Hello talented woodworking people!
I am new at working with wood as well as the Dallas maker space!
There are two questions.
1.) Where can we get the cheapest wood from? (Central Hardwoods? Home Depot? Lowes?)
2.) I want to build a book shelf and a desk, and so would you recommend hard wood or soft wood? Also, what type? (I’m not trying to go fancy)
Thank you!
Ikea and Lumber liquidators for my last 2 desks.
BTW you should define “Cheap” I was going with Value.
Get ready for Plywood… if you want cheap
thank you so much!
I’m a new carpenter myself. I use MDF to mock up and practice as well as pine. Once I feel confident (or like a built in where I want to make sure it fits) I get the good stuff
I got a bunch of slabs in my storage unit. We can go through some stuff if you’d like and give me a price range?
Hardwood Lumber Co is my go to. Don’t know how it compares to Central Hardwoods but is pretty reasonable. Dakota Lumber Co. is cheaper than Hardwood but harder to see their stock. At Central they won’t let you pick your boards.
Finally, Plywood Company in Fort Worth has very reasonable (AND POSTED ONLINE!) rates for their lumber, though clearly their focus is elsewhere so the selection isn’t as vast. And a much further drive than the aforementioned three.
Hi gang. I’ve visited the websites and even a couple of the vendors. That said, it looks like the “almost good enough” plywood at Home Depot costs about $50 for a 3/4" 4’ x 8’ panel.
The selections at the nice lumber stores is overwhelming. With all there is to choose from at the good lumber stores, if I just want “good enough” plywood (which will be painted), which species would you recommend that are closer to the $50 price point per 4’x8’ panels? I have a sheets good rack on the SUV, so I can go pick up my own now 
And - for outdoor projects, do you feel there is a material difference between the treated options at Home Depot vs the nicer lumber stores?
Thank you for your feedback.
I tell this story over and over again and I mean it, when I was first starting had never been to a lumber years before walked in all wide eyed and nervous, Tom at hardwood lumber company of Dallas was so helpful and informative, and more importantly didn’t make me feel I didn’t belong there buying just a single board, he had no problem having his guys move 15’ tall stacks of pallets for me to get a single board out! And that sense of I belong, im welcomed here, that confidence has emanated throughout my entire woodworking journey, just that simple fact of making me feel comfortable in a place where I shouldn’t have been, has given me the confidence to try new thing with wood try different projects and not feel like I shouldn’t, so I’ll never go anywhere else, I have no clue what another lumber yard looks like and don’t really care to ever find out! I always joke with them, you guys could be out of soft maple for 6 months and I’d be like ok I’ll wait lol
I have to second that… I talked to Tom a couple years ago. He was brutally honest with me. Which is a good thing. He didn’t care if he didn’t sell me anything, he wanted to make sure that as an end user, I’d be happy. He explained to us about zebra wood(pretty sure it was zebra), that you would not want to have near where you would get sunlight. Over time the UV rays would make the pattern fade away. He didn’t have to do that, he could have just let us buy our materials from him & go about our way. He spent probably an hour with us. You can’t hardly get any service like that these days.
I like all the crew there. I mainly seem to work with Kay, Tom, and Kenny but everyone there is great. Tom once came over while I was looking through their drops and was like “hey go look by the miter saw in the back, we just cut a bunch of nice walnut so there’s better selection over there.” They let you go pretty much anywhere you need to be to find what you want.