Lumber

Buying surplus lumber: what to know

Most surplus lumber is what was left when the framing was done: part of a lift of studs, joist offcuts too long to throw away, or a special order that never got used. It is the same wood that went into the house next door, and a job's worth of it often goes for less than the lumberyard's delivery fee.

Check before you buy

• Sight down every board from one end

  crown, twist and bow hide in a stack. A little crown is normal framing stock; a propeller is firewood.

• Check the grade stamp and treatment tag

  treated lumber rated for ground contact says so on the tag. Untreated wood in the dirt rots no matter what the price was.

• Ask how it was stored

  lumber kept flat, off the ground and out of the rain stays straight. A pile tarped on grass all summer usually did not.

• Never buy cut or notched engineered lumber

  LVLs and I-joists carry loads by their exact profile. Once someone has trimmed one, its rating is gone.

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