Lumber prices

[Latech15]

I bought tons of lumber years ago and have been working that stash down and I now find myself in need of another stock up. I typically use a lot of cypress and poplar in my furniture projects and my supplier can get me 4/4 s4s material in both of those species for 1.65bf. He also has a nice load of mahogany at 4.50/bf and walnut at 6 something. I thought that the walnut was high. Not sure about the mahogany. I've never bought any, but it is really pretty. He has other varieties, but I have no basis for comparing those prices. How do they compare with your area?

He is also selling me Baltic birch 1/2" for $20/sheet, pre finished birch 1/2" for 32.00 and pre finished 3/4 for 37.50. I thought those were really good considering the prices for the crap at the boxes.

[Steve N]

You might be lower on ply, depending on where you are in relation to shipping ports, compared to someone in the interior due to less shipping cost.

I would think same would be said of Mahogany. or any hardwoods from South America, and possibly from Africa.

You should be lower on cypress because again you are closer to the source, so lower shipping.

Poplar is a universal, and is sourced from many points in the Eastern half of the country, similar to aspen being lower in the Western states. Overall both are a lower dollar wood, until you add a lot of shipping charges.

Your Walnut is higher because it isn't local in great numbers if at all, and incurs more shipping.

Seems there is a theme to that shipping cost

[Robert Adams]

Yeah what Steve said though hey tend to over charge for the longer shipping distance. I have seen allot of walnut in the dfw area for 6 to 8$ and some even higher even in Arkansas where they have some trees to cut.

I was getting #1 cherry for 2.25 but the supplier has run out and I need to place another order... select is 3.25.
Poplar is often over 2 here and pine is up there with hardwoods.


Your ply prices are good. Plywood has increased in price a good bit the last couple months even though everything associated with its production has gone down primarily fuel which is less than half the cost now. Everyone is raking in huge profits due to not lowering prices and eliminating fuel surcharges.

I have seen a quick decrease in quality of the plywood at the borgs along with the price increase as well as reduced selection. Plywood from the usually more pricey plywood supplier here is cheaper than the borgs here.

I think it's time to make a trip to Dayton to visit Loml's sister and husband and haul a load of lumber home.

[Curlycherry]

My local supplier says that walnut is going overseas in mass quantities and so the price is high. A week ago Monday they quoted me wholesale prices of ~7/bd ft for 4/4. They were interested in buying some of my stash because it is getting harder and harder for them to find it.

[jteneyck]

I live in the NE where a lot of hardwoods grow, including poplar and walnut. The prices you quoted are low compared to here - across the board for KD S4S material unless you are talking 1000 BF minimum type quantities. Those plywood prices are good, too. I thought I got a deal yesterday when I bought some 3/4" x 5' x 5' Baltic birch plywood for $52/sheet.

John

[fredhargis]

The price of walnut right now is really up there, if you can find it. The others stuff you listed look good to me. Spent a lot of time in Alexandria over the years when I had a day job, love it down there.

[packerguy®]

Most domestics are really low right now, except for walnut. I bought over 1000 bf of nice AD material last summer for just a tad over $2/bf. Retail wise its silly, and the quality sucks. Last time I got any retail, it was almost $4, wholsale, with a 250 bf break. I almost puked.

Mahogany prices has normally pretty consistent, and if its nice, that price probably isn't terrible if your not buying hundreds of feet.

Cant talk to ply prices. I dont do cabinets so I just get my 1/4 stuff for urn bases from Menards. ~$30 a sheet for ACX sanded ply works for me.

[Robert Adams]

Well I just got back from picking up some cherry and plywood. They were out of #1 rough so I ended up with select and better, SLR S2S 13/16 for $3.31 bf. Only one piece had a little strip of sap wood in two spots. All the rest were all heartwood.
The other suppliers were all $4 or more. Very happy with the quality of the lumber. I didn't pick it myself but it was as good as if I had. In fact it's better than the last batch of FAS I bought from another supplier.

1/4" A4 mdf core plywood was $56 a sheet. Very nice book matched sliced veneered sheet. Even got a couple sheets of their china birch which I like as its allot better than the garbage that the borgs have. Sad that the import is better stuff. It was $24 for 1/2 and $16 for 1/4.

So a couple of very current prices there.

[AHill]

Compared to So California, those prices are insanely low. Especially for S4S (you sure it's S4S and not S2S?). I'd want to take a look at the BB before I'd commit. Those are cheaper than the junk that passes for BB at the big box stores. True BB here runs about $75-90 a sheet for unfinished 3/4" 4'x8' sheets. I can get walnut a tad cheaper here, since most of the walnut comes from CA anyway. Thousands of acres of walnut trees in the central valley.

[Steve N]

Because all of your scrub bushes burn to the ground out there annually, you have no trees, or they are in protected areas. So you have to pay S&H from somewhere back here to get wood. Obviously I do not live everywhere, but paying attention to these discussions even areas with only a few species, IE: Colorado with a lot of Aspen, and Pine, Fir etc has lower prices on other varied hardwoods than Cali. It's like they know you don't have much choice, so if you want some hardwood it will be even higher than price plus S&H.

Don Juvet uses a lot of redwood on his work, and it is fabulous. Beside that, not too much choice.