buying lumber

[keith ouellette]

Has any one had any luck buying quality wood over the phone and having it delivered motor freight? I can save over $1 a board foot on 100 ft including freight by ordering hard maple from steve wall lumber (I think they are in N.C.) and having it delivered to Florida. I can save more on other woods. Jus don't know if it is a good idea.

[Brian Hale]

Steve Wall?

You'll be Very pleased with both the quality and service.

Brian :)

[Dick Latshaw]

I have ordered both 8/4 and 4/4 hard maple from Wall Lumber (as well as cherry, poplar, and BB plywood). Always good quality and good service. You'll be pleased.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Keith

Steve wall is a great company to deal with. I had ordered from them several times.

Quinn

[Mike Cutler]

No problems with Wall Lumber Keith. That's a straight up, quality run business. You won't have any problems with an order of maple.

100bd/ft is not that much. If you can get the board lengths less than 60" it can be shipped FedEx. 60" lengths are kind of limiting though. Just a thought.

[Jim McFarland]

I ordered a UPS bundle of walnut from Wall Lumber and very happy with wood quality and Wall's customer service. I will order from them again.

[Philip Florio]

After a dozen calls I finally had to contact the BBB.
Absolutely terrible customer service. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


Put it this way, if they were the only source of lumber I would give up the hobby!

Phil

[John Thompson]

I personally prefer to pick what I get local and buy local if the price is right.. and it is for me as I have used Suwanee Lumber since 1978.

But... if I were going to buy over the inter-net.. I can assure you that Steve Wall is nothing short of a class act as I have purchased from him on two occassions face to face.

Sarge..

[Jim Becker]

Steve Wall has a very good reputation.

While I'm very much like John, preferring to pick my boards, part of the the lower cost of ordering a quantity is to compensate for some of the wood likely to be "secondary wood" for your projects. Twice in the last year I bought ~100 bd ft of cherry from a supplier with the first batch completely sight-unseen. While a certain percentage of that lumber is not up to my standards for exposed surfaces, it's still good quality structurally. I'm going to be doing something interesting with it on my next cabinetry project...veneering the faces with very high quality QS/rift cherry to meet the look I want without the waste of culling that grain out of larger boards. The net material cost will be significantly lower than sourcing 100% top quality QS/rift cherry and I can also use up material that I'd otherwise be burying in a project or using as scrap.

And there is another reason for buying from a remote source in quantity...you may not be able to actually get what you want locally in any kind of usable quantity or quality...and have to pay high prices for that privilege! LOL If you have the space to store the material, it's not a bad investment. You can always sell what you can't use to another local woodworker for what you paid or more...

[tim rowledge]

Steve Wall has a very good reputation.

... and deservedly so. Years ago when I built my bench I ordered a UPS special pack of maple and asked for a couple of boards suitable for the front/rear rails (ie 10"x2"x6ft) as well. Arrived promptly, well packed, well chosen for the purpose and at a good price.

[Lee Koepke]

I personally prefer to pick what I get local and buy local if the price is right.. and it is for me as I have used Suwanee Lumber since 1978.

But... if I were going to buy over the inter-net.. I can assure you that Steve Wall is nothing short of a class act as I have purchased from him on two occassions face to face.

Sarge..
I have used Sweetwater Lumber in Austell a few times, I may drive the extra 30 min to check out Suwanee one day.

[keith ouellette]

Looks like steve wall lumber is a good pace to shop and at least one person hates Internet lumber.com which I never heard of.
Than you for the tips.

[John Thompson]

I have used Sweetwater Lumber in Austell a few times, I may drive the extra 30 min to check out Suwanee one day.

I am not familar with Sweetwater, Lee. Suwanee has been around since 1975 I believe and I started using them around 1978. Same family operates it as the day they opened. Mostly FAS as a large part of their business are cabinet shops, etc.

But.. everyone is welcome and once you start showing up regulary, they just give you a contractors price even if you're not. Just drop in the door and tell them you want to look. They will send you down the stairs to the holding bins sorted by species and size (5/4..6/4.. ahh-ya know what I mean).

You can spend the entire day down there picking and chosing. If you don't see it.. ask a floor employee if they have it. The main open ware-house.. sawing.. planing facility is down the hill from the upper retail area. Most 12/4 and thicker is down there.

BTW... If ya show up around lunch, they might offer you part of their sandwich they brought from home to work. Really nice and friendly folks. The prices are very good compared to some others around Atlanta. They have a web-site (google Suwanee Lumber Co.).

Be sure to call before you come from West Georgia over to the Suwanee area. Out I-85 N. to Suwanee exit and left across bridge after exiting. Just keep going till you reach U.S. 23 or Buford Hwy. Turn left and past Suwanee City Hall. About two or three blocks on the left. Call or check web-site to get the business hours as they close at 4:30 PM on week-days and noon on Saturday, me thinks.

Did I miss anything.... nah.. probably not! :D

Sarge..

[Andrew Nemeth]

I'm going to be doing something interesting with it on my next cabinetry project...veneering the faces with very high quality QS/rift cherry to meet the look I want without the waste of culling that grain out of larger boards.


Jim,

I have a bunch of cherry that I might be interested in doing the same thing to. Do you have a good source for your QS cherry veneer?

-Andrew

[Rob Will]

I mean no disrespect to those without a local source for lumber but you guys are making my neighbor's woodmizer look better all the time. I sure wish you had the means to buy local or cut it yourself.

I'm sitting here trying to imagine the UPS guy hauling lumber:confused::eek:. Again, I don't mean to disregard the need to ship lumber but this is really amazing.

Rob

[Jim Becker]

I have a bunch of cherry that I might be interested in doing the same thing to. Do you have a good source for your QS cherry veneer?

For panels, I've been using the paper-backed QS product from Joe Woodworker (http://www.veneersupplies.com/). For this new initiative, I was able to source un-backed QS/Rift veneer from Rosebud Veneer (http://www.rosebudveneer.com/)...in fact, it just showed up at my back door!

[Micah Carter]

After reading this thread yesterday, I decided to use part of my day off today to go check out Wall Lumber. I live about 15-20 miles from them, in Belews Creek, NC. Absolutely fantastic people. Huge selection of species in many different sizes and grades to pick through. No minimum purchase or anything like that.

I picked up a sheet of 3/4 oak plywood for $39 and a 20 bd. ft. pack of walnut for $34. Their prices for everything else I looked at were the cheapest I've seen anywhere else around here. Also, a lot of the boards they rated #1C would be marked select or better at other places. The people were extremely helpful and didn't mind spending time talking to me about what I needed even though I wasn't spending much money. I will absolutely be doing business with them in the future.