Tag Archives: lumber quality

Hart and Home Youtube Episode II

Hart and Home YouTube – Episode II

If you missed our previous episode, please go to bottom of this article, on left, and click on arrow to go to Hart and Home YouTube – Episode I. Moving forward:

Planning and Consultation – our Building Design team will work with you, for as long as it takes and with as many revisions as are necessary to assist you in not making crucial errors you will regret forever. Whether it takes one quote or a hundred, we will get you there.

Since Kevin and Whitney ordered their building, I have penned this article: https://hansenpolebuildings.com/2021/02/a-shortlist-for-smooth-barndominium-sailing/. In a year it has (with nearly 100,000 reads) become my third most read blog article of all time!

We have also added an in-house Barndominium Floor Plan Specialist to our team. This service creates for you your ideal dream floor plan, as every barndominium Hansen Pole Buildings provides is 100% custom designed to best meet our clients and their loved ones wants and needs. Professional floor plans and elevation drawings can be yours for as little as $695 and should you happen to move forward and order your barndominium from us, we offer a credit back against your investment of $695 – effectively making this a free service for a one story barndominium!

You can find out more about this service here: https://hansenpolebuildings.com/post-frame-floor-plans/?fbclid=IwAR2ta5IFSxrltv5eAyBVmg-JUsoPfy9hbWtP86svOTPfG1q5pGmfhA7yd5Q

Shipping phase – unless you have hidden in a cave during the COVID-19 era, you have read, heard or seen on TV numerous supply chain challenges. Pre-COVID we could deliver most any building, anywhere in two to three weeks. Now we ask our clients to allow eight to 12 weeks, due to seemingly totally random unavailability of products. Special order items, most noticeably non-standard windows and doors, can take even longer.

You may have noticed fuel getting increasingly more expensive. Back in my early days in post frame, this was a different case – fuel was cheap and it made sense to have our vendors deliver to our yard, we would then custom package your building components and deliver on our fleet of trucks. Well, not only are fuel costs rising, those trucks are not inexpensive either. We have become logistical wizards and now rely primarily upon our partner suppliers and manufacturers to ship direct to your site (other than specialty items shipped from our warehouse). Many of these deliver on route trucks, making numerous deliveries allowing for shipping costs to be split amongst a plethora of orders. This process allows for us to hold costs of transportation to a minimum. As well, we do not tie up hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars in flooring huge inventories. It also reduces the number of times any given item is handled, minimizing possible damage.

One challenge we are brainstorming upon (and could use your input on) is getting all of these vendors to call our clients prior to delivery. Our Purchase Orders give explicit instructions to call 24 to 48 hours prior to anticipated deliveries. We have found our steel roofing and siding partners to be best at this, however for some other vendors this struggle is real, as making an actual phone call is seemingly near impossible.

Lumber quality – we deal with wholesale lumber providers all across America. In most instances, they go out of their way to deliver high quality materials to our clients. Because we are repeat, volume purchasers, our clients typically find they are getting better lumber than they would get as a one-time buyer (not to mention we can source product from vendors who will not sell direct to the public). 

Our Construction Manual does devote four pages to lumber delivery and quality. Our Materials Department also provides information via email, as we want each of our clients to receive materials within grade specifications. Prompt reporting of non-conforming lumber allows for us to have our providers make no charge replacements (as in Kevin’s case with his bad column).

Catch you soon for our next episode!

Part IV: Lumber Quality

We Don’t Always Do Things Perfect, But We Do Listen Part IV

Last summer Hansen Pole Buildings Supplied a pole building kit package to a client who experienced a few challenges and took the time to address them.

Here is the last portion of the email I was responding to (the past three days’ blogs dealt with his items #1-5):
“On the design flaws, and other issues, here is what I have experienced.

6-Lumber Quality

WaneI know you sub this out as well but I was appalled.  The 2X6’s I picked up from Home Depot to finish the job were 10 times better than the stuff I received with my kit.  I had 2X6’s with BARK still attached to them.  I had to use some of them for scrap to cut up because there was not enough edge to screw anything to, on either side!!!”

My response: The “Allowable Defects” section of Chapter 3 of the Construction Manual address your lumber quality concerns. Excerpted from it:

  • Wane – up to 2/3 thickness and 1/2 width for 1/4 length.   An example would be on a 12’ long 2×6, wane could be 2-3/4” on wide face, 1” in depth across 1-1/2” face and 3’ in length.

