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Jack I’ve been working with framing grade lumber for over 30 years and I swear it wasn’t this bad back even 20 years ago, it makes me wonder if the problem lies in the lumber producers who have tried to reforest their land in as little time as possible, so they developed 20 yr trees that seem to be of a very low quality. Hey it’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. I have found that with the new type of lumber hand nailing splits alot however a power nailer (Paslode Impulse my prefrence) seems to split less it’s the old straw thru the patato effect. Bottom line is lumber will probably get even worse in the future so we better learn how to work with it. Robert
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quality has gone down hill even here in the "pacific norhtwest". What we would have called a economy grade years ago is now a #2. I have friends that work in the mills,some sell the stuff and those like me build with the stuff. All agree the grade has changed and a lot has been done by shortages in lumber and having to cut lumber from 20 to 50 year old trees. In the mills my friends have been "re-educated" as to grade. What I see as one of the big problems out here is obvious at the docks. go down and see ships getting loaded with raw logs that are 5 and 6 feet across the butt being exported and then go to the mills and see 2 and 3 foot logs going into our mills. The shortage wouldnt happen if we didint export raw logs or maybe we should do like many countries do, only export the finished project......hey great idea...send out the finger-jointed studs.
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I agree quality has gone down hill. Just tore down an old house,built about 1950 , 16 ft. 2x4's straight as a arrow, not one knot in 48 of them !!
sold to cabinet shop !!!
*I agree that the quality has gone down. That is one of the reasons that I have been using 9 1/2" TJIs as wall studs with blown in cellulose for years (less than $100 /year heating bills is another reason). If I could find a manufacturer of 7 1/4" wood I-Beams, I would use them instead for less square footage loss. (hi Gene L.) The I-Beams are straight, light and come from renewable forests instead of old growth.
*Faster growth is definitly making less stability in what I'm seeing.Most yards seem to know it's crap, and treat it as such.This helps a whole lot.I have been asked to do alot more curved work lately. Hmmmmmmm?
*My Wasau home is about 30 years old. The lumber I have changed due to windows, closets and the like is straight, knot free fir. Where I havene't used steel, the pine I get or even the "select" fir is of a lower quality. Dennis
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blue,
Just a side
b 2x topic I'm tossing
out to all...Doug fir framing lumber stocked in yards in North Jersey and Westchester was sold
b green (water running off stacks), no kiln drying. It
b nailed well wet
, was
b true wet
and was a
b splitting,hard to nail, propellor grade mess
if
b dry
such as re-using demo material.
At home spf is 19% kiln, easy to nail, rarely splits and a bit worse when dry but not as splitty as d-fir.
b Tossing and turning, by day, not by night,
Jack : )
*Last summmer a pallet of 2x6's was delivered to a site. The driver dumped the pallet off the back of a flatbed dump. When it hit, the strapping snapped. As the boards spread, an enormous black mass of carpenter ants started swarming. It was huge. Really amazing. Our efforts to live-trap and peacefully relocate the ants to a safe haven failed when the lumber was somehow, accidentally set ablaze.
*Ah Mongo, you humanitarian. Did you toss the driver atop the pyre?I actually felt bad after I set out bait for one colony of carpenter ants in our house. It was devastatingly effective. I recently opened up the wall to find piles of deceased ants, like a Myrmidonian Jonestown. If only they had listened...
*Not that AJ's post was about ants, but these threads go where they will. Best ant poison I ever used, I found in my grandmother's effects. 1/3 each water, honey, and glycerine and 1% arsenic oxide. I'm sure it's not EPA approved, but it works great. There's not enough poison to kill an ant for an hour or two, by which time they've brought it back to the whole nest. In 6 hours they're completely gone. I ordered up some arsenic oxide and made up several batches for (childless) friends and family. -David
*Unbelievable...Who would of thunk this to be the b switch... and bait... the ants...are a flamin...thread!Tossed a 2x and killed an ant once,Jack : )
*Jack, it sounds like the Canadiens are getting their revenge!Re-open the Pacific Northwest!Blue"Save a tree: Eat a beaver."
*If this is the place for bad lumber stories....Lumber loads are always 'built' upside down. I like to supervise the loading so that what you need first is on top. One time when I didn't, the roof beams were on top of a 6' pile. These were 6x14 rough sawn douglas fir, to be exposed structural beams in a hexagonal roof. There was a 22' span with a 4' overhang. Without thinking any more about it we tossed the first 26' beam off the pile. With an awful noise it broke in half. We hauled it back to the lumber yard and they ordered its replacement. If I had had the load built with the beams on the bottom, this defect might not have been noticed until we got it up 15' in the air and loaded it with the roof. That would have been a bitch to fix.
*Andrew d. If we do not watch our vocabulary, we will soon turn readers, frustrated by Greek names they try to look up, into Myrmidonians, and no Achilles to control them. By the bye. Did you know that almost all, if not all, of those who died at Jonestown had a small hole in the back of their heads? GeneL.
*Jack I've been working with framing grade lumber for over 30 years and I swear it wasn't this bad back even 20 years ago, it makes me wonder if the problem lies in the lumber producers who have tried to reforest their land in as little time as possible, so they developed 20 yr trees that seem to be of a very low quality. Hey it's my theory and I'm sticking to it. I have found that with the new type of lumber hand nailing splits alot however a power nailer (Paslode Impulse my prefrence) seems to split less it's the old straw thru the patato effect. Bottom line is lumber will probably get even worse in the future so we better learn how to work with it. Robert
*Hi Robert.I am going to have to disagree.Throughout time, there are those who have produced an inferior product.As well, there are those who produce quality.For me, this is the difference between framing with a time-tested structural wood, like douglas fir or southern pine, rather than the alternative.Hope this helps.
*Robert,I also have to disagree. I've remodeled way to many houses 30 + years old & found rotten lumber. Wood is wood. The specieces haven't changed & neither has the basics of preparing it.As for developing a new type of tree, nope. Hasn't happened. But give some $ motivated biofirm a chance & theyll put elephant genes into a white pine. That should be a stout 2x