Needed... 10' 2x4s (preferably quartersawn)

[Dan Hintz]

No perfect forum for this one, but this should reach enough of the appropriate audience...

We closed on our old house this past Friday, which means I'm out of a proper shop. The new house has nearly 10' ceilings in the basement, so my current stockpile of 8' 2x4s will not work (conveniently). Every time I go to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., I need to pick through their stock to get wood that won't warp... at a paltry rate of about 20% useable.

I'm looking for suggestions on where to get 10' lengths of 2x4s that will all (or at least mostly) be quartsawn to avoid warpage. I would prefer a place that would deliver, and I'm thinking a couple of pallets worth would do me. Should I be looking for a specific type of company? Would sawmills typically have something like this in stock (and already dry), or should I be looking elsewhere?

Specific suggestions in/around the Glenelg, MD area would be ideal

Thanks!

[Phil Thien]

Are these for partition walls? QS seems pretty extreme for partition walls.

One of the most common methods is to go wider and cut the pith out. BUT you can get reactive boards that give you fits when you do this.

I'd honestly visit a few yards and take a look at their stock. You may find a yard that has some nice lifts. Mark one and tell them to deliver it.

[Jim Andrew]

There are basicly 3 different species available for yards to buy from. The spf stuff, means spruce, pine, and fir. There are no fir boards in this grade. Mostly spruce. This is the cheap stuff you find at HD, etc. Then there is hem-fir, which is hemlock. I have seen a fir or 2 in this grade over my career. The top grade is doug fir, or douglas fir, which is about the highest priced lumber you can buy. If you have bought 24' lumber, it is usually doug fir, and considerably more expensive than the other grades. Used to see syp, or southern yellow pine, but have not seen it for sale except as treated for a long time. Occasionally you can buy doug fir studs, and the yards offer precut studs in 8',9', and 10'. They are shorter of course, to alllow for 3 plates.

[roger wiegand]

You need to get out of the Borgs and to a real lumber yard. They should be able to offer you a range of products at a range of price points, all of them deliver. You can get engineered wood that will stay straight, but I think you'll find regular lumber that is fine for building walls much less expensively. I think HD and Lowes pretty much get the stuff that isn't good enough to make pallets or toothpicks out of.

[Tom M King]

I've been building for 42 years now. Even when good lumber was available, we always hand picked every piece. These days, we still do, but buy several weeks in advance (at least), and set it aside. Some of it will move by tomorrow. Some will move by next week. Some will move by next month. One good thing about buying from the big box stores is the ease of return. Do the best you can selecting lumber. Buy double what you need. Keep your receipt. Carry back what you don't use.

When you call for delivery, they will bring what's left that has already been picked through.

[scott vroom]

I've never seen nor heard of QS dimensional softwood lumber. As other have suggested, go to a quality lumberyard and ask to look at their premium stud lumber. I can't imagine using QS lumber for construction framing....way overkill IMO.

My local lumber yard sells #1 grade doug fir air dried for 89 cents/lin ft...guaranteed straight. They also stock a doug fir clear and straight grain 2 x 4 for $2/lin ft....but covering that beautiful lumber with sheetrock would be a waste.

[Prashun Patel]

To state what I'm sure you already know: I will add that you should go to a reputable lumber yard. There are several around me that don't treat their lumber any better than BORG; in fact, worse. They also have contempt for the homeowner who shows up in his Honda acting like he knows what he wants but only wants a little bit of it.

[roger wiegand]

I've been building for 42 years now. Even when good lumber was available, we always hand picked every piece. These days, we still do, but buy several weeks in advance (at least), and set it aside. Some of it will move by tomorrow. Some will move by next week. Some will move by next month. One good thing about buying from the big box stores is the ease of return. Do the best you can selecting lumber. Buy double what you need. Keep your receipt. Carry back what you don't use.

When you call for delivery, they will bring what's left that has already been picked through.

I hear this kind of thing a lot, but my experience is that the big yards that sell by the pallet a) don't ever let anyone pick through the pile and b) offer much higher quality material than even the best at HD and the like. The places I go you never see the wood until the forklift comes around the corner with your order on it or it shows up in the driveway. If you order a few dozen boards you get the ones off the top of the current open pallet, no one has time to do any picking or sorting. None of the builders I know ever waste time going to the lumber yard, and any of them would refuse delivery on wood of the quality you describe. I watched the framing lumber they built my house with recently pretty carefully and was very impressed with the overall quality. Yes, there were a few boards that had to be tossed aside, but less than 5%. I'm sure the price was probably also 2-3x the HD price, but much cheaper than the labor of trying to build straight walls with pretzels.

