DON'T Buy These Boards from Lowe's 

I would.. but I can almost never get out.. so since the local supply houses don't deliver and don't do 'retail' then it's clear that local supply near me effectively don't exist as a source for wood.

Easy, my locals have worse lumber than Lowe's.

I'm surprised the wood I get from Home Depot doesn't sprout leaves.

I think you gotta give the big boxes more credit... There was a time when plywood from my local HD was unusable - even for kindling. But lately their stock is reasonable quality. Not cabinet grade or anything, but reasonable for what it is.

​@@indisputablefacts8507 laughing a bit on the mention of cabinet grade. I was trying to build some cabinets.. ordered (for delivery) stuff to build some from Lowes. None of it was usable for cabinetry - ok, sure for the supports (1x2s), yeah, and the hinge and drawer hardware, yup. I had a large piece that was unusable because it had a huge knothole (or knot) on one side, and a different knothole on the back-side just 16 inches away laterally. When verifying (pre-delivery) they said it was never less than grade B. To this day, I can't find a use for the plywood.

Yoooo Vince my man!

@@jayrob7418 what up buddy!?!?

“Wayne’s Wall...party time...excellent”.

Would be cool to see that face of the board run over a joiner or a thickness planer.

@@FinishCarpentryTV Where in DFW (Fort Worth side) area do you get this? Thanks for showing this

I found this when I started to buy paint commercially but the biggest change to my life was when started working with an abrasives supplier. I use different tools, buy less expensive sanding disks that are higher quality, so many things.

Big box stores are much more expensive to run than lumber yards or warehouses, and the consumer pays for it!

@@2003Trailblazer Think about it, big box stores warehouse 95% stuff that you yourself are not going to purchase. And like Ryan says, you pay a premium on that which they reduce by volume but only so much. You can usually order through a smaller tool dealer exactly what you want, lots of them will have special rebates they can offer you and process for you.

Lumber yards have 2 sets of pricing, one for contractors and one for everyone else. You will pay more for everything but the increase in quality is well worth it.

Yep. We re-did all the baseboard in the house and HD was 2.34 a foot where local lumber store was under $1 per foot. Both primed FJP. 36 16 foot boards and it adds up. Same thing with some crown. Just 5 16 foot pieces, but it was a Sunday and the lumber yard wasn't open. Went to HD and said nope I can't do it. I'm not gonna pay $180 for the same thing that is $80 if I wait until Monday. One other thing is the difference in finish carpentry vs rough. Had same guys who put in luxury vinyl and carpet do the base and shoe as well as some rough carpentry (replace water damage in areas of floor etc). Great for the vinyl, carpet, and rough but definitely not finish carpenters as far as just baseboard and shoe molding goes let alone crown.

Yep, I have seen that.

Big box stores you have to load wood on cart and then go pay. True lumberyards you can pay then pull to pile of wood and load truck feet from the pile of lumber. Anything more in cost at lumberyard is saved in speed of loading. Or at least it is for me.

@@kevinmeyer8068 absolutely worth it. I build in a busy metro area with around the clock traffic, so whenever possible have materials delivered. My moulding suppliers and lumberyards deliver for free or charge a delivery fee that is less than what I would pay one of my guys to gopher it. Whatever material is culled from the delivery we just send back with the next drop, or if it at the end of the project, we’ll return it when heading that direction. I really try to limit wheel time, as it’s not the best use of my time.

@@FinishCarpentryTV isn’t there a good lumber yard in FTW , ?

We all started from the bottom, and we are all guilty of doing crappy jobs because of the budget, because we all know that it doesn’t matter how good you are if the material is crap. Some people prefer to spend their money on appliances or light fixtures instead of finish carpentry or even cabinetry. I believe that if you are proud of what you do and do good craftsmanship eventually you will have the chance toleave those jobs and move to work with better budgets, and then when you put together your craftsmanship and good materials, the result it’s so good that the rest just comes by itself..

