West Penn Hardwoods Order: Initial Impressions

[Dave Avery]

Hello all,

Just picked up 200 bf of mixed hardwoods ordered from West Penn Hardwoods. Here are my impressions of the buying experience......

Ordered the day after Christamas and was told it would ship on December 30th. The order actually shipped on January 6 and arrived at the freight terminal yesterday, just over a week late. I called and they admitted to being over-run with orders, thus the delay.

The packing of the order was excellent - palletized, banded, shrink wrapped, etc. The freight company they used is frist rate - helped me in 5 degree temperatures and were actually NICE (a rarity, it seems, for freight people in the area).

The wood itself was as promised..... 100bf of cherry was supposed to be 5-7' lengths and 80-90% heartwood. I measured just over 100bf and estimate well over 90% heartwood. There is some cupping on a few boards, mainly the narrow ones, but at less than $5/bf including freight, it's a real bargain by Connecticut standards.

50f curly ambrosia maple looks very nice (prior to planing). Light on the ambrosia, light to moderate curl. 8-10 foot lengths and 8-10" widths for $3.35/bf including freight is another screaming bargain.

Finally, I got 50bf of mahogany "shorts", advertised to be 3-4' lengths. The lengths are predominately 3', but for $2.90/bf delivered, they'll make some very nice drawer boxes.

All in all, I'm a pretty pleased and would recommend West Penn for mail-order buying. Dave.

[David Durgy]

Dave, a couple of questions.
Which carrier did they use? I would want to look up if they have a depot in Southern CT.
Was there an advantage, price or otherwise in picking it up instead of being delivered? Yesterday I took the afternoon off from work for a "between 1-6 PM" delivery. Sure enough it showed at 5:30 but considering I would have gotten out of work at 5 and live 5 minutes away I blew a 1/2 day of comp time.

[Bob Marino]

All in all, I'm a pretty pleased and would recommend West Penn for mail-order buying. Dave. That would about sum up my feelings also. Very good quality wood at good prices and I would definitely buy again.

Bob

[Jim Becker]

Was there an advantage, price or otherwise in picking it up instead of being delivered?

Many freight companies either charge extra for delivery to a residential address or will not do it at all. And then there is the unloading...you need to be able to do it quick and most of us don't own a fork lift. Picking up at the terminal means you can break the pallets down and load them in your truck as sticks which are easy to unload at home.

One other thing you can do is arrange with a local towing company to accept the delivery from the freight company right onto their tilt bed truck and then the can be winched down onto your driveway...this is easiest if there is only one pallet involved, however.

[John Shuk]

They sound great. Has anyone ever bought from Lumber Liquidators? I bought the Ipe for my porch from them and was real happy with the whole deal including price. I was wondering about the HARDWOOD or woodworkers packs they sell. It seem to be a mmix of stuff with no picking or choosing but I wonder if they work out to have much nice stuff for small projects.

[Dave Avery]

David,

They used Conway Central - I had never heard of them prior - located in lovely (not) Bozrah, CT. Not sure where in Southern, CT you are, but it's right off route 2 about 2 miles from where it intersects with I395. Unless you're in New Haven or Fairfield Counties, it can't be any more than 45 minutes from you. As far as home delivery, it's $30. But, like you mentioned, you have to be there. In my case and as Jim alluded to, we have marginal 18 wheel access, plus the entrance to my shop (read basement) is on the other side of the house from the driveway. So I would have had to schlep everything by hand around the other side of the house anyway. Or load it in something and drive it around. All-in-all, picking it up was much easier.

[David Durgy]

Thanks Dave.
I'm in Stratford. I looked them up and they are also in Bridgeport (Bozrah's lookin' good now ain't it.) which is 10 minutes from work.

[Terry Stapleton]

I went there over Christmas. I spent nearly 3 hours just looking and drooling. They have some of the most beautiful figured woods I have ever seen. I got a good deal on 100 bd ft of curly maple, some european beech, and some purpleheart.

I can understand how they could get behind on orders. They were friendly and helpful to all of us who were there. That has to cut down on their time to pick and package orders.