Would someone explain to me why 8/4 cost per boardfoot is almost twice the cost of 4/4 per boardfoot? I don't under stand how 4/4 oak is around $3.30 a boardfoot and an
8/4 is close to $7.00 a boardfoot. Rough cut in both cases too.Again, the measurements are in boardfoot so the thickness shouldn't cost more on a boardfoot basis,
Otoe
2x per board foot seems a bit steep.
Steve Wall lists red oak 10" or more 4/4 at $3.20/BF and 8/4 at $3.85/BF. Doesn't say if the 8/4 is the 10" or more, if not,
4/4 select is $2.70, so 8/4 is $1.15/BF more or $3.30/LF more than 4/4. $3.85 vs. $2.70 is 42% higher. Maybe it's the supplier you are using
Think of it this way, is a 4 carat diamond only double the price of a 2 carat diamond? The bigger it is, the more it costs and the increase in price is a curve, not linear.
It's called the law of supply and demand.
Lew
But that's assuming larger sizes are rarer. In the case of lumber, shouldn't thicker boards require FEWER cuts, and therefore be cheaper per bf? To a certain extent, of course - I understand that super wide stuff is rare. I also understand that lumber prices vary a great deal by location, but I don't know how that would affect 8/4 vs. 4/4 pricing. Really I don't know much about lumber pricing and wood product economics, just tossing out my ideas.
For something a little more concrete than ideas, I'll toss out the link to my favorite lumber dealer, where bf prices for 8/4 are generally $1 more than the 4/4 prices.
Andy
Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 10:14pm (EST-2) snipped-for-privacy@hadenough.com (Mark=A0&=A0Juanita) doth sayeth: Maybe it's the supplier you are using
Depends partly on what part of the country one is in too.
JOAT I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do them.
- Picasso
Nor do I, but time is money. And it takes (a lot) more time to grow thicker trees. If you cut thick lumber from smaller trees, you're going to get more instability in the resulting lumber.
jc
It takes longer to dry 8/4 lumber. Time is money.
No! Diamonds do not have to be cut to be weighed in carats.
The price is on a curve because a tree only gives up so many boards. The wider, or thicker, the board, the fewer it gives up. Sure, there's a tad less waste with thicker lumber, but there are also fewer 2x6s in a log than there are 1x6s. The law of supply and demand for a tree simply states that when you get fewer of an item out of a particular basic material, you have to charge more per unit for that item.
That said, a few years ago, I lucked onto some 12/4 and 16/4 8" wide cherry that has lasted me until recently...at a price that was giveaway. Fortunately for me, the tree's owner didn't want the thick boards, so the mill sold them to me for $75 (basically, a full-sized pick-up load, with board ends almost dragging the ground all the way home (3 miles). I never figured the board feet, but the shortest board was 10' and the longest 13'. A guess gives me roughly 250 bf. The best part: a LOT of flame cherry in that mess (also a LOT of scrap).
Otoe wrote in news:b5pul39seq9kbed5ff5vhfiak0gfnhips8@
4ax.com:
Good question. Apparently, one of the mysteries of this life...
I'm hoping the Allah guy can help with this.
Well, yeah, but *that*much* more?
Interesting thing, though -- at the lumber supplier just up the road from me
Why would the premium be so much more for oak than for cherry?
And why is it only 4% on hard maple?
A longer drying time and stock more prone to warp/check are probably two reasons.
I would FIRST ask your supplier.
Then, shop around and compare suppliers.
If your primary supplier is out of line, try another. If not, suck it up - whatareyougonnado!
That could be it but there is also an inventory business model that supports charging more for slower moving expensive products. To justify the time the slower moving product sits on the shelf the seller marks up the price to justify the time and space being taken up.
price to
SFWIW, years ago had a tennant who was in the hardwood lumber business.
He told me his cost/board ft was the same for either 4/4 or 8/4 lumber; however, the 8/4 retail price/bdft was more than the 4/4 price/bdft.
Lew
me
I can't even begin to guess: I wouldn't pay a cent premium for any thickness of white or red oak, but around here, red oak is a near dominant species (tulip poplar beats it, as does SYP), and white oak is plentiful. In fact, so is cherry and walnut and ash and...I've always been willing to buy green and rough and wait a couple, three years, which is a fine way to save a LOT of money on wood, if you have a planer and jointer on hand.
That would sound right. Call it a "benefit of variety" mark up if you will. If the larger slower moving board has a turn over rate of 2 per year and the turn over rate on the smaller board is 6 times a year it would make more sense to not stock the slower moving larger board and stock more of the faster turning boards or mark the larger boards up so that the total sales profit is the same for either board in any given year. Every square foot in a warehouse and or retail floor space is an expense that has to be considered when deciding on how much of what to stock so that the net profit remains in the black.
AND, the room to store the wood while it dries. If you have to build storage, the premium price for wood may look a little more attractive.
The primary legitimate reason for 8/4 costing more than 4/4 is based on
*grading* of the lumber.It is more difficult to get the same grade when sawing 8/4 as compared to
4/4.If the lumber is not graded there is minimal justification for a higher price.
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