P.A.R from d.i.y sheds

[Davon]

Is it just me being "picky", or is timber sold in packs more inclined to be warped/split/twisted. I bought some 44 x 69 par from Wickes the other day ( I needed 13 pieces ) buying 4x3 per pack and 0ne single saved me £12 but several of the pieces were warped /split or twisted, normally I would buy them seperately so that I could inspect them but a £12 saving was too good to resist. As it happens, on this occassion I can use it all, but I just wondered what you guys thought.

Davon :?:

 

[joiner_sim]

I suspect it's just a different grade of softwood, we order in a higher quality softwood where I work to make windows and doors, than the timber we could just order from the local selco.

 

[mailee]

Davon, don't bother buying your wood from the DIY sheds, I have made this mistake in the past too. Only thing it is good for is making propellors! Only decent wood I have had from the DIY sheds was single rough sawn pieces and then I had to dimension it well first. If you can't buy it from your local timber yard (Providing they sell decent quality) then don't bother, wait until they are open. Only thing I will buy from these places now is sheet materials for a cheap job. IMHO :wink:

 

[PowerTool]

Go to a timber yard and ask for redwood - the difference in price over the whitewood sold in Wickes and other DIY stores is minimal,but the quality is so much better - and seems to have a lot less shrinkage and cupping afterwards as well.

Andrew

 

[joesoap]

Being packaged and kept in that nice warm store it is lovely and dry and burns well specially this time of year . Watch out if it has been treated for the noxious fumes though .
Cheers !

 

[Chippyjoe]

I'm with Mailee on this one. The timber from the sheds is pretty rubbish it's usually got more knots in it than a fishermans net!
Any good timber yard should stock joinery grade timber which costs more but the quality is there to be seen.
The only time I use the sheds for timber, is if I need some studs for boxing pipes in etc or as Mailee for sheet materials.

Mark.

 

[skinns]

i also find diy places bad for prepacked timber, all poor quality

 

[Out int shed]

hello all

i would always source from a timber merchant, ask for redwood u/s (unsorted) or 5ths, any other grade is likely to produce a lot of waste.

insider tip! russian redwood 5ths is of good quality this season and its much cheaper than scandinavian

 

[skipdiver]

D.I.Y. Store timber is glorified firewood.Buy from a timber merchant.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I think all the responses in this thread indicate that the posters might be expecting furniture grade wood from the DIY stores like Wickes, B&Q, etc.

It's generally not; it is construction grade material selected, cut, dried and machined to meet construction grade standards. Construction grade material is dried to just under 20% MC, not down to the 8% or 10% MC required of furniture grade wood if it is dried in Europe. There are other considerations too, such as the dimension of the log selected for construction grade material, and the species.

It is unrealistic to expect construction grade material to perform well as interior joinery or as furniture parts without additional seasoning, selection, machining, etc.

The plastic shrink wrapping seen binding wood in DIY stores is often regarded as a sign of low quality. It's not really. The plastic wrapping is a quite effective seal between wood dried to about 18%MC and the conditions experienced inside these stores where exposure to the atmospheric RH would reduce the MC quite rapidly, below acceptable construction grade standards.

If you ever watch furniture grade timber imported to the UK from the US being unloaded at the timber yard, you'll notice the large packs of closed stacked wood are almost all shrink wrapped in plastic. This helps reduce the speed of moisture regain between the US kilning operation, where the standard for furniture grade wood is 7%MC, and delivery to the ultimate users' door.

In reality, the conveniently packed pieces of wood found in DIY places are just that-- convenient. And convenience costs extra money, alot extra at DIY stores. If it is construction grade material you want, and you want to pay less, then you will find it much cheaper at a wood supplier that sells construction grade timber to the construction trade. Similarly, if you want furniture grade wood you should really go a timber merchant or supplier that sells that grade of material to the furniture trade. Slainte.

 

[Benchwayze]

The best way to buy softwood is to go to a proper timber merchant and ask for builders' scaffolding planks. This stuff has to be as straight and as knot free as possible, for safety purposes. You will pay more, but I think it's the best pine I have ever bought in recent years. You might have to take the metal banding off the planks from some suppliers! :lol:

 

[chipchaser]

I agree you won’t find much if any furniture grade timber at DIY stores. I wouldn’t buy shrink wrapped timber in a DIY store as my experience is the same as Davon’s.

However, I recently needed a fair quantity of softwood framing. I found the best deal was CLS, C16, kiln dried, planed all round with radiused edges from B&Q. The stuff I got was processed by Stora Enso. None of the local merchants could approach the B&Q price. I did have to pick through the stack and reject the hockey sticks but found what I wanted ok.

Redwood is generally much better than unknown varieties of softwood but I don't think its available in B&Q, Wickes etc.
Regards
Graham

 

[bigjoe]

I worked at our local Travis Perkins until my wife got ill and i had to leave to care for her, and because we were the smallest branch in scotland and i think one of the smallest in the uk ,the 5ths redwood we used to get sent was absolute rubbish, i was embaressed serving people and i even rejected a whole delivery once because it was so bad,we had an assistant manager who hated me but even more so when i refused timber or returned it on the next delivery because he knew nothing about timber or anything construction related, basically the man was an silly person!

And this was meant to be a timber merchant!

 

[big soft moose]

our local B&Q (swindon) does stock redwood but only in short lengths and flipping expensive

like everyone else here i'd say buy from a decent timber yard

 

[OPJ]

I bought some treated timber from a DIY shed just before Christmas. I normally try to avoid doing this but, I needed some paint and I was there... :roll: Anyway. I bought what I would've expected to be 1" sawn timber and yet it measured close to 18mm - WTF is going on?!? :shock:

Then, when I bought a load of redwood from Bristol City Timber, what was sold as 22mm thick actually measured just over 25mm sawn!