beginner's guide to buying lumber

So as a beginner to all things handy, I initially struggled when shopping for lumber. There are all sorts of factors that go into the different types of lumber, so to help my fellow beginners out, I put together this beginner’s guide to buying lumber to go over the basics, and make the purchasing process a little smoother on you. There are plenty of guides out there already, but they tend to go into much more detail than you need to get your project off the ground.


So to start off, lets ask ourselves a few simple questions:


  1. Are we building furniture (or something that we want to look aesthetically pleasing), or are we building something more structural (like a deck, a workbench, or a frame for a raised garden bed)?

  2. Will we be painting it?

  3. Will our final project be outdoors or be exposed to excessive moisture?


There are probably a dozen other questions that should be taken into consideration while planning a project, but I think these 3 will get you 90% of the way there as far as selecting the right lumber for your project.


You can pretty much sort all wood into one of two categories: hardwoods and softwoods. Below is a quick break down of the differences of the two main groups:

Like all things in life, wood is not this simple: There are hundreds of ways to classify wood besides hard and soft. In fact you can have soft hardwoods and hard softwoods. Pretty neat, huh? Not every softwood is going to be easy to work with, just like not every hard wood is going to be dense and difficult to work with. Poplar, for example, is a relatively easily workable hard wood with a density comparable to White Pine. But I don’t want to muddy the waters too much, I just want to distill a wealth of information into small digestible pieces which we can work with.


Let’s get back to our questionnaire:


Are we building furniture or structure?


For any structural application, softwoods are going to be the right option (workability and price). The studs which make up the walls in your house, or the rafters which hold up your roof, floor joists; they are all softwoods. I also prefer using softwoods on anything that I am going to beat up, like a workbench. There’s no sense in spending the extra money on a nice hardwood, if you are going to be beating on it and spilling all over it.


If we are building furniture like a coffee table, shelf, or a decorative piece, we are going to want to explore hardwoods. The denser wood will give the piece a feeling of higher quality. Hardwoods are also going to look nicer and be able to showcase some beautiful grain patterns. Some hardwoods look so great naturally, you may choose to not even apply a stain, let alone paint. Which leads us to our next question...


Will we be painting it?


I typically go with softwoods for applications where I will be painting. My reasoning is: “Why spend the money on the nice hardwood, when you’ll just be covering it up with paint?” To me, the end result will look the same whether you go with softwood or hardwood, so stick with the cheap stuff.


Will our final project be outdoors or be exposed to excessive moisture?


Typically, for any outdoor furniture or structures, I’m going with a softwood. But we are still left with another choice. And this choice is how we want to protect our wood from moisture and rot. If you are planning on staining your final piece, you’re likely going to fish it with a polyurethane coat or other finishing coat which will protect your piece from rotting. There is another option though...


You’ll notice during your walk through the lumber aisle at the hardware store that some of the softwood lumber is white and dry, while other stacks of boards are greenish and wet. The greenish lumber is called “treated lumber” or “pressure treated lumber”. These boards have been placed in a pressurized chemical tank to allow chemicals to soak deep into the wood. These chemicals are what protects the wood from rotting. Again, if you’re painting or staining and sealing your boards, treated lumber is unnecessary, but it is a good option for a raised garden bed or deck.


Like I said, these questions are not all encompassing and this guide is meant to just get you started and build up your confidence before you hit the hardware store for the first time or two. You are still left with many decisions to make, but hopefully you are better equipped to answer those questions. Other factors you may want to consider are (but not limited too):


  • Price - projects have budgets, and plus, the more money you save on lumber, the easier it’ll be to justify buying that new tool to your wife.

  • Quality - There is nothing like admiring the beauty of your own work, but not every project has to be a masterpiece (mine rarely are). Sometimes you just need to make something work, no matter how ugly it looks.

  • Skill level - As we discussed, not all woods are as forgiving as others. Try not to get in too over your head, but that doesn’t mean don’t challenge yourself. Challenges bring growth.


So you are by no means a seasoned veteran after reading this, and you probably only have even more questions, but at the very least I hope this beginner’s guide motivates you to get out and make a lumber purchase for that project you’ve been tossing around in your head.