Internet lumber

[Tom Hoffman]

I've never ordered lumber on the Internet before, but thinking about it. I need about 100bf (a good round number) of either ash, red oak, or poplar. I'm looking for cheap - willing to do all the edging, surfacing and planing myself.

I'm wondering what other's experiences are with Internet lumber buying?

Anyone know of a good Internet lumber dealer?

Tom Hoffman
Folsom, California

[Charlie Plesums]

Steve Wall of Wall Lumber has been selling in magazines and on-line www.walllumber.com (http://www.walllumber.com) for many years, and I have never heard of a dissatisfied customer. Steve personally called me back minutes after I emailed a question.

I have bought from him, but need to wait for a sale to counteract the shipping charges. If you can pick it up at the trucking terminal in your town, you will save a bunch.

[Brad Hammond]

i've had many dealings with www.westpennhardwoods.com over the last couple of years. building my house, cabinets and trim. i ordered a whole bunch of qs red oak for my cabinets and if i remember correctly the shipping weight was around 1400lbs..... they shipped it free! granted, i picked it up at the freight terminal, but to me, that's adventagous due to the fact that most terminals will load it for you with a forklift. everytime i call they're always very helpful and bend over backwards to get my order right. just recently ordered some red oak for a vanity for my wife and once again, they were a pleasure to deal with.

cya!
brad

[Tim Sproul]

I've never ordered sizable quantities over the internet - just turning quantities.

My reason? I want to be able to swear up and down at someone if they send me junk....someone who knows I just have to drive a bit to go and return any crap they send me.

I also wonder about the lumber - ash and oak are similar but poplar? Typically, poplar would be poor substitute for ash or oak but ash and oak can be interchanged other than for aesthetics.

You should be able to get those woods in plain sawn 4/4 rough format for $4/bf or less locally. Factor in shipping from far away and you probably won't come out very far ahead.....retailers only have so much room when you're looking at a $400 purchase.

[Stan Welborn]

Steve Wall of Wall Lumber has been selling in magazines and on-line www.walllumber.com (http://www.walllumber.com) for many years, and I have never heard of a dissatisfied customer. Steve personally called me back minutes after I emailed a question.

I have bought from him, but need to wait for a sale to counteract the shipping charges. If you can pick it up at the trucking terminal in your town, you will save a bunch.


Steve's good people. I usually buy all my lumber from them. I feel fortunate to live within pick up distance, but wouldn't hesitate to have them ship if I didn't. They have a nice selection of products and I've never been disapointed with the service they give.

[Jim Podsedly]

Tom,

I have used Internet Lumber http://internetlumber.com/ for most of my lumber needs. I have bought 100 BF at a time from them. They have superpaks at a reasonable rate and the quatlity and service is good.

Jim

[David Weaver]

I have also purchased from them - about 100 board feet of instrument grade curly maple for a couple of blanket chests. I would recommend going there if you're anywhere close. It's 3.5 hours for me to get there, but they have an enormous stock, and they're super pleasant to deal with.

[Michael McCoy]

You might want to check the vendor area at the bottom of the forums. Mike Morgan was (is?) working on a method to get lumber to the left coast. I've bought from him several times and always received excellent quality lumber besides the fact he is a pleasure to do business with. He has shipped me some extra nice stock when he runs across it and recently dropped off 500 BF to my garage door.

[Brent Dowell]

I've bought from both Internet Lumber and Steve Wall. I've been very satisfied with both vendors. Lumber has always measured out boardfoot wise and been of nice quality.

[Bill Ragland]

I've never ordered lumber on the Internet before, but thinking about it. I need about 100bf (a good round number) of either ash, red oak, or poplar. I'm looking for cheap - willing to do all the edging, surfacing and planing myself.

I'm wondering what other's experiences are with Internet lumber buying?

Anyone know of a good Internet lumber dealer?

Tom Hoffman
Folsom, California

Here is a source that I have used:http://www.woodworkerssource.net/Merchant3/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=cp-sm&Category_Code=Mahogany_Santos&Product_Count=3

My last purchase was 400 bd ft of Goncalo Alves. They are in Arizona so it will save some shipping costs as compared to Internet Lumber. I have also used Internet Lumber and was happy with both of these suppliers.

