can be a lot lower. Those prices are right in line in my opinion.

[Jim Matthews]

Lumber yards can afford to charge higher prices for stock that they know will turn over quickly.

Sawmills operate on throughput. It maybe worthwhile to plug your ZipCode into the Woodfinder app:
http://www.woodfinder.com/

My favorite source is tree services. A few will take their "nicest" trees to the kiln.
Real bargains can be found, there.

[Steve Wurster]

Yup. They sold out of the ash pretty quick though. Imagine that :). Do bear in mind these are all log run. It didn't sound like they'd have more ash or poplar reasonably dry until spring.

Does Heacock sell kiln dried, or only air dried? I've been going up to Wehrung's Specialty Woods to get lumber. Prices seem okay, but I think all of the stuff there is kiln dried. I don't have a moisture meter...

[Dustin Brown]

I went to a local and lumber yard and I was impressed with the prices. However, I fully admit I'm a bit out of date as I haven't bought much in a while. Most of the lumber was not graded, but was just priced by size. How does this compare with your area?

Ash 8/4: $3.00
Cherry 8/4: $5.30
Walnut 8/4: $6.10
Poplar 8/4: $2.40
Hard Maple 8/4: $3.90

Ash 8/4: $2.51
Cherry 8/4: $???
Walnut 8/4: $4.60
Poplar 8/4: $1.65
Hard Maple 8/4: $3.35

[Dell Littlefield]

Dustin, where in Houston? I will be visiting there next week and just may grab some of that.

[Dustin Brown]

Dustin, where in Houston? I will be visiting there next week and just may grab some of that.

Brazos Forest Products

[George Gyulatyan]

Are these rough sawn or S2S?

The prices are comparable to what I pay for rough sawn around here... Add around $2 or so for S2S lumber, but I prefer rough sawn anyway.

[Brian Brightwell]

I had better than 4000 feet of oak,cherry,poplar and walnut sawed out on a portable band mill for 22 cents a foot. This was blown down timber from hurricane Ike and an ice storm.
I have another stack of logs that needed harvesting ready to be sawed. I guess about 2.5 to 3 thousand feet. Its white oak and walnut mostly. At three to five dollars a foot I might have to find a different hobby.
There is a burr oak that is dying in the bend of the river. Its 10' 6" in circumference and at least 140' tall. I think burr oak is about like red oak? I think it would be worth sawing.
I have a new ported 576At and a 30inch bar that I really enjoy running. I should cut it before the limbs die in the top.
I think the price at a saw mill on poplar is down to about 40 to 60 cents a foot. I will ask the loggers at breakfast tomorrow about the price they are getting.

[Curt Harms]

Does Heacock sell kiln dried, or only air dried? I've been going up to Wehrung's Specialty Woods to get lumber. Prices seem okay, but I think all of the stuff there is kiln dried. I don't have a moisture meter...

Everything except the maple is air dried, and as I said log run so there's going to be waste. It's also not planed at all. Their building is heated to perhaps 50 degrees during the winter which helps with the moisture somewhat. I bought a moisture meter some years ago. There's another place in New Britain called Ambrose Randa which has rough K.D. wood. He can plane lumber if you want. I haven't been there in quite a while.

[Steve Wurster]

Everything except the maple is air dried, and as I said log run so there's going to be waste. It's also not planed at all. Their building is heated to perhaps 50 degrees during the winter which helps with the moisture somewhat. I bought a moisture meter some years ago. There's another place in New Britain called Ambrose Randa which has rough K.D. wood. He can plane lumber if you want. I haven't been there in quite a while.

I think a coworker of mine picked up some QSWO from Ambrose Randa a few years back. Easy for him since he literally lives right down the street. Never been there myself; might have to stop by sometime. Same for Heacock: never been there either.

