Does your HD have wood this great?

[Mike Gager]

86366


scary huh?

why would they even let the stuff through the door?

[Brad Noble]

Yep, 'tis scary. And as to why? Its because they bought it CHEAP!!! Makes you wonder sometimes as to why we search out the cheap stuff huh.

Brad

[Ron Jones near Indy]

It's repeated occurrences with material like this that have made me never want to return to HD. I maybe carry it to extreme, but I won't even go in a HD to get a $99 MSUV.:( With my luck, it would be radioactive or something.:rolleyes:

[Matt Bickford]

Just remember that their nursery is in similar shape.

[John Shuk]

Yup,
All the HDs around here have junk like that. On the other hand I got a real nice piece of White Oak there the other day that is quartersawn and has real nice figure. I've been getting a pretty steady stream of decent pieces of pine for birdhouses from the cull rack for $.51 and $1.01. It's perfect for my son and I to do hand tool projects together and give away.

[Bruce Glazier]

Good vote for the local lumber yard.

[John Daugherty]

Been seeing some of that stuff around these parts. Some people call it "blue wood". I was told it was pine that was cut from trees that a pine beetle infestation killed. We had a bad infestation covering several counties a couple of years ago. I've seen some of it cut into 1x8, 1x10's. The wood seemed to be sound. It definitely looked different.

[Bob Feeser]

I am not defending Home Depot in any way. What I have seen is that wood arrives and sits outside for a while. It rains, and a strapped bundle gets wet. Without anywhere for the moisture to go, the stuff that gets sandwiched between the boards, it turns to mildew.
What cracks me up is the twisties at Home Depot. I see some really awful wood that is warped like crazy, and some dude is loading it on his cart, and not even looking. I guess that is why they put the twisty stuff that the rest of us pick through, on the top.
I cherry pick some 5/4 cedar from Home Depot, and I spend the time to go through a whole new stack, especially if it is that really nice tan stuff with the white going through it. What I do is pick up two 4x4's and place them on the floor, front to back, then pick through the whole pile, gently placing them on the 4x4's. Then when I am done, the forklift stops by and in one pass, they replace them on the shelf. The guys that work there comment that they don't mind picking up after me that way.
The other problem with Home Depot wood is that it is already planed to 3/4" thickness. Where do you go from there to get any defects or twists out. I don't know about you, but 90 percent of what I need is 3/4 stock, and I am sure that is the case for most of us as well. Saw mill at 4/4 is the only way to fly. If you don't have a jointer, or planer, then the pre-planed stuff is a nice way to get your feet wet.

86366


scary huh?

why would they even let the stuff through the door?

[Ben Cadotte]

I worked at a small local lumber yard for 4 years while in college. Worked from the yard to inside in that time period. We would get bad bunks of wood just like that. The only difference is we would sell enough of it fast enough that you didn't have big piles of bad wood. And yes for big loads we would toss in bad boards with good (within reason). And the comments about HD buying by price. We did the exact same thing. If you were ordering lumber you were required to get 3 different supliers quotes. And we bought from the lowest one!! Lumber is a comodity and it is purchased that way!

I actually think people are more picky at HD than they are at the regular yards. Alot of material leaving a yard is delivered so no picking there. HD on the other hand the majority is picked up by the person using it. And it does get picked through, and most pile the bad stuff on top as they try and find good wood below.

I buy from 4 different places around me. Lowes, HD, Hammond Lumber, and Granville lumber. I go to which ever one has what I need. The Borgs don't carry every length so I pretty much know who has what and I will go to the place that has the majority of the items I need.

Now the one thing I don't like about the Borgs is the vertical stacking of the 1x material. If it sits around long enough they all have a bow in them.

[Peter Quinn]

My local yard does not sell moldy wood as while most contractors wont hand pick boards they will pick up the cell phone and call for a return pickup if sent a moldy twisted pile of junk. It has come to the point in my town that I'm pretty sure unsuspecting DIY'rs are the only ones buying that junk on sale at the Borg. You see few if any contractors using the Borg for supplies here.

For a while the local borg had a decent guy in the lumber department who was keeping piles stocked, culled and properly stacked. He clued me in as to when restocking happened so I could come early on those days and pick from fresh stock. He is now gone (apparently caring and doing a good job are discouraged there) and their lumber aisles suffer greatly from his departure. They used to stock over night on Wednesdays, now they typically stock Saturday mornings at 10:30-12:noon. Good thinking!

[Dave Lehnert]

I think every place that sells lumber receives about the same thing. the difference some are better getting rid of the bad stuff than others.

[Tim Byars]

I was painstakingly picking through the doug fir at the blue borg this week, when an employee came by and asked whether I needed any help. I said, "no, just trying to find a straight stick or two" and he chuckled and shook his head and said something like, "good luck with that here."

I kept thinking, you work here, shouldn't you be either embarrassed, or apologetic, or maybe both?

Something's probably amiss when the help is acting like a fellow frustrated customer.

[David Sallee]

86366


scary huh?

why would they even let the stuff through the door?


What! Come on guys, I can't believe you didn't notice it's the all new and exotic BluKnotRot wood from Borgavania!! :eek:



I also sift through all the wood at the borgs to find the "straight" ones... about a month ago I spent about 2 hrs going through board by board finding just a FEW straight ones! The wife got so tired of waiting (watching) she went and checked out the lawn furniture for comfort quality.. LOL

Dave

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

wow - I wouldn't even let my kids walk past that stuff, let alone bring it into our house...

I guess our HD does OK. Some twisties and bowed boards, but overall not bad. Finding straight 2x4's and 2x6's is not that hard. Sometimes I'll pick through their maple and oak and grab a couple if I find nice straight ones with nice grain - just to have 'on hand'.

[Jim Kilburg]

Hav'nt you ever seen spalted pine?:D:D