dusty wrote:My thanks to all of you.
What I think I have learned is that I am paying way too much at Lowes and HD. I need to find, even if I have to travel some, a good lumber yard where I can buy rough cut.
Jim in Tucson has also given me a source, less than 5 miles from me, where I can get finished lumber and maybe some rough cut. I need to go by there to check prices.
There are some Christmas gifts on the drawing table, I guess I had better get IT in gear.
My question regarding linear vs bd ft measurements is still sort of unanswered, I think. Where I have been shopping, sells nothing by the board foot (except maybe hardwood flooring). Everything is priced by the running foot. I have sort of concluded that this is because I am buying finished grade lumber. When I find the mill yard, I expect it to be board foot.
Thanks again for the comments.
Dusty
Frankly I don't care if the wood is sold by linear or board ft as long as the price is good. I have a couple lumber yards around me that sell wood. One is linear foot and the other is board foot. And if you sit down and calculate their prices they are almost identical. Lately I have been buying planned both sides with a finished edges because I have been getting good wood with little or no waste. At times I buy the rough cut but I have learned to be very very careful. I usually only do this when I get a good buy on something like a thousand board feet or so.
In your example where you paid 3.68 per linear foot worked out that you were paying about $4.42 a board foot for the wood. I don't know your area but that is high of poplar. However if it was finished both sides and ripped to width then you have to subtract mill work and the actual cost of the wood would be lower.
Actually nobody really sales by the board foot anymore since everyone I have found has different per board foot prices depending on thickness.
One place will sale actual 4/4 (1 inch thick) for one price and "finished" 4/4 (something less that 1" usually 3/4 or 13/16) and 8/4 for totally different price.
We had a hardwood dealer that sold exclusively by the board foot. The price was $X and it didn't matter if the wood was 1" or 5" thick. They figured real board foot 1 foot by 1 foot by number of inches thick and sold it to you.
I find that most people that sell by the "board foot" today are really selling by linear foot disguised as being by the board foot. The have their 4 inch wide 3/4 inch thick boards priced at different price than say their 12 inch wide 3/4 thick boards and the total cost of the 12 inch wide stuff will be a lot higher than 4 inch wide. Mainly because it is harder to find a clear piece of wood that wide today.
I take my calculator and shop for the best wood price be it linear or board foot I look at bottom line, what is it going to cost me to buy enough wood to finish this project.