[John Lanciani]

Any reason you don't want to use steel studs? Partition walls in a basement are the perfect application for them. Straight, mold proof, and cost effective.

[Dan Hintz]

For reference, the basement is roughly 2,300 square feet, completely unfinished. I expect roughly 1/4 of it to be my new workshop, 1/2 to be split between a media room and general lounging area, and the final 1/4 to be split between a bathroom, mini wine cellar, and some as-of-yet undefined area.

I am shooting for something that won't warp within two weeks of being put in a conditioned space, hence my initial desire for QS (though I admit that may be over-specifying). I have a few example pieces of BORG wood (from before I knew what to choose) that curve upwards/downwards 2' over the 8' length, curve to one side 6" (just within the last few feet, mind you), and add a 20-30 degree twist, to boot... and that's all in the same piece! Once I started handpicking and finding the 1:5 good/bad ratio, I may get 5% bad boards after the acclimate (and "bad" here simply means a slight twist or minor arc over the whole 8').

Since I could barely fit 8'ers in the Cube, I know 10'ers aren't going to make it... since I'm tired of cherry picking and can't fit them in the vehicle, delivery is the preferred method of purchase, but only if I can get a high percentage of usable boards.

Any reason you don't want to use steel studs? Partition walls in a basement are the perfect application for them. Straight, mold proof, and cost effective.

You raise a good point, John... I had completely forgotten about steel, and this might very well be the perfect opportunity to use them. I'll have to research install methods compared to wood, but I can't imagine that will be an issue. What's a good place to purchase from? What other issues do I need to worry about (e.g., do I need to change my electrical boxes to ones with sheet metal screws, etc.)? Are there load issues to worry about if I wish to hand cabinets down there (and some areas WILL need cabinets)?

[John Lanciani]

You raise a good point, John... I had completely forgotten about steel, and this might very well be the perfect opportunity to use them. I'll have to research install methods compared to wood, but I can't imagine that will be an issue. What's a good place to purchase from? What other issues do I need to worry about (e.g., do I need to change my electrical boxes to ones with sheet metal screws, etc.)? Are there load issues to worry about if I wish to hand cabinets down there (and some areas WILL need cabinets)?

A full service lumber yard or a drywall supply house will have them. Installation is easy, they just go together with tek screws. Electrical boxes meant for steel studs also install with tek screws so thats easy too. As for cabinets, the best thing is to put wood blocking in wherever you want to mount them.

[Peter Quinn]

Good Vertical grain Doug fir is as expensive or more around here as QSWO. It's not framing material. There is a grade similar to what you describe that mostly gets sent to Japan, costs a lot more, not for sale here. I'd go with steel or engineered if stability is a major concern. Oddly my local HD has become one of the best sources in town for framing material, used to be the pits, not sure what changed over there. But they have some odd gaps in what sizes they carry, for instance they didn't have 2x4x10 in DF last time I went, only SPF in a barely structural grade, waste of time. When I built my garage about 2 years back the HD beat other quotes by almost 40%, free delivery on orders over a few hundred, I reluctantly went with them to find nearly every stick in every size was prestine as if I'd picked it myself. For large orders they don't go out in the aisle and pick, it's all picked from a regional yard, bundled and delivered on flat bed, the turnover is good, the stock is IME better than what's in the store. I had 2x4 through 2x12 in lengths from 8'- 16', all excellent. Luck? Maybe so.

I think you'll find lvl's or lsl's are a fair bit more expensive, but very straight and strong too. Usually they are used in tall balloon framed shear walls, a bit excessive for the basement, but would certainly work. The condo I work in is steel stud framed, we have hung some very heavy shelves that hold clamps, cutters, a vacuum cycles for CNC table, all are secure and fine when the correct anchores are used.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Good Vertical grain Doug fir is as expensive or more around here as QSWO. It's not framing material. There is a grade similar to what you describe that mostly gets sent to Japan....

Vertical grain is the same as qtrswn, for the record. And in softwood dimensional/framing lumber, no mill that I have ever heard of mills for qtrswn/vertical. If you find about 20% that way in the lumber yard racks, that seems about right - flat sawing logs will yield a % as qtrswn.

Also - there are companies that do qtrsaw SYP. But - they are using the best-of-the-best logs, the grads start at C&Btr and go up from there, and it is, in fact, used for export - in that case, Europe is a big market.

If the OP wants no-foolin stability, then the steel studs are definitely the way to go: fire-and-forget.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Surprising no one mentioned metal studs...They don't warp...Sorry Kent just noticed you mentioned metal studs....

[Kent A Bathurst]

Surprising no one mentioned metal studs...They don't warp...Sorry Kent just noticed you mentioned metal studs....

Don''t credit me - it was brought up a couple pages earlier.