Deck material purchase

[Dijon1975]

Guys,

Good afternoon.

Which is the best and reasonable price to buy materials in Calgary for building my deck?

- Home depot
- Ronas
- Lowes
- Timbertown building center

Any suggestions?

N:
argue2:

[dodgeboy1979]

get quotes from all. i personally like Rona's and Home Hardware's lumber the best

[Dijon1975]

Where is homehardware lumbers in calgary?

N

[forestrover]

Built a floating 10x12 deck at my place last weekend. I purchased the pressure treated 2x6's and 4x4's at Lowes and then pressure treated deck boards at home depot.
The prices were pretty much the same but the quality of wood varied from both places. You really had to search the pile to find quality pieces of wood.I noticed the decking hardware was a little cheaper at Lowes.

[Dijon1975]

Thanks for your answer.

When you say quality, what exactly do i have to look while buying these woods. Sorry to ask silly questions, but trying to learn

N

[dodgeboy1979]

Originally Posted by omnisap

Thanks for your answer.

When you say quality, what exactly do i have to look while buying these woods. Sorry to ask silly questions, but trying to learn

N

you are looking for warped, cracked and damaged boards. I personally will not buy lumber from Homedepot as it's stored inside and dries out with real bad warps.

[Grizzly Adams]

My advice is, don't buy any dimensional material from some place that stocks it indoors. High temp and low humidity make for crooked junk. That includes Lowes, Rona and Home depot.

Grizz

[double gun]

Our homehardware wont let you pick your lumber or return it if it’s raunchy - no thanks. There are many other places that will let you see and select what you’re getting and I would buy from any of them before HH.

[Little Valy]

Check out the Cedar Shop,they have more than just cedar and prices aren’t as high as one would think and everything is outside

[HunterDave]

Go and look at the lumber in each place. You want nice heavy wet lumber, not light dried out stuff that is going to split when you put a screw into it. Avoid places that store their lumber indoors where it dries out (ie. Home Depot) or leave their lumber uncovered in the yard baking in the sun. I'd even consider paying a premium for really good lumber if you want to build a quality product.

In this area the two Timbermart yards have the hands down best lumber because they have high grade lumber and cover it back up after every customer.

[Dijon1975]

So basically i have to look for wet heavy lumbers. Any other advice?

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by omnisap

So basically i have to look for wet heavy lumbers. Any other advice?

It doesn't have to be soaking wet but at least fresh and not all dried out.

A lot of times I'll move the top layer of boards to get at the ones below them and then cover the lift of lumber back up with the dried out top layer again.

[Dijon1975]

Thanks hunter

[Okotok]

Lumber should be seasoned for stability, which means at an equilibrium with the humidity that it will be existing in. Too wet and cracking/warping will occur as it dries. Too dry, as in fresh out of the kiln, will result in warping as a result of expansion but usually not cracking if it isn't cracked already.

Fresh cut lumber needs to dry for one year per inch of thickness in a covered place outside with stickers to allow air flow. All of the lumber you find at a reseller like Home Depot or Rona is kiln dried or partially kiln dried. Leaving it outside so that it assumes the moisture or RH of it's surroundings takes some time too, but much less than seasoning fresh cut lumber.

[ChickakooKookoo]

I personally hate working with the centre knot. Take a look at the ends of the boards and if it has the tree's centre knot, don't buy that stick!

[Justfishin73]

I re-did my deck last year in brown pressure treated--turned out great--all bought from Rona---was a lot of board picking with a 17' x 35' deck.

[dodgeboy1979]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

My advice is, don't buy any dimensional material from some place that stocks it indoors. High temp and low humidity make for crooked junk. That includes Lowes, Rona and Home depot.

Grizz

Rona stores their lumber outside

[Raptor Boy]

Originally Posted by dodgeboy1979

Rona stores their lumber outside

RONA bowness has always been good to me.