Lowe’s is well aware of what they’re selling, it’s all based on price. My cousin is the owner of an international bearing manufacturer and goes to China to have things made and he says that what you spec is what they produce and if something if questionable is because you let it occur. He said they don’t want to lose customers so they don’t make it up on the fly. One of my customers wives work for Home Depot corporate and says that say a range hood was returned and it’s missing the hardware to mount it they will put it back on the shelf hoping customer # 2 has screws etc to install it and it doesn’t come back again. They do get a margin on defective returns, returned things don’t always go back to the vendor so that range hood is all profit. I only buy my lumber from a quality local yard and it’s delivered for free. The 600 feet of crown molding was even carried (I helped) into the foyer and stacked to let it acclimate to the interior. Driver earned a $25 tip for that.

I think you mean the board is cupped or warped.

Finger jointed stock is a hodgepodge of flat/quarter/whatever sawn scraps really… they’re chunks too short to do anything else with. All those chunks expand/contract differently and sooner or later you *will* see the joints through the paint.

@@HBSuccess That's why God invented popular.

@@toms641 Poplar?

@@toms641 Its almost as expensive as oak in my area. It will be MDF or FJ pine for me from now on.

Can be hard on your lungs to

I was rounding over some edges on some coated 1 by a awhile back, it was a small brass pilot bushing bit, and that coating literally ate the bushing off of it. I just happened to notice it was leaving a small lip on top and that's when I noticed the bushing was gone. Outside corners will be sharp as a razor too, which is great in one way and horrible in another.

Clay is mud, mud is fine rocks.

John doe, what do you use the chips for ?

The old "common lumber full of knots and checks" probably looks better and has less imperfections than todays finish grade/sanded real wood

I agree 100% ! I love when they stack wood that is not supported properly on the ground and you get all this small gravel imbedded in the wood .

Last project I preordered windsorone and the lumber came wrapped and strapped to a 2x12 from the distributor. It was super clean. I go back a week later and grab a board that was in stock, dings and scuffs everywhere. If the piece is in a high visibility area it takes for ever to clean it up. What also sucks are banding marks!

That's what I was wondering. They plane one side totally flat then just fill the imperfections on the other side instead of planing any further and risk thinning the board

Yes, it seems like a good idea actually.

U hit the board on the head! Yes it’s a perfect planed down 1/2” and to make 3/4” u needs car bondo!

I wonder if that's the Chinese boards they stock. I trimmed out my house myself and didnt like how their 1x's looked. Wound up using the Chilean 1x's from Home Depot instead, much better quality, nice square corners and thin primer. Filled and sanded the nail holes twice and used a foam roller with SW paint. Looks like a million bucks now!

m&m dip ship lath.

@@bigpjohnson doesn't make any sense to get wood from China. It's a pain in the ass and expensive to ship. Especially when the US and Canada produce the vast majority of the globe's lumber.

They are actually a type of powder coating for wood that is heat-treated. Jeldwen builds the door for them and the frames are the same way. If you buy an actual jeldwen it's primed completely different.

Exactly! Takes our hobbyist projects to another level of quality.

I supply the secondary lumber processor that fingerjoints and primes the product that is in the big box stores. The softwood spices that are used are everything from four different spruce spices to five different balsams plus white, red and yellow pine. The density between all these softwoods varies due to the growing season and the resin in the wood. This is what give you the weight difference. All the processors of fingerjointed and primed lumber are held to only use KD lumber that is dried to 12 percent moisture or less. The glue in this process only works if the lumber is KD to 15 percent or less. This product is marketed to the developers apartment owners and those looking to put as I say lipstick on their pig. The custom home builder is not what this product is going to satisfy. I been manufacturing and developing processes in producing fingerjointed lumber then is then primed with various coatings for now over 45 years. A Hugh learning curve at great expense over those years has brought to what you see in the market place to day. For the most part all fingerjointed lumber primed or not is from low grade what is four common or less. The average length of a fingerjointed piece is between 8”-14”. If you look at most softwood trees that is the distance between the branches or what is a years growth for most softwood spices. I understand why this craftsmen felt compelled to make this video. But the product was never intended to be a high end product. The big boxes are the ones that wanted this on their lumber racks. I produce over 30 million bdft of this product a year and have seen growth in the market of 10 to 20 percent every year. I don’t think it’s going to change. I will be increasing production to be double by 2025 only because the market needs it.

And in my area (NoVA) the W1 is actually cheaper than HD and Lowe’s! Crazy!

