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What Makes Crap Lumber (It's not Always Obvious)

Essential Craftsman

116,060 views

Have questions about lumber quality? Check out this video because not all boards are created equally. Marking and Cutting Pro Tips here: Marking and Cutting Pro Tips

Music in this video: Lackawanna Trail - Roy Williams

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20 Comments

@paulburket 7 months ago (edited)

Kids in school should get 10 min of his videos, twice daily. It’s practical knowledge dosed out just right. Side effects: wisdom.

@Just_A_MG 7 months ago

When i worked at lowes, if I ever found a board when flat stacking that had a knot going through the board from the side, or a 1x3 with the first knot he showed, I'd throw it on the ground and hope it broke so we couldn't sell it to anyone.

@contemporaryprimitiveman3469 7 months ago

Plenty of junk lumber out there.
I had a great builder working on my house years ago. On the first load of delivered lumber he stood there and picked it all over and sent half of it back.
I asked if he couldn’t use some of it. He said that’s not the point. He said if you accept the crap, they will keep bringing it. If you keep sending it back they start picking it for you. They don’t like the extra work either.
And the top of the stack is always the junk nobody wants.

@NoNonsense1976 7 months ago

My dear old Dad stepped on a defect in a scaffolding plank many years ago. The plank snapped in two and Dad fell to the ground from the second story. The plank only broke once but Dad had two broken wrists, a broken arm, and a cluster of broken ribs. That's just one reason that I use the ($$$) engineered aluminum planks.

Safety first!

@LarryTaylor-l5m 7 months ago (edited)

The town I used to live in had an “84 Lumber” store. I was picking through a bunch of warped and twisted 2x4s when a store rep came out very angry asking e what was doing. I told him I was looking for some usable wood. “You aren’t allowed to sort lumber here. You take what’s on top of the stack.” Then he asked what I was building. I told him that I was NOT building a boat. I unloaded my truck back in the rack and drove away, never to return.

@04fys513 6 months ago

For years I went to the big box stores out of convenience. I built 2 fences, a few sheds, and even framed a few rooms. It was a lot of work to find boards that were just acceptable. One day I decided to look around at a local lumber yard. I couldn’t believe the difference. Almost every board on a given pallet was good, and it even costs less than the crap at the box store. That is where I go now.

@samarsenault 7 months ago

As someone who went to various Engineering programs in school for 8 years and has been an engineer for about 16 years in the workplace Scott speaks a LOT of engineering lingo. He is essentially an engineer.

@dlgarner 7 months ago

This is definitely the kind of video that can get the general public to watch. Be sure to make some shorts clips out of this.

@robertlight2007 7 months ago

When I was a kid; my dad and I would go to Diamond National and pick out lumber out of the ‘cull’ pile for free before they burned it. You would find a a lot of real good lumber with a knot at the end of a 16’ 2x10. You still had probably 15’ of good board.

@doublepenn5732 7 months ago

How long were you at home Depot looking for all these bad boards? 1 maybe 2 minutes 😂😂😂😂

@BTimmer 7 months ago

30 years ago after we purchased our home, I noticed the living room 8' window header was sagging. I pulled a permit, braced the ceiling, and removed the header. I discovered the 2" x10" or 12" header had a big knot in it. Major error in construction. I replaced the header with proper lumber, passed the inspection, finished it up, and it's holding well 30 years later.

@na2305 6 months ago

You are so right. When a board fails and you fall, you fall faster than your brain has time to react.

@johnsrabe 7 months ago (edited)

If I find boards like that at Home Depot, I break them in half. And most of us toss the bad boards to the back so the next guy doesn’t have to deal with them. You can find good stuff; but you do have to dig.

@vernonpeterson4021 7 months ago

I dealt with a local family run lumber yard for almost 40 years. When they brought out a unit of sticks, I did not send the crooked ones back. I would cut about 70 percent into the side of the board and straighten those boards when creating bearing posts, gang studs etc. In other words, I tried to help out my supplier while not hurting my project. When they get a bunch of crooked lumber back, it's a loss to their bottom line. Hurts the workers at the lumber yard also. Less money for their 401k's etc. etc. But in return, when I pull lumber out of the stack, I set aside the junk and go for the straight stuff. I helped them and they helped me!

@marclours 7 months ago

"Fun to look at, miserable to work with" all said there :)
Cheers teacher!

@AerialLensVideo 7 months ago

Crap lumber? I'd say a pretty reliable hint is when you look around and you notice you are in a L*wes store.
Thanks for your video - Always great!

@ReignForever 7 months ago

I work in a Home Hardware in canada... if i made a video showcasing our lumber quality, and defects... i would be fired immediately... and everyone would have a good laugh at what we use to build our houses here... 😅

@Lkeyhacle1465 7 months ago

Knots are dangerous too. I’ve almost fell because of them. And almost shot myself with nail guns because of them. All it takes is not paying attention once to get hurt.

@garymontesano5903 7 months ago

Here are a few more things to watch out for: dry rot, cups (especially on wider dimension lumber), twists and bows. Sight down whatever piece you are considering. Purchasing material with any of the problems mentioned will now be yours to deal with on the job, and many of them cannot be overcome. Do yourself a favor: be fussy. And do the store a favor by not leaving the stack in disarray. Being allowed to high-grade lumber is a privilege. If too many people abuse it, in the future it may become store policy that sorting is disallowed. I've been to lumber yards with such a policy, and after looking over what was available, just walked. Thanks for all of the valuable information you provide.

@Mike-vk4cd 7 months ago (edited)

as a machinist working in a cast iron/stainless steel shop. sometimes the cast iron castings are so bad. You make your final cut and you have a huge cavity in there. Like the knots you were showing. Then you have no idea if the entire casting is messed up. you can always weld and re machine. but who knows if it has other pockets in there.