buying lumber from home depot?

[Ah10201]

is it a good idea to buy lumber from home depot? will i get ripped off or is it a good deal?

thanks...

[Rob]

I've not compared prices but their selection isn't very good. They have red oak, poplar, and pine. If you anything else, you have to go elsewhere.

[Tom]

Depends. What would you do with the lumber? Rough carpentry and bonfires? For finer work, will the lumber be surfaced by Home Depot, or by yourself? Need more info. Tom Someday, it'll all be over....

[Micro*]

If you're talking about hardwood, they're waaay overpriced and the selection is poor. One tip, look at the price tag on the shelf, the HD I go to has the name of their supplier on the tag I buy directly from them, great selection and very good prices.

-- "Shut up and keep diggen" Jerry

[007]

Look for to hookup with a local "Tree Service." With minimal effort, it's usually fairly easy to make arrangements that can get you some really fine material at a fraction of what the bandits at Home Depot will charge. Once you get logs to your place, find yourself a local guy with a portable sawmill to cut it up for you. Then air cure it in a stack with dividers for good circulation and it'll be ready to use in a few months.

Bubba

[xyz guy]

I find their Red Oak to be ok, but expensive. If you have a planer and a jointer and can find a planing mill, you can buy it for 1/2 to 1/3 the cost per board foot, but you will need to buy more and spend time dimensioning.

[Mike Marlow]

There's been some pretty bad answers posted to your question. The bottom line answer is no, it's not a rip off. It's what the market will bear. Speaking only of their hardwood (oak only), it's fine stuff, but it's a bit pricey - because it's planed and ready to go. Unless you want to invest in a planer and a joiner and the time to size all of your materials, it's a fine way to buy lumber. Check first though for local hardwood suppliers. Some mills will plane your purchase for a small fee, and most hardwood suppliers sell wood already sized. Either will likely be cheaper than Home Depot and offer a wider selection. If you compare though, the price per board foot of like wood, like sizing, etc., Home Depot is not that far off of what you're going to get other places. So no - while it's not a really good deal, it's not a rip off.

[Mike Marlow]

This is devious and underhanded and damn, I wish I'd thought to do this. I tip my hat to you sir. Though... it's my luck that their suppliers are from some other part of the country. No matter, I'm tired of the oak look and have taken to using more cherry and walnut lately. Good local supplier, kiln dried, reasonable prices and I'm gonna keep him a secret...

[Doug Miller]

Depends a lot on what you're planning to use it for. I sure wouldn't want to make furniture out of wood that had been air-dried for only "a few months".

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter, send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com

[Paul Kierstead]

This always surprises me. Maybe it is just the Home Depot here, but I have often just needed "one piece" and popped into HD to grab it. It is planed, yes, but very rarely is it ready to go. The huge majority are twisted or bowed (strangely, cup seems rare), and often fairly badly here. I am not talking putting a straight-edge on it; this is easily visible, often without even sighting along the board. Perhaps if you were using it for some trim where the whole thing was nailed tight it

*might* be ok. For any kind of furniture making, it would need to be re-flattened and cut anyway.

[Dukester]

Agreed. For my needs, it is not a rip off. Convenience must be factored into any price comparisons.

Where I live there are no local hardwood suppliers, the nearest being more than 100 miles away in a large city. I called several of them last week to compare prices of rough cut and S4S to what HD has. Bottom line, the rough cut is about 30% less expensive, but of course it has to be surfaced and sized. The S4S prices were actually less expensive at the HD. But more importantly, there is that little thing of driving 100 miles to a store on a Saturday morning that is only open until noon, since I can't get there by 5 on workdays, then 100 miles back. Don't tell me that 200 miles of driving and most of my Saturday is not expensive. I'll go there when I need something other than oak or poplar, but not otherwise.

-- Cheers! Duke

[Mike Marlow]

Just shows ta go ya, don't it? Up here in upstate NY, I've never gotten a bad piece of oak from HD. In fact, I've never found twisted or bent oak on the shelves. The selection is somewhat limited, but I've always found it acceptable for my needs. My experiences up here are that it's truly S4S. Guess it all has to do with where you're located. Gee, maybe I've found something good about living in upstate NY - that's getting harder to do these days.

[loutent]

I agree with most here that convenience has to be a factor.

My local HD sells red oak for about $6/BF. I can drive

30 minutes in the opposite direction and get it in the rough for about $2.50/BF - which I have done when I needed 100+ BF. The work & time involved in getting it all into workable condition is not to be taken lightly. Also, there is more waste in this type of wood.

Many times I wind up at the Depot when I just need 5 or 10 BF and can get right to project building. No problems with twists etc so far.

My 2ç.

Lou

[Phisherman]

Hardwoods at Home Depot is very expensive, for some reason. But the hardwood they have is dressed lumber. That might be useful if you don't have a surface planer. I'd buy hardwood at HD for convenience or if I needed a small amount.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I see you already have many opinions. My answer: Depends.

If they have a bargain bin, take a look through it. I've gotten some good deals that way. A defective piece that sells for a buck or two can be quite the bargain if you only need a small piece and can cut off the defect. I make a lot of small items and at times, the largest piece may be 20" x 2". That board with the big knots can yield a lot of clear wood that size and #2 sell much cheaper than #1.

I don't think HD is the best place, but at times you can get good buys. Other times it seem not a piece in the rack is worth taking home. Ed [e-mail]

[kenR]

Their prices are rather high, but if you are careful, you can get some good deals on figured wood. HD's suppliers do not sort the wood, and sometimes they get things like birds eye maple in with the normal wood. I have a nice piece of quilted maple that I picked up there awhile ago.

[Cape Cod Bob]

Are you talking about pine or HD hardwoods. Their pine is usually a lot less than straight and true. But, I have found their hardwoods to be quite good.

The HD stores in NJ carried maple; I haven't seen any maple in MA HDs. If I went thru a rack of HD maple I would eventually find some VERY nicely figured maple including bird eye, spalted an every once in a while a tiger stripe. They buy in such quantity that no one separates out the special pieces. Cape Cod Bob Visit my web site at

the two "spam"s for email

[Renata]

Lumber, as in for construction, is acceptable though you take your chances on how long it's been dried and how fast it'll warp. But, the tolerances are obviously much larger when building a house than when making a handcrafted cabinet or jewlery box, or....

If you're talking wood, as in oak, maple and other such materiel for woodworking endeavors, the answer is nope, unless you suddenly find yourself a board short and it's worth paying the extra premium this ONE TIME for the convenience.

try woodfinder.com

If you plan to do any woodworking for any length of time beyond the one project you might just be trying your hand at to see if you're interested in this hobby, it's prolly best to find another wood supplier. Even mailorder.

Just my couple cents

REnata