Hey all, new to the site and very interested in creating something, however I have been researching wood prices in my town, and its crazy.. I am in Abbotsford, BC Canada
1x4 = $1.99/foot
2x4 = $3.99/foot
1x3 = $1.19/foot
Am I crazy, or what? I priced out simple bunkbeds and it came to something like $550 in lumber alone. This is in hemlock or pine, as both were the same price. Both at the local yard and homedepot.
Forums
Hunter11
Fri, 07/08/2011 - 07:40
Are you crazy? Judging by
Are you crazy? Judging by that pic I'd say yes......I kid, I kid!
Anyway,those prices are by the foot? So a 2x4x8 stud will cost $32? Now that is crazy. Below are some of those same sizes in Phenix City, Alabama and they are priced by the board, not foot. The only boards here priced by the foot are oak and some other hardwood.
1x4 = $1.96/ 8 foot furring strips, about a $1 more for pressure treated
2x4 = $1.97 8 foot
1x3 = $1.61 8 foot furring strip
claydowling
Wed, 07/13/2011 - 08:54
Lumber pricing
Dimensional lumber (1x4, 2x4, etc) is priced by the piece. You only pay by the board foot when buying rough saw material (meaning you need to surface it yourself). You pay by the linear foot if you're buying millwork (e.g. trim).
A board foot is 12" x 12" by 1" thick. Rough sawn lumber can have wildly variable widths, based on what they could get out of the tree at that point.
Pricing gets more exciting if the raw edge of the tree is left on. I've never purchased wood that way, but there are some beautiful possibilities when what is known as the waney edge of the tree is present. Google Toshio Odate for some magnificent examples.
DirtSquirt
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 00:20
Yes, crazy eh? I am in
Yes, crazy eh? I am in Edmonton and the prices are about the same here. I was looking at some fir 4x4s to build a loft bed with and the fir was $10/foot! It would have been $240 for the posts alone.
Are you planning on painting or staining the beds? You can get 8' spruce 2x4s for $1.67 at Home Depot. The spruce 1x4s were also under $2. I did see 1x3s but didn't look at the price. That would is in the "lumber" section, not the "hobby" section. If you are going to paint them, that wood will be just fine. They would probably even be good enough to stain as long as you take the time to pick some good boards and to sand them and prepare them well. Mine look so good I am sad to be covering them up with paint! Other sizes readily available in the "cheap" wood were 2x2, 2x6, 2x8, and 2x10. It's the 1xs (other than the 1x3 and 1x4s) that were getting expensive again. I paid about $12 for an 8 foot 1x8. You could always modify the plans so that you are only using wood that comes in the "cheap" sizes!
claydowling
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 20:35
Look for different suppliers
Either you misunderstood, or somebody is trying to rob you blind. A quick survey of wholesale and retail prices in Canada via google showed that they're in line with what you'd pay here in the U.S. That makes sense, because lumber is one of the biggest imports from Canada into the U.S.
The price quoted would indicate that they're charging more than $6 per board foot for pine. For that you could be building with exotics from South America or Africa. For reference, a board foot is one foot square and one inch thick (or 4/4 in lumber terms).