Bill Ragland
Winchester, Ca

[Steve Duxbury]

I recently bought a some finger jointed poplar 1Xs and moldings from Baird Brothers and was extremely happy with the product and prices.

www.bairdbros.com (http://www.bairdbros.com)

Steve

[Greg Cole]

Had good experiences with Internet Lumber, Talarico Hardwoods and Hearne. Also had a couple decent purchases from the big auction site on some rather unique stuff.
Wouldn't hesitate to buy from either of them again. I just hate the shipping charges but ya gave to do what ya have to do for certain things being smack dab in the middle of the country.

Greg

[Doug Mason]

I've nnever looked into this--but what am I missing? For 110 bd ft, wouldn't the shipping charge be outrageous?

[mike roe]

I purchased cherry and purpleheart from them before. Just today i went to order and the shipping was outrageous - $150.00! so i changed the items in my cart just to see what would happen. Shipping was again astronomical. I checked into my last order - I paid 12 bucks for shipping... I dont get it.

[Robert Strasser]

I purchased 150 bd ft of red oak and 50 bd ft of soft maple, top grade of each, from Wall Lumber. The good boards were good, but the not-so-good boards were terrible. One 1 x 10, 10 foot long was only good for fire wood. Unfortunately, I could not tell that before cleaning up the boards. Several of the boards had knots that were visible on both sides. I probably got around 70 percent usable wood out of that batch. I've only purchased once from Wall Lumber, so maybe it was just a bad batch of wood. I live about 100 miles from the place and drove down to pick it up.

I purchased lumber from Niagara Lumber with good results. The only possible negative is the size of wood. To get the wood sized for UPS, the wood comes in 70 pound bundles and is at most 8 foot long. Some pieces can be only 4 inches wide and 6 foot long. But it was all good wood.

[Bill Keehn]

Did you check out the prices at your local woodcraft store? If you talk to them about what you want they will probably order some for you without obligating you to buy it. Their prices are fairly competitive on their rough and S2S lumber from what I've seen. Especially when you take into account the shipping charges.

[Charlie Plesums]

... I need about 100bf (a good round number) of either ash, red oak, or poplar. I'm looking for cheap - willing to do all the edging, surfacing and planing myself....
Although Ash and Oak are similar, poplar is a lot different. Therefore if you are just looking for something that can be painted, check your local lumber yard for "paint grade hardwood." Sometimes I get pretty nice maple that has a lot of dark heartwood (not desirable in maple) but structurally sound, for around $1.50 in 100 bf lots.

[Grant Lasson]

Tom,

Shipping is usually a real problem for the western U.S. For my last large purchase, I located a distributor who was willing to sell retail. They allowed me to pick the boards I wanted--up to a limit. It wasn't as welcoming as MacBeath's but the prices were so much lower (50% less for the most part). In addition, if you're willing to buy a full unit (~1K bd ft), the prices get even better. Woodcraft is even more expensive than other specialty retailers in my experience.

I think the distributor was "Sierra Forest Products" or something along those lines. For run of the mill domestic hardwoods, I don't think you'll do better.

[Tom Hoffman]

Many thanks for everyone's comments and advice. I've learned a lot the last week. For a person living in California, buying FAS or #1 domestic hardwoods (ash, cherry, oak, etc.) "mail order" just doesn't pencil out. The prices I saw on websites seemed too good to be true; after I got quotes for shipping, in nearly every case, for quantities as small as 100 bf, the shipping was as much or more than the boards. In some cases, I'd have to buy nearly 500 bf just to equal what I buy it for at the local dealer.

Yesterday I drove about 1 hour to a guy with a small sawmill and purchased rough sawn 4/4 Incense Cedar for 60 cents per foot! I normally don't build projects out of softwood, but for this project and the price, the client was very pleased. You guys that live back east don't know how lucky you are. But then again, if you wanted Incense Cedar you'd probably pay more than 60 cents.

Incense cedar is used to make pencils and is native to California. The picture shows some of the boards in the planing process.

[Jason Beam]

Being your neighbor, I'd be very interested to know where you found this supplier. I know Warren Wise in stockton and there's a couple mills up in Auburn I think. Care to divulge your sources? :)

[Tom Hoffman]

Jason: I got the boards from Smith Timber just outside of West Point, CA in Calaveras County. See http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSSDGsawyers.html and scroll down to California and Smith Timber. He has both pine and cedar at this price, but not a whole lot left.

[Jason Beam]

Thanks Tom! I'll check 'em out.

[Bill Leonard]

I recently purchased 800bf of curly maple and 100bf of ash from Kerber Farm and Mill in Vermont. Dealt with Clint Kerber and could not be happier. He shipped the wood directly to my building site in South Carolina. Cost plus shipping was about half of what clear maple would be locally. I found Kerber on Woodnet.