Headed to a job site out in Bumfuck, Idaho and noticed something off about the lumber yard there.

I stopped at a place called Big Sky Timber on my way to a deck build last week. Their 'kiln dried' Douglas fir was still sweating in the stack, moisture meter reading 22 percent. Anybody else run into lumber yards passing off green stock as dry?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jordan11d ago

22 percent? Man, that's brutal. I didn't see it myself, but a buddy of mine named Derek bought a whole pallet of 'kiln dried' 2x6s from a place outside Boise last fall. He built a pergola with it, and within two months every single board had twisted and split like a pretzel. The lumber yard wouldn't take them back either, said he must have stored them wrong. He ended up having to tear the whole thing down and start over with stuff from a different supplier. Cost him a weekend and about 400 bucks in extra material.

bennett.nora11d ago

My buddy swore by the lumber from a local mill in Bend instead of the big box stores, said it was worth the drive. I grabbed ten 2x4s from there for a shed frame last spring and not a single one warped after a full summer of rain. Sometimes you just gotta hunt down the smaller guys who actually dry their wood right.