THE QUALITY OF LUMBER

The frame is the skeleton of your house. It is the bare bones upon which your floors, walls,
ceilings and roof must hang. To ensure the strongest and most durable structure possible,
you should purchase the highest quality lumber, (for cheap people like myself, I will add the
following caveat) at the lowest possible cost.
To assist you in this project, the lumber industry has set up a grading standard. They have a
letter and number system by which they judge each board for strength, appearance, dryness
and other factors. Rather than learn about lumber grades, it is easier to simply ask your
lumber yard for "standard or better". This term is meant to describe boards good enough to
use in the construction of a house. Yet you still might wish to examine the wood you are
buying before having it delivered or loaded onto your pickup truck. I have made the mistake
of not inspecting a purchase. When I unloaded my truck, I was confronted with wood that
looked like it should have been shipped to Australia to be made into boomerangs.
Many warped boards can be straightened as they are applied. 1X4s and smaller are
especially amenable to this treatment. However, a bent 2X6 is hopeless. It should be cut into
smaller pieces or used as scrap, or if you have enough bad wood, try to swing a package
deal with the Aussies.

CLASSIFICATION OF LUMBER
Trees are classified as either softwood orhardwood (table 3-3).Therefore, all lumber
isreferred to as either softwood or hardwood. Theterms softwood and hardwood
can be confusingsince some softwood lumber is harder than somehardwood lumber.
Generally, however, hardwoodsare more dense and harder than softwoods. Inaddition,
lumber can be further classified by the nameof the tree from which it comes.For
example,Douglas fir lumber comes from a Douglas fir tree;walnut lumber comes from a
walnut tree, and so forth.The quality of softwood lumber is classifiedaccording to its
intended use as being yard, structural,factory, or shop lumber.Yard lumber consists
ofthose grades, sizes, and patterns generally intendedfor ordinary building purposes.
Structural lumber is 2or more inches in nominal thickness and width and isused where
strength is required. Factory and shoplumber are used primarily for building cabinets
andinterior finish work.Lumber manufacturing classifications consist ofrough dressed
(surfaced) and worked lumber. Roughlumber has not been dressed but has been
sawed,edged, and trimmed. Dressed lumber is rough lumberthat has been planed on
one or more sides to attainsmoothness and uniformity. Worked lumber, inaddition to
being dressed, has also been matched,shiplapped, or patterned. Matched lumber is
tongueand groove, either sides or ends or both. Shiplappedlumber has been rabbeted on
both edges to provide aclose-lapped joint. Patterned lumber is designed to apattern or
molded form.Softwood GradingThe grade of a piece of lumber is based on
itsstrength, stiffness, and appearance. A high grade oflumber has very few knots or other
blemishes. A lowgrade of lumber may have knotholes and many looseknots. The lowest
grades are apt to have splits,checks, honeycombs, and some warpage. The gradeof
lumber to be used on any construction job isusually stated in the specifications
for a set ofblueprints. Basic classifications of softwood gradinginclude boards,
dimension, and timbers. The gradeswithin these classifications are shown in table 34.Lumber is graded for quality in accordance withAmerican Lumber Standards set by the
NationalBureau of Standards for the U.S. Department ofCommerce. The major quality
grades, in descendingorder of quality, are select lumber and common

North American softwood dimensional lumber sizes

Nominal
(in)

Actual

Nomina
l (in)

12

13

14

Actual

Nomina
l (in)

4 in 1 12 in
22
(19 mm 38 mm)

1 12 in 1 12 in
(38 mm 38 mm)

44

3 12 in 3 12 in
(89 mm 89 mm)

4 in 2 12 in
23
(19 mm 64 mm)

1 12 in 2 12 in
(38 mm 64 mm)

46

3 12 in 5 12 in
(89 mm 140 mm)

1 12 in 3 12 in
(38 mm 89 mm)

66

5 12 in 5 12 in
(140 mm
140 mm)

26

1 12 in 5 12 in
88
(38 mm 140 mm)

7 14 in 7 14 in
(184 mm
184 mm)

28

1 12 in 7 14 in
(38 mm 184 mm)

2 10

1 12 in 9 14 in
(38 mm 235 mm)

2 12

1 12 in 11 14 in
(38 mm 286 mm)

4 in 3 12 in
24
(19 mm 89 mm)

16

4 in 5 12 in
(19 mm
140 mm)

18

4 in 7 14 in
(19 mm
184 mm)

1 10

4 in 9 14 in
(19 mm
235 mm)

1 12

Actual

4 in 11 14 in
(19 mm
286 mm)

Hardwood dimensional lumber sizes

Surfaced 1
Side (S1S)

Nominal

Surfaced 2 sides (S2S)

3
1

2 in

8 in
(9.5 mm)

16 in (7.9 mm)

8 in

2 in (13 mm)

16 in (11 mm)

4 in

8 in (16 mm)

16 in (14 mm)

1 in or 44 in

8 in (22 mm)

13

1 14 in or 54 in

118 in
(29 mm)

1116 in (27 mm)

1 12 in or 64 in

138 in
(35 mm)

1516 in (33 mm)

2 in or 84 in

11316 in
(46 mm)

134 inches (44 mm)

16 in (21 mm)

3 in or

12

4 in

21316 in
(71 mm)

234 in (70 mm)

4 in or

16

4 in

31316 in
(97 mm)

334 in (95 mm)