FWIW dept, a hardwood 2X4 for example, fresh cut from a hardwood sawmill has never been 2 inches thick, but 1-5/8" as standard in industry for many decades. Not to say a full 2" thick board is never cut, maybe specialty, etc.

@@pete49327 Standard dimensions for carpentry lumber, softwoods, has been the same in industry for over 50 years that I have been using them. 1"xX" is 3/4"xX"-1/2" while 2"xX" is 1/2" smaller in both dimensions. RAW, unplaned lumber is full size as called out. The reduction in dimensions of STANDARD lumber is due to the amount planed from sawcut in order to smooth, straighten and achieve the industry standard dimensions. Hardwoods and other specialty lumber has different standard dimensions. This is also due to the amount planed to smooth and straighten but less is usually removed as hardwood and other specialty lumber is more valuable and is usually planed by the furniture maker, boat builder aircraft constructor, etc. This video was concerning standard dimensions for carpentry lumber that the Lowes, Home Depot and some others don't measure up to. This actually applies to plywood, too. Also, the plywood industry has gone metric and standard dimension plywood thickness for construction grade plywood is no longer available either.

Deceptive? not if you know the actual versus the nominal size. 1/2" water pipe in copper is 5/8 OD & 3/4 in PVC or galvanized. Its all about the right product for the job. Plywood is always scant on its actual thickness. the more you know the more people will amaze you.

@@bobwoods5017 I understand that. Industry standard for a 1x6 is 3/4"×5-1/2" and 2x4 is 1-1/2"×3-1/2" but these boards DON'T MEET the standard. Callout size and actual size are standardized. When you design for standard and the material is shy of standard, more material is required than would be with standard dimension materials. All builders understand this. The "callout" size and actual size were standardized for building materials a VERY long time ago. Pipe callout size and actual size are also standardized...within their industry.

I am 170 miles away from a dealer. Bummer

@p. carr: I cannot imagine that there is any cabinet grade 1x2 available. I would have ripped a wider board to get what I needed. Filling gaps between boards is futile because those 1x2s are going to move alot.

@@really2345 Yes, ripping a wider board would have been better. My frameless uppers were completely flat on the bottom. I added the trim to hide outlet strips and LED lighting underneath.

That has everything to do with the wood being to wet when they put the primer on. Ever have a board the weight a lot more then the rest

Heck no, Home Depot has atrocious service and electrical supply, as well as laminate flooring prices being way higher than Lowe’s.

Yeah... The Lowes near me looks like a ghost town most of the time... Then home depot, literally a minute down the road is usually packed like it's Xmas. Very odd how bigger of a crowd they manage to draw in. Sometimes I go to Lowes just so I can get stuff in peace lol.

Wish Menards had a better hardware department. Their power tool lineup isn’t any good.

Menards sucks in my opinion. They built one 1/4 mile from my house right across the street from Lowe’s. I still turn right amd go to Home Depot. I don’t like Lowe’s either. Neither store keeps the finish carpenter in mind but I would 100 to one go to Lowe’s or Home Depot over menards. Their tools suck, it’s too damn big, and I hate having to go to this desk to order my material, then go to this register to pay for it, then go to my truck and have to go out behind the store. I bought a cpl sheets of drywall from menards. Took me almost an hour. I can load up drywall on a cart in Lowe’s amd Home Depot and go pay for them easily amd have it loaded in my truck and on my way back to the job in ten or fifteen mins.

@@Soviet_Group_Animations and do you ever get the 11% back. Few times I sent in receipt I never got my discount back. Menards is piss poor on safety. It sucks when you want to get something and the aisle is closed because they are getting something down in an aisle next to the the aisle you want to go down. Home Depot and Lowe’s does this for customer safety wich is great. A Lowe’s by us had a fatal accident. A Menards worked pushed a pile of tile down on a customer killing him. Might take a little longer to show at the other stores but much safer.

@@AlexKunstar same in my area. I prefer Lowe’s for this reason, but I never purchase lumber from a box store. At least at Lowes the store is clean & organized. HD’s in my area look like they were hit by a hurricane.

To be fair, with finger-joined boards, the grain & cut of each finger-joined section are likely to be different throughout a different piece, which will work to resist deformation. Also, the super-thick coating will result in much slower (if any) moisture movement into / out of the piece. Cupping isn't really a concern I would take from this. My only real concerns are the off-sizing, lack of square and the way the coating is prone to 'chipping' when worked unless you tape it prior to cutting.

