Nick PooleA friend just sent me a meme that said "Happy Pride Month to Home Depot for not selling a single piece of straight wood"
brennen@brennen When I was picking through the 2x4s at Lowes I used to wonder what happens to the 70% of just unusably warped lumber that's left behind. Then I ordered lumber delivered to the house once and I found out.
wohali@North @brennen oh yeah, it can get bad.
when we had large amounts of wood delivered we had to a) use the SKU for higher quality 2x4s and b) order 25% extra to deal with how bad the warpage was
to be fair a lot of this is from the speed with which this stuff is grown and treated now, plus storage conditions (temp / %RH) that cause the warpage
but it's all bad.
an actual bus@wohali @North @brennen A good life hack here is buying one piece that's twice as wide as what you want and ripping it lengthwise. Assuming the piece has the pith running through the center (which they somehow all do) you'll be turning a piece of trash lumber into two quartersawn pieces which moves the least.
@renardboy @North @brennen technically? you are not allowed to do that under north american construction.
the grading requirements for wider lumber are different than for narrower lumber, especially if there are knots in the lumber (since a larger piece can have a larger knot but a smaller piece, even half that knot can be > the allowable)
if you don't care about the technicalities, and have a good table saw, sure, but many inspectors would spot that and get angry
Garrett Mace@wohali @renardboy @North @brennen Theoretically when framed buildings are demolished, they're supposed to recover as much of the lumber as possible for reuse. I wonder where someone could buy said ratty, nail-holed but strong and straight lumber?
@macegr @renardboy @North @brennen There's derating for old wood, esp. when outside the dryness range. If you're intending to use it in a structural manner, most inspectors will require laboratory analysis of a statistical sampling, assuming all the boards come from the same source.
Yeah yeah this all sounds like nitpicking but I speak from experience here at least 😩 and inspectors can be real sticklers. that said structural strength isn't an area in which i like to cut corners anyway
most of the reclaimed wood I use is non-structural, i.e. facing board for closets, pantries, storage, saunas, etc.
SomeVeganCheeseIsOk@wohali just started and cancelled a follow request and wanted to explain- I clicked follow *then* saw your follow policy and wanted to respect that, because "til thank you" is not exactly a stupendous interaction to judge character by- i was mostly thinking "lumber expertise, yay!".
@SomeVeganCheeseIsOk no worries!