[CaberTosser]

I have heard good things from framer friends about Lumber King. At least I think that is the name. Near Deerfoot and McKnight

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

I have heard good things from framer friends about Lumber King. At least I think that is the name. Near Deerfoot and McKnight

I was just going to suggest the same place... http://www.lumberking.ca

ARG

[Getzcold]

RONA 10% off lumber this week if over $100


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flange]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

I have heard good things from framer friends about Lumber King. At least I think that is the name. Near Deerfoot and McKnight

X2 These guys are really good.

[fordtruckin]

By any chance is there already a deck your adding onto or replacing? I just redid my front porch and used some of the same material a second time. Wish I wouldn’t have as some of that wood was utter junk. Guess that’s what I get for being cheep even though it is still better then what was there. Most people won’t tell the difference but me and I know and it bugs me.

Back to buying lumber I have bought stuff from both Lowe’s and Home Depot although I find the grade of wood to be better if you go to a local Lumber yard as opposed to a box store. Some of the stuff Lowe’s and Home Depot have is only good for firewood.

[Redneck 7]

I like to buy my materials at places with outdoor lumber yards, indoor ones the wood dries and bow, warps or crowns really bad. Then you’re waisting time sorting through lifts looking for strait boards. I’d see who all has outdoor lumber then get quotes from those select ones and go from there.

[RBI]

Originally Posted by omnisap

Where is homehardware lumbers in calgary?

N

No Home Hardware in Calgary.

You'd have to go to Okotoks , Airdrie , or Cochrane

[RBI]

Originally Posted by Raptor Boy

RONA bowness has always been good to me.

usually my choice

[Big Grey Wolf]

Guys, just for the record most of the best quality lumber is exported mostly to US. We get left with construction grade lumber in Canada at all the suppliers.
When built my last home liked fact could select my lumber at home depot. Watch for red rot the centre of the log, heart wood your outside of tree is best boards.

[RBI]

Omnisap... Lowes currently has their " Scratch & Save " promo on ..
And YES it includes their lumber ( Rona generally doesn't )

Minium discount is 15 % , and possible of up to 100 % ( 15 , 25 , 50 ,100 ) .

Of course 95 % of those cards will be 15 %

As a Home Reno contractor for 25 plus yrs , my first choice for lumber was always Totem .

When they got bought out by Rona a few years back , they stayed with same lumber suppliers , and the lumber stayed mostly the same , but now it's slipping .

Looks to be same supplier , but lesser grade ,

Not bad stuff by any means , but I do find myself having to pick through a pile a little bit . ( almost never back in the Totem days )

And of course , as said here already ...stay away from lumber stored indoors , Home Depot being prime example , Was compared on here to only be good for firewood , I'v seen them with such bad wood on the pile that I've joked , that it wouldn't even pass as firewood .

Was at Crowfoot Lowes last evening looking at presure treated lumber for a couple of projects at home , all in all not too bad , but would certainly expect to be spending time picking the pile .

The other advantage with Lowes ( and probably Rona etc ) , is that I can buy today/tomorrow , and have two weeks to pick it up .

I'm looking for about a 1000 bucks worth of wood , so easy to split that into a couple loads/trips in I can't find all the wood that I'm happy with in one trip

My experiences with LumberKing have been generally positive .

But they have someone help you load ( which is good ) , but that usually means that you can't be too picky about what gets picked .
The helper/loader is usually pretty good about keeping the bad stuff out of the load , but not always .

For a deck , the structural wood ( underneath not seen ) doesn't have to be that perfect as far as looks , so easy to pick/settle with , but My advice is not to pick up any of the top finish boards until you are ready to install them .

And as far as Deck screws , Rona ( the one that were former Totems ) are the only ones that sell deck screws bulk by the lb.

Have a good weekend and have fun .

[Dean2]

Check prices and stock at UFA. If they have what you are looking for they are typical almost half what the retail stores like Rona are.

[Rockman]

I got good quality wood and prices at Timbertown. Good cedar and pretty much everything for a 16x22' floating deck.