Pricing 8/4 versus 13/16

[Justin Ludwig]

Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me.

My distributor charges for per board foot of 8/4 red oak than 13/16. Both quotes are planed and straight lined. A board foot is a board foot. I could see a higher price if they were charging lineal feet.

What gives?

[George Bokros]

Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me.

My distributor charges for per board foot of 8/4 red oak than 13/16. Both quotes are planed and straight lined. A board foot is a board foot. I could see a higher price if they were charging lineal feet.

What gives?

I assume you are saying he charges more per board foot of 8/4 than he does per board foot of 13/16. This is common where I purchase my material also and I have used various dealers..

[Justin Ludwig]

I got an answer from my distributor that seems to make sense.

"The 8/4 needs considerably more air-drying time... has to be cut from significantly larger logs (which cost more).... needs to stay in the kiln longer... has more D-grade that is pulled out. So yes, production costs are WAY higher... including the green buying costs."

[Art Mann]

I would say that pricing strategy is pretty much normal. It's like buying extra wide boards.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

When traveling, I look for nice 8/4. It's usually more.

[Brian Kent]

It is a little more difficult to get thicker boards out of a tree, so they charge a little more per board foot.

[Cody Colston]

"The 8/4 needs considerably more air-drying time... has to be cut from significantly larger logs (which cost more).... needs to stay in the kiln longer... has more D-grade that is pulled out. So yes, production costs are WAY higher... including the green buying costs."

This.

[Thomas Bank]

Yep - thinner, narrower, shorter lumber will always be cheaper than thicker, wider, longer lumber because the thicker, wider, longer lumber has less stock to pull from and requires more care and attention to bring to a usable state.

[Danny Hamsley]

It takes 2.5 times as long to dry a 8/4 board than a 4/4 board. Plus, the thicker stock generally will have more drying defects like splits, cracks, and checks. In the wholesale market, 8/4 stock sells for about 1.25 -1.35 times the price per board foot versus 4/4 of the same species. That is the nature of the market.