Dave Avery
05-13-2003, 1:46 PM
All,
I know this is heresy, but with a major house addition going on, three children, a self-proclaimed high maintenance LOML, and a demanding job, I don't have a great deal of extra time. I also don't own a truck (though the mini van is a close second).
Anyway, I ordered 40bf 4/4 cherry, 40 bf 5/4 cherry, and 20 bf soft curly maple on-line from Niagara Lumber. I was also lazy and had them surface one edge. The lumber was delivered in 3 packages (UPS) and arrived in my garage less than a week after the order. The cherry packages were quite heavy - over 100 lbs each. I'm getting a little old to be hulking around 100 lb packages, but it's a relative short walk to the basement.
Niagara's specs say boards average 6 inches wide (smallest 4") and are 6-8' long. All the cherry met spec's. The maple was in 4' lengths. After a polite E-mail exchange (answered by Niagara's President), we agreed that the 4' lengths were less than fully useful to me and Niagara agreed to credit me $1 bf.
As far as quality is concerned, it was as advertised - a combination of the top 3 lumber grades. Some of the cherry was flawless with no sapwood, some had sapwood, some had sapwood, small tight knots, and wane. Color was fairly uniform. About 15 bf was figured cherry. The curly maple had moderate figure and will make very nice drawer boxes.
All said, I think I got what I bargained for and I'd recommend Niagara to those with time constraints. The delivered price, by the way, was over $1bf less than local lumber dealer, who lost my business by grossly mistallying the number of bf on a prior purchase. Dave.
I know this is heresy, but with a major house addition going on, three children, a self-proclaimed high maintenance LOML, and a demanding job, I don't have a great deal of extra time. I also don't own a truck (though the mini van is a close second).
Anyway, I ordered 40bf 4/4 cherry, 40 bf 5/4 cherry, and 20 bf soft curly maple on-line from Niagara Lumber. I was also lazy and had them surface one edge. The lumber was delivered in 3 packages (UPS) and arrived in my garage less than a week after the order. The cherry packages were quite heavy - over 100 lbs each. I'm getting a little old to be hulking around 100 lb packages, but it's a relative short walk to the basement.
Niagara's specs say boards average 6 inches wide (smallest 4") and are 6-8' long. All the cherry met spec's. The maple was in 4' lengths. After a polite E-mail exchange (answered by Niagara's President), we agreed that the 4' lengths were less than fully useful to me and Niagara agreed to credit me $1 bf.
As far as quality is concerned, it was as advertised - a combination of the top 3 lumber grades. Some of the cherry was flawless with no sapwood, some had sapwood, some had sapwood, small tight knots, and wane. Color was fairly uniform. About 15 bf was figured cherry. The curly maple had moderate figure and will make very nice drawer boxes.
All said, I think I got what I bargained for and I'd recommend Niagara to those with time constraints. The delivered price, by the way, was over $1bf less than local lumber dealer, who lost my business by grossly mistallying the number of bf on a prior purchase. Dave.