6 Places To Buy Lumber & Wood Material
Depending on what type of woodworking projects you wish to pursue, you will need various types, species, and sizes of wood materials. There are multiple places to buy materials and some are better than other for certain types of materials. Here I hope to take a deep dive into the various places to buy lumber and where to buy wood material.
Local Sawmills
Buying lumber from a local sawmill is probably the cheapest place to find lumber on this list. The lumber will usually be rough sawn and is purchased from a small business. Usually the local sawmills are ran by a single person and are usually located on residential property. Since you are indeed supporting a small business, they usually don’t have too much overhead cost. A low overhead cost for the small business is normally translated to a cost savings to you, the buyer. You can expect to find a large amount of domestic lumber from a local sawmill. The lumber is rough sawn and can be found with a high level of moisture content (if recently sawn) or already kiln-dried with a lower moisture reading. As a general rule of thumb, the less process the lumber is, the cheaper your cost. So, if a piece is rough sawn and not milled, and is still “wet” without being through a kiln, it will usually yield the cheapest purchase prices.
Friends / Family / Neighbors
Friends and family are always a good source to check with on purchasing lumber. There may even be a friend or family member that originally inspired you to get into the woodworking craft, who has small scraps of lumber that they are willing to part ways with for free or a small price. Another way to source lumber from a friend or family member is to offer cleanup services when a tree falls. Often times, depending on the size of the downed tree or limb, people tend to just want the tree removed from the are so they can get back to living their normal life. You could offer to remove the tree form their yard or property for free as long as they let you keep the wood. If you find a decent tree with a mix of heartwood and sapwood, this could be a great way to obtain lots of lumber. The one caveat to this method of sourcing lumber is that you will then need to find a way to mill the lumber. You may seek a local sawmill for help or have your own method(s) of milling the wood yourself.
Hardwood Suppliers
Hardwood suppliers or supply stores are the most obvious on this list of places to buy lumber. These will usually be stand alone, dedicated hardwood dealers. These differ from lumber yards. Most traditional lumber yards will sell building materials in the form of dimensional yellow pine, spruce, and OSB plywood. Hardwood dealers are designed to sell either rough sawn or dimensioned hardwoods to woodworkers, DIYers, and more. These stores are not as prevalent as a lumber yard. However, do not rule out lumber yards. One of my local lumber yards has a business focus on selling building materials but can source hardwoods for me at a rather affordable rate.
Big Box Stores
Yes, that’s right. Big box stores. Lowes, Home Depot, etc. These stores really don’t have the selection of hardwoods that other stores or mills have, but do offer hardwood. Usually these hardwood lumber pieces are very high priced because they are fully dried and dimensioned (surfaced on all sides). In my area, the only hardwood species my stores sell in-store are oak and poplar. However, there are many other species you can purchase from these stores through their website. They will have the order shipped to your local store where you can pickup on site. This is not the most ideal option as it tends to be expensive, but is an option if no other locations have material available for you to purchase.
Online Marketplaces
Online marketplaces are another great way to find lumber and woodworking materials. These sites include places like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. While sites like these can also provide for a good lead to local sawmills, you can also find sellers trying to sell hardwood by the lot. For example, many times I have seen “Lot of 100 Board Feet of Walnut for $700”. Many people have random stacks of hardwood around their house, shop, barn, or property that they are willing to take a discount price for, simply in efforts to clean out the space and make room for something else. You may also find new property buyers that have a wood supply that was left by the previous owners and again, they want the space cleaned out more than they want the money…this is where you find discounts!
eCommerce Websites
Online stores and e-commerce websites are another way to find certain types of materials. Even sites like eBay and Amazon sell hardwood! While they usually don’t sell rough sawn lumber in large pieces or large board foot quantities, they will sell smaller blanks, veneers, and dimensioned pieces. If you are looking for a small block of hardwood, bowl blank, pen blank, or veneers, these sites are a great start for these types of purchases. Selling large pieces by the board foot through an online store just really isn’t great for shipping, and the shipping price will be very high due to size and weight. However, don’t rule out online stores. There are hardwood seller websites that will ship hardwood lumber straight to your door, and at affordable prices.
I hope this list gives you at minimum, a good start to finding woodworking lumber and woodworking materials. While these aren’t the end-all, be-all, it can get you started in the right direction. If you can think of other places to buy woodworking materials, leave your thoughts in the comments!