Purchasing Wood

[archpa]

Hi,

I'm new to woodworking, and was wondering where I could find a good source of timber at competitive prices.

Currently looking for pressure treated softwoods timber for building gardening stuff, then I'd like to move on to purchasing some hardwoods.

I heard second hand oak floorboards are a good bet for oak stock.

I live in Hertfordshire.

If anybody can point me in the right direction, that would be great - thanks.

 

[sawdustalley]

If you haven't already, take a yellow pages and make a few phone calls, make a few trips to local timber-merchants and sawmills.

Or try www.yell.com

If you can stay clear of the big DIY and trade supply houses (B&Q, Wickes, Travis Perkins etc..). Their wood is usally of a lesser quality.


Hope that helps, and welcome to the forums

 

[Chris Knight]

archpa,

I don't buy pressure treated softwoods so can't give you a huge amount of help but I give a bunch of links below that may be of use. Please note they are not all UK links; I keep the foreign ones because they were interesting, not because I buy wood from them!

If you are able to travel, then when you want hardwoods, it pays to do so. Timber merchants stocks change over time and one good experience is not necessarily a guarantee of a second and vice versa. Visiting a yard, one is able to sort through material for oneself and with the price of timber as it is these days, that is well worth doing. I will happily drive within a two hundred mile radius to a yard that says it has the wood I want. Further than that I want to be pretty sure of the place and will seek recommendations from folk in the area via forums like this or the wreck.

http://www.wlwest.co.uk/home/index.asp [url=http://www.artezan.co.uk/]http://www.artezan.co.uk/
http://www.associatedtimber.co.uk/contact.asp
http://www.bendywood.com/
http://www.robbins.co.uk/
http://www.britishhardwoods.co.uk/
http://www.certainlywood.com/
http://www.edens.co.uk/StockGuide(Jan-Apr-2000)/page9.htm
http://www.englishoakdirect.co.uk/
http://www.fitchetts.co.uk/pricelist.htm
http://www.goodtimber.com/
http://www.sykestimber.co.uk/hardwood.htm
http://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/
http://www.woodworkersdirectory.com/lis ... cat=timber
http://members.tripod.com/~Luis_E/wood.html
http://www.morgantimber.co.uk/
http://www.geocities.com/northheighamsawmills/
http://www.pdusa.com/products/thinbirch.htm
http://www.pridays.sagenet.co.uk/products.htm
http://www.cobodex.qc.ca/species/soft_maple.htm
http://www.thorogood.co.uk/php/framemak ... t=Products
http://www.timberconnection.co.uk/offers.php3
http://www.trevaron.com/timber_merchants.htm
http://www.timbmet.co.uk/
http://www.interestingtimbers.co.uk/
http://www.edens.co.uk/
http://www.woodnet.org.uk/
http://www.woodbypost.fsnet.co.uk/woods ... 0Oak%20log
http://www.atkinsandcripps.co.uk/
http://www.timber-routes.co.uk/[/url]

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi archpa

One of the links that Chris has given you is for Atkins and Cripps of Bishop Stortford.

They have received a good press here from a number of people for hardwood.

Cheers
Neil

 

[johnjin]

Hi Chris
That is some list and makes for some very interesting reading.
Thanks for the links.

John

 

[Chris Knight]

John,
You are welcome.

 

[archpa]

Thanks for the useful list, Chris. Neil - thanks for that comment about Atkins and Cripps. I think I'll have to pay them a visit sometime!

 

[devonwoody]

If you price up oak garden posts 4x4 at a garden centre you will get an idea of pricing. After all 9ft of 4x4 post equals 1 cubic foot, and a post costs around £9, yet timber merchants ask far higher prices than this for oak.

What are other members comments re this idea?

 

[Aragorn]

Sounds like a bargain to me!
Where do you get these 4x4 oak posts?

 

[Bean]

I second that :shock: ........Just where do you get these posts !!!!!


Bean

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi DW

If you price up oak garden posts 4x4 at a garden centre you will get an idea of pricing. After all 9ft of 4x4 post equals 1 cubic foot, and a post costs around £9, yet timber merchants ask far higher prices than this for oak.

I'm pretty sure that you will find they are green oak. Nevertheless, it still sounds a good price.

Cheers
Neil

 

[devonwoody]

Garden centres usually have a rack of garden posts, if they are green put a stock in stick for a couple of years.

But if garden centres can buy and sell these posts at this price they should also be available direct at timber merchants,.

I assume there would be alot of wastage, knots etc. but 4ft lenghts might be salvaged.

 

[Dewy]

I recently asked my local woodyard about some 3x3 timber for bench legs & they said that pressure treated posts were approx 1/3 the price. Great except for the arsenic & other chemicals contained in the preservative.
Those 4x4 oak posts for £9 sound a bargain.
Can I quote this forum when negotiating with the timberyard? :lol:

 

[devonwoody]

Screw them to the ground, the merchants!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Just to let you know. Morgans (in the list above) sell a pallet of hardwood off cuts for £70. A stack of wood approx 1m x 1m x 2m. I bought one a year ago - contains english & american oak, iroko, beech and a number of yet to be identified species ! Average length between 0.5 and 1.3 m, from 25mm thick up to railway sleeper dimensions. Still working my way through it. Makes you fit the furniture to the wood, rather than the other way round.

Nice people - took me 5 visits to get my purchase home.

Darren

 

[Chris Knight]

Darren,
That sounds like a heck of a lot of wood for the price. How sound is the wood - has it lots of checks and knots, or is it reasonably clear? Totally twisted or fairly flat?