In the event you received lumber which was outside of the defects allowed within the lumber grading rules, our office would certainly have arranged to have had them replaced at no charge to you. This is why we insist clients inspect and report damages within 48 hours, to give adequate time for replacing any lumber which does not meet standards. We rarely get this complaint about lumber quality, but you can be sure our lumber buyer, Justine, will be having a discussion with this particular lumber supplier. We don’t expect every stick of lumber to be perfect, but we do expect ALL of it to meet lumber quality grade standards….and then some. Once again, we can’t fix what we don’t know is a problem, until “after the fact”.
“7-Delivery Timing

I will preface this by saying that I was not ready for construction by the time all my materials arrived, which was a good thing.  If I was counting on delivery to build in a timely manner I would have been in trouble.  The last thing to arrive, almost 3 weeks after everything else had been delivered, was the hardware needed to attach the trusses.  If I was on a timeline, and not building by myself (literally), I would have been stuck waiting on fasteners and nails.  (Those 20D nails might be a bit much for some of that Kiln Dried lumber as well)”

My response: Our goal is to have materials arrive before they are needed. As such some suppliers will deliver early, especially if it minimizes their transportation costs. This helps to keep the price of your (and any other) building kit as reasonable as possible. As our warehouse controls shipments we make (such as your hardware), the schedule for delivery of your fasteners and nails was timed to coincide fairly closely to the arrival of the specially ordered and manufactured glu-laminated columns.

Folks tend to forget this is an online internet sale. If you purchase from other vendors on-line, (such as Amazon.com) I doubt you can specify when you want things delivered.   We do really strive to deliver things in an organized sequence: construction manual, plans, lumber & hardware, doors and windows, steel roofing and siding. And all within a 2 week “target”. Justine, our materials coordinator, works diligently at this. But even she can only do so much when the actual manufacturing, loading and delivering are outside of her direct control.

From Chapter 11 of the Construction Manual: Pre-drill 20d nail holes to avoid splitting.

As our youngest daughter would say, “Comments, questions or credit cards”! Either of the first two will always be appreciated as well as responded to, the last one is what gets used when people go off on their own without following the building plans, Construction Manual, or asking for assistance. We offer free technical support, and answer questions 7 days a week by email.

It’s apparent this client had several challenges along the way, most of which were not reported until his building was completed. We expect our clients to get a top quality building, at a fair price, each and every time. I started with pole buildings/trusses several decades ago. I continue to be in this business because every single day I am excited to solve people’s problems – with a building that fits their needs, and one I’d be proud to own myself. Someday I want to do a tour of all the buildings I have been involved in over the years. I’d like to be met at every client’s door with a smile, a handshake, and possibly an invitation to sit down and have a beer…and not a shotgun.

Eased Edge Lumber

¼” EE

In my exploration of lumber grade stamps, 1/4″ EE was one which I was familiar with, but had no idea what the history was behind it.

When I remodeled my 1909 home 24 years ago – it was for the most part down to the bare studs and floor joists. The lumber, having obviously been milled in 1909 or earlier, was all full sawn (the 2x4s were actually two inches by four inches) and all had square edges. As in totally square edges, not just free of wane.

According to the Western Wood Products Association (www.wwpa.org):

Framing lumber in 2″ thickness is typically produced with a 1/8″ eased edge. However, some mills produce lumber with a 1/4″ eased edge to assist in handling. These products are identified on the grademark as “1/4″ EE.”

Me, being the curious sort, wanted to know more – so I spent way too much time researching trying to find out the history of eased edge lumber. So far, it wasn’t going well.

I did find out lumber of less than four inches in thickness is usually made with eased edges. My own experience with having worked with lumber as a builder, prefabricated wood truss manufacturer and lumber yard owner confirms this. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a 2x anything with squared edges from a lumber mill.

An exception would be lumber which has been re-manufactured. An example of this would be when a low grade wide piece of lumber (say 2×12) is split lengthwise into two smaller dimensions, one of which could meet the quality specifications of a higher grade (say a 2×4 and a 2×8). Re-manufactured lumber will often have a square edge on the side which has been split.

I did find some suppositions floating around on the ‘net about eased edges. One of the most prevalent is to help reduce the incidence of slivers. I have to say, I’ve acquired far more slivers from timbers with square edges, than from smaller dimension lumber with curved edges.

One interesting theory, which I could buy into, would be because drywall installs better over the rounded corners in cases where studs twist a little and push a corner out slightly.

A second theory is it could be a “knife-check” for the blades which are used to plane lumber to S4S (surfaced four sides). My example is when the finished product starts to show square edges, it is time for new knives to be installed in the planer.

This column has thousands upon thousands of loyal readers. I am hopeful one or more of you knows more about the history and reasoning behind eased edges and will add your comments.