@@melmartinez7002 fingerjointed material still cups twists and bows, Windsor is rated as an exterior product also. Believe me that thick coating does not protect from water wicking, the box store finger joint wouldn’t survive outside

@@dylanhatch4086 I wasn't saying anything about using these sort of boards outside. Fundamentally, wood changing shape - bowing, cupping, etc. - is due to moisture moving in or out of the wood -- drying out or absorbing moisture from the air. This happens even indoors, depending on the relative humidity of the air in the building. Moisture ingress/egress is likely to be a much slower effect on coated boards. Finger jointed boards tend to have the grain oriented differently in each section. So any shape changes will tend to be in opposition to each other. This is certainly not proof against bowing, but will definitely provide some resistance to it. Unless you are using these boards in an environment where you expect wide differentials in humidity, I repeat that I just wouldn't personally be as concerned about the possible shape changes as I would with the more up-front problems of being off-size and not square and the ugly chipping that happens with that coating.

@@melmartinez7002 yeah I hear you, and as far as my original comment, i know grain direction varries through out any fj board, i also meant the direction the finger joint it’s self, Windsor’s fjoints are edge jointed instead of face jointed perpindicular to the widest face of the board. Hard to explain you can see it in the video though

my theory is lowes does their best to offer whatever they can get .. i work at one .. we have not had a chainsaw this whole year . we have not had a riding mower in 2 months .. we are again running out of lots of things .. house building has had to slow down because of it ..

@Faux Que we have grills and picknic tables at mine .. we dont have cabinet knobs or sheet rock putty .

@@williemoon7522 the Lowe’s by my house ran completely out of employees

@@titirititiri6360 HA !! we go thru plenty also ..my boss just quit today .

@@williemoon7522 that’s your opportunity man! Tell you you will fill in

I dont think anyone here would argue otherwise. Its more that they force the price point from suppliers as their bottom line and then say whatever you have to do to make that happen if it looks good on the shelf is all good.

You're basically scraping off a layer of clay. What did you think was going to happen?

@@jimurrata6785 before I did that I assumed it was normal primer like what shoulda been on it! Now I know

A home incinerator? That's just a little sus. lmao

@@davidpetersen1 my grandmother criticized my incenerator once. Once.

@@JW-el5cy No doubt the family is still wondering about the sudden departure on an endless world cruise. Keep those postcards coming!. lmao You a head boiler as well? Got stuff on the stove top?

As a very young child I remember the 55 gallon incinerator being fired up nightly. One moonless night my older brother's friend ran into 💥 the now roughly 30 gallon incinerator causing the nicest display of sparks 🌋 and a trip to the emergency room for him......Don't run barefoot in the dark in a yard you've never been to before

@@1STGeneral Always good adivice.. to not run barefoot at night in a strange yard. lol

I usually plan to budget 2-3 minutes per board to sort through the stack to find something usable.

Looks so good, don’t let my wife see it!

That stuff is GETTO

It will be outdated and torn out in a few years when it’s more of a trendy embarrassment than it already is.

I friggin hate the look of shiplap. You want shiplap buy a boat.

It’s ghetto if it looks like shit-lap...

That's exactly what they're doing It's awful

Paint is clay based

"Different wood grains and whatnot" * Whatnot = etcetera :^)

Indeed, two incredibly accurate and valuable points. Curious if the customer asked him to do the job over because the deliverable as not shiplap.

To each his own. Some people might prefer the look. It sure won't have any wood grain showing. There is always a variety of boards and finishes at the big box stores. He could used the cheaper PVC boards for the ship lap and the end result would have looked almost the same.

As long as you get all your wood for a project from one source, you are less likely to get bit by the off sizing (thickness & width) problem. You still have to deal with the lack of square and proneness to chipping of the coating. If your project is not cosmetically sensitive to the lack-of-square edges or if you are willing to fill gaps and chips with putty or caulk as needed, then whether those are problems depends on what you are doing. Those can be huge problems for a contractor doing large volumes of work, of course. Less so for a DIY one-off.

No, it wont! Its about bottom line price point for the stores and the majority of consumers that shop there.