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Product Information - Hardwood Lumber
- Kiln dried: All items are kiln dried to 6-8%
moisture content.
- All Lumber items are listed as 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, or 8/4 etc. and
are surfaced 1/16" under the 1/4" stated because it is planed hit
and miss (unless specified otherwise). Rough sawn lumber is
available through special order and is a little cheaper, however,
wood characteristics are more difficult to see when the wood is
rough sawn.
- Unless otherwise specified, all lumber items are brought in
and sold as random widths and random lengths.
- Hardwood trees are deciduous and lose their leaves annually,
softwood trees do not lose their leaves annually and have needles
like pine, fir, and spruce.
- Lumber tallies: Hardwood lumber is bought and
sold according to the board footage, or the area of wood that is
in a board. Because both buyer and seller of hardwood lumber rely
on this tally in determining the cost of the wood, it is important
to understand how to determine this calculation.
This calculation is made by multiplying the width of a board in
inches by the length of the board in feet, then dividing this number
by 12 (W" x L' divided by 12). This formula applies if it is 4/4 or
1" thick stock. If it is 5/4, or 1 1/4" thick you would multiply the
result by 1.25, if it were 6/4 you would multiply the result by 1.5,
with 8/4 you would multiply it by 2, 10/4 by 2.5, etc. Tally's are
rounded up if it is above ½ or down if it is below ½. If it falls
right on ½ the first board is rounded up, then it alternates down ½
on the next board, then up ½ on the next, etc. Block tallies are a
quicker way to estimate larger quantities. These are taken by taking
5-6 average measurements of full layers of lumber in inches
(excluding gaps) to get as accurate as possible an average width of
a layer of lumber. Multiply this number by the number of layers in
the unit and then by the average length of unit in inches. Divide
this number by 144 to get the estimated board footage. It should be
mentioned that the more estimating and averaging you do in tallying
the more variance there could be from an accurate tally. It is a
subjective number, it is hard for two people to come up with the
same number on a block tally.
- Grades: The different grades of hardwood lumber
include FAS, Select, #1 common, #2A and #2B, #3A and #3B, and Sound
Wormy. Typically the mills we deal with combine the #2A with the #2B
and the #3A with the #3B and call them a #2 or a #3. FAS stands for
First and Seconds. These boards are the clearest and widest of the
different grades. They are at least 83 1/3% clear and at least 6" x
8' in length. Selects are just as clear, though they do not meet the
width specifications of FAS, so they can be a minimum of 4" x 6' .
#1 common boards are at least 66 2/3 % clear and have a minimum
board size of 3" x 4'. #2 common boards are at least 50% clear and
have a minimum board size of 3" x 4'. #3 common boards are at least
33 1/3% clear and have a minimum board size of 3" x 4' as well.
Defect limitations that are graded out include knots, wane, splits,
pith, and cupping or warp. Wane is the exposed bark that might be
included in a board. Pith is the center of the log.
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