[Jim Becker]

Steve, in addition to Randa in Chalfont, Heacock north of Plumsteadville, and Willard Brothers that you are familiar with, there's a dude near Oxford Valley Mall (I forget his name now), Wherung's Specialty Woods in Ottsville and another smaller operation great for slabs on Old Lincoln Highway just below Danboro. There are probably other local places I haven't discovered. For a long time, I bought outstanding air-dried cherry from a man in Lambertville, but he passed away a few years ago and his inventory was sold to Willard. (where they promptly doubled the price) These days when I buy lumber (I work a lot with poplar and walnut off my own property) I tend to buy either from Hearne way down in Oxford for cherry or "special" woods or pick up incidentals from Wherung's Specialty Woods. I haven't been to Willard in quite a few years after someone made me unhappy, but from the looks of their Facebook posts, I guess it's time to revisit them.

[Steve Wurster]

I've gotten almost all of my lumber from Wehrung's Specialty in Ottsville, mostly rough but some S2S, along with some plywood, mostly BB. I've never heard of Willard; certainly heard of Hearne, but never been there. Aside from Randa, my coworker has also gone to a place in Doylestown off Old Easton Road (not Doylestown Lumber). He said it's hard to find, the hours are random, and the selection does tend to vary; I haven't bothered to try to find it yet. I stopped over at Niece Lumber in Lambertville once a few years ago and the prices seemed very high, so I haven't been back.

[Danny Hamsley]

Burr oak is in the white oak group.

[Brian Brightwell]

Logger said today that a good butt log of poplar is 40 cents a foot but second log goes around 20.
Red oak butt around 60 cents. Some mark up by the time a woodworker gets it.

I know burr oak does not prune itself well like white oak. So it will probably have more knots. But my still be nice like knotty pine?

[Jim German]

If you're looking to compare lumber prices Hearne Hardwoods has their prices online:
http://hearnehardwoods.com/hardwoods/pricelist/pricelist.html

Jim, are most of those other places you mentioned little places that mill wood as a side buisness, or are they real lumberyards? I'm over in NJ and usually make the trek down to Hearne, but I've gone to Mr. Roberts in Barrington, NJ some too. I lvoe that place as they have the price of the board on every board, makes it very easy to figure out how much I'm spending. I've gone to Hearne a few times planning on spending $200 and getting a bill for $500.

[Jim Becker]

Steve, the place on Old Easton Road can be found by looking for the sign that's a slab of wood about two feet or so in size...on the right hand side going north toward Danville after passing the new construction homes that are on the left side going in that same direction. There are two driveways there if I recall and the one for the lumber operation is the more northern one...you go back a few hundred feet and it turns to the right toward the buildings. If I recall, they specialize in slabs. Willard Bros is just off Rt 1 north of Trenton on Basin Road. They are not as involved as Hearne, but do have a nice selection. Lately, they've been doing a lot of commercial furniture work with natural edge slabs for a restaurant up in Lambertville NJ.

I have bought sheet goods from Wehrungs Specialty Woods, but typically order from Industrial Plywood in Reading...they deliver to our area on Thursdays for $25...and I can get really nice veneers for the same or better cost. Since I office at home, it's usually not a problem to get a delivery with some pre-planning to avoid business travel. :)

[Rob Fisher]

If you go to Hearne then you must know about Groff and Groff?
http://www.groffslumber.com/

They have prices online and always have a good selection in my experience. Also they usually have 4/4 common cherry for $1.50 bf, 100 bf min.

[Jim Becker]

Rob, Groff has a good reputation and I know folks who really like them. I personally haven't visited them yet, however. I actually haven't been to any lumber dealer, including Hearne, in some time. The majority of the projects I done in the past couple of years--tack trunks--have used "inventory" for solid stock and I've only had to source the veneer sheet goods commercially. That unfortunately changes soon as I'm nearly out of walnut...all of it cut on my property back in 2000...and very low on cherry, much of which came from Simmie Agan (deceased now), Hearne and Willard.