How do I buy wood cut to size?

 

Buying wood can feel like a daunting task. In some way or another we all have wood in our homes, gardens or businesses and the likelyhood is that whether you see it as a hobby or a necessity, it is an important part of your environment. Whether its structural, decorative, functional or architectural, the chances are at some point you will need to purchase new or replacement timber.

Despite its basic principles being so familiar to us, wood can also be a bit baffling. Wood is wonderfully variable and versatile which is what makes it so inspiring but its this innate diversity that can make it such a confusing material.

So here are its various forms you can expect to find it in and how you can use a few simple tips to identify the different attributes and speak the same language as the people who sell it.

These are our top 5 things you need to consider when buying wood cut to size.

1. Where can you buy it from?

You can either buy your wood from a timber merchant, builders merchant or DIY homestore. The DIY places are very accessible and are great for turning up 7 days a week where you can walk freely between their aisles and pick out your pieces from set sizes. The drawbacks are that you have to compromise on the thickness width and length of the piece as the set sizes are fixed. This is where they guess the most popular or useable sizes for their customers. Another important thing to note is that its rarely premium quality and they are known for the cheaper basic quality. Timber merchants often have a mill where they can machine timber to your bespoke sizes and offer cut to size and made to order services. They buy in packs imported from all over the world and provide more premium quality timber and specialist types of wood species.

2. How do i choose what type of wood? 

Timber merchants or importers stock wood in all different varieties. Slow or fast grown, softwood or hardwood, dense or lightweight, oily or resinous, there is never one type that does all jobs. They each have their unique properties that present strengths or weakneses in different environments due to the different climates of their origin.

Choosing your ideal type of timber for your project is easier than you think and you can filter this easily by a few basic categories. Indoors, outdoors, good for painting, dark or light in appearance, contact with water, structurally sound etc. Your timber merchant should be able to guide you based on these different applications. We have a helpful tool to help with the selection process. This info can be found on our What Wood Works page.

3. Will it be rough or smooth?

Timber packs are at various set lengths which vary for different species (wood/tree type). The pack is made up of boards which are usually cut from the tree into square edged planks which have been sawn roughly in the forest with crude thick sawblades. This means you will get saw marks, tapering, lumps bumps and an overall course splintered texture.

Sawn boards can be bought from your timber merchant in either parallel sawn (similar widths) or random width packs. Buying sawn boards is only recommended if you have the tools to machine the boards to a finished state as it will be rough and splintered. Machining to a finish will not only make it smooth to touch, paint or treat but it will also make it regular and even all the way round so you can build things with. If you like to machine/cut/plane yourself this is where you can order sawn boards.