price of oak

[KB8QLR]

Needed a piece of oak for a project. Went to the local lumberyard (the nearest borg is 20+ miles away). Got 1x2x72 for $15.54 + tax. Is this normal? Makes me glad I didn't ask for the 16' piece. Joe

[Kazoo]

the price of dimensioned red oak, s4s akin to the pine variety sold at lumberyards, is not at all like what you'd normally pay if you bought FAS oak im random widths/lengths. however ..

a 1 X 2 X 72 is one board foot, or at least they are going charge you for one board foot, so in essence you are paying

15 dollars a board foot for oak.

I pay 3 dollars a board foot normally, and if someone ask me to mill it to said dimension i would charge ten bucks for my time, for one up to about five or so of the same, after that my price would go up. personally, if I really needed it and had to pay for it, i would insist that it was dead flat, freshly milled and also insist on a short piece of scrap to bite on while they pry 20 bucks from my wallet.

[Jay Knepper]

You bought 1 board ft of oak for $15.54. Hardwoods are the most overpriced items that I know of at the BORG. A good lumber dealer will sell oak for roughly $5/bd-ft, and a sawmill for perhaps $3-4. You're paying a lot for convenience.

Jay Knepper

[John]

Well, that works out to WAY higher than the typical cost per board ft for oak, you paid close to $15 a board ft for that 1board ft piece of wood

Typically you should be able to find oak for $6-$8 a board foot

John

[Kentucky Highlander]

I pay less than $3 per board foot of red oak.

Now really a ham should know better than that

KY N4YYS

[Mike G]

I have to assume no one is really that dumb and the post is just some more childish spam but I'll respond anyway.

Fifteen plus dollars for one board foot of oak. isn't normal.

A nominal 1" X 6" X 8' red oak board, that's four board feet, only cost $16.30 at Lowe's last time I bothered to check the price. For those that can't figure it out that's $4.08 a board foot, give or take penny.

You can see why I suspect some infantile spammer.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Very high, even for finished wood. As other pointed out, you can buy rough saw oak for about $3 to $3.50. However, to make it u sable you need to joint it and plane it. Some seller offer this service for free or at a nominal charge.

This morning I bought some cypress. I paid $3 a board food and the shop jointed and planed it to thickness for me. From there I went to a woodworking supply shop that carries wood as more of a convenience. The offered no additional services, but were charging $5 for it. In the past month I bought 100 board feet of it so the difference is huge.

There are some mail order sources that would be cheaper for you. As for distance, I had to go 40 miles to get this. Close to home there is little hardwood to be found. Most lumber yards deal in construction lumber, not furniture grade. If you get serious, look into buying a couple of tools to take advantage of the low cost rough sawn, or at least find better sources. Ed [e-mail]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Forgot to mention. When you buy wood at the low prices, you will usually be required to buy the entire board, as is. That means you will get waste, from

5% to 25%. If you need two pieces 3" wide and the supplier only has 5" wide stock, it had either be long enough for the two, or you buy two boards. If it is 7 1/2" wide, you pay for it all even if you are only using 6" of it. Of course, we often use then up on other small projects later. Ed

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Mike, You evidently have never bought wood from any of the small "lumber" store around. I wanted to buy some cherry at a local place. They were right in that range. I have no reason to doubt this because I've seen similar prices. They make HD seem like a real bargain. Ed

[HomeBrewer]

It has been a while since you've been out of the house, huh? You're gonna drop dead the next time you have to buy gas.....

[Mike G]

I'm perfectly aware of what gas costs as well as what most common species of common exotics and domestics cost in a half dozen suppliers thank you . I have to be if I want to make any money on the commissions I get.

[Phisherman]

Don't know why, but at Lowes and HD hardwoods sold as dressed lumber. Oak is sold for 3-4 dollars a board foot, rough sawn. Except for a small amount, I'd avoid do-it-yourself stores.

[CW]

He went to a lumber yard, so you talk about the borg. Makes sense...

[Mike G]

Hi Ed

I buy stock from any one of a half dozen suppliers depending on which has the price and selection that is right.

As I said in my post Lowes sells S4S red oak at about four dollars a board foot last time I checked. Maybe two months ago. The smallest supplier I deal with is selling red oak for $2.83 a board foot. That figure was current last week when I gave a quote on a possible commission. This is, of course, rough cut which is well in line with my findings that the home stores usually run about twice the price for their S4S stock.

In other words I can't see even a small supplier lasting more then a week with a 300% mark up on their stock. Even if there were fools with more money then brains to buy it who'd be able to afford to buy their output.

:Let's us see. If I built an eight foot high cabinet and the shelves were

3/4" x 12" x 33", one shelf would be 2.75 board feet. Now, if I were to space them so I had, say, 6 shelves, that would be 16.5 board feet, and at $16.00 per board foot the cost would be $264.00 JUST FOR THE SHELVES. Anyone care to figure out what a small step stool would cost?

At sixteen dollars a board foot I want to know where this guy lives. I could move there and make a fortune just mail ordering stock and having it shipped in when I got an order. No warehouse, no overhead, just a connection to the internet.

Sorry Ed, if you are paying sixteen dollars a board foot for common domestic and exotics you're being taken. Granted if you live in an area where cherry doesn't grow you will pay more but still.........

Hell, I can mail order cherry for less then three dollars more then what I would pay here based on the last time I checked prices. For that matter I can mail order red oak, out of Yuma Az. not what you'd call it's normal range, S4S for only two dollars a board foot it would cost me right now locally and in the rough. Of course then I'd have to pay shipping and oak is a local product.

Take a look here

The price of red oak here in Ma.and in the rough ran between $2.83 a board foot to $3.63 a board foot as of last week.

And that's without really trying.

Have to stick to my opinion that anyone asking if a 300% markup on a common, non endangered, readily available wood, especially when you only have to drive twenty miles to a home store, is most likely a troll.

Guess I wandered a bit. Got varnish drying in the shop so I had the time.

Take care

[Joe_Stein (formerly KB8QLR)]

Upon reading the receipt a little closer I discovered they were selling the oak "per lineal foot" $2.59 / foot X 6. Go figure. Joe

[J. Clarke]

You don't say where you're located. To give this some perspective in the US take a look at , which will sell you 20 board feet of red oak, surfaced 2 sides, for $4.50/board foot, delivered west of the Mississippi ($10 flat charge for east). Also take a look at and , both of which are local to me, and both of which charge $3.10/board foot for red oak, in each case surfaced two sides.

The price you were charged, unless there was something really unusual about that board, is exceedingly high. If there's not a reasonably priced hardwood lumberyard in your area that will sell retail then consider mail order.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

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Mike, I think we are talking a real specialty for the supplier. We don't know what kind of a place this "lumber yard" really is. My example was Chase Lumber, about a mile from my house. The carry an assortment of construction lumber and pine boards at prices competitive to anyone. Hardwood, though, must be ordered. When they do so, they really bend you over and supply a dab of Vaseline with the price. It was a couple of years ago that I inquired about the cherry as I only needed one board. I just gulped and said "no thanks". Of course I had to drive an 80 miles round trip to get what I wanted at a reasonable price.

In the case of the OP, the seller may be in the same situation. They may keep a few pieces of hardwood for sale to the people that will want just that one little piece for trimming something in thir newly redecorated family room. They may sell two boards a year. They are far different than the places you or I would go to for material for a project and th e guy building sleves for an entertainment center probably knows better. (gosh, I'd hope so)

I see this often in foods. As an example, another couple of miles from the lumber yard I mentioned is a gourment shop and bakery. They make some very good bread and one day I was wandering around the store and saw a bottle of balsamic vinegar. The price was something like $9. I never heard of the particular brand, but the label stuck in my head. Later that day I was at the Stop & Shop. The same exact bottle was selling for $2.50.

Not to mention the cost of four 1/4-40 bolts and nuts in a plastic case bought at Le Fuqueyou Home Decor Center versus a box of 100 at the industrial supply house. Ed [e-mail]

[Lee]

[Rick Gibson]

I'm replacing all the baseboards and window trim in my place with white oak, I get it from my neighbour at $3 per board ft. delivered to my driveway. The mill 40 miles away sells it for $3.50 / bd. ft. + tax and I pick it up. The neighbours has been air dried in a shed for about 10 years since just before he retired. I have one window left to do in the living room and ran out of wood since I was in there anyway I decided to check the price at the local home hardware. They only had a small amount and guess what, just about the same a 1 x 2 x 72 piece $16 + tax. I think I will get another couple hundred board feet from the neighbour this week and no tax.

Rick

[George]

People who need one board or two will pay the price. That's the only way the small retailer survives - convenience.

Anyone building furniture requiring larger lots (should) would know enough to shop around, or buy from the mill.