The WORST home centers for wood (Home Depot vs. Lowes vs. Menards)
The WORST home centers for wood (Home Depot vs. Lowes vs. Menards)
I compare wood quality, selection and price at three major home centers.
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Why is one thinner. Because they are legally stealing from you.
If I paid for a 2×4. Then that is what it will be. No excuses!
I see this at work all the time.
Saw mill company scams.
SEVERAL years ago…. I was putting down an Metric S-ton of bricks in my backyard. An entire patio and walkway. Keep an eye on that measurement, it is key to my story
Well, I cleaned out Home Depot for every single Paver they had in that particular color. In fact, I cleaned out 3 HD’s in Tucson….
I was about 40 bricks shy of being done..and REALLY wanted to get it done, so I went to Lowes. Called first to verify.
Got there, and noticed the bricks were slightly "Different" they seemed to be not as thick.
Well, I figured I could create a new screed board and just move on as the thickness could just be made up with the level of sand underneath….so I loaded up the 40 or so bricks.
Got home and realized, they weren’t only not as thick…the damn things were actually Metric (I guess since they are "Holland" pavers, there is some accuracy there?) I obviously went back and had them unload and restock them…….
Anyways, I don’t go to Lowes unless I absolutely have to. They very rarely have what I actually need.
I’m looking for pressure treated 2X10’s for the deck of a bridge. My neighbor says that Home Depot’s stock is rated for tropical ground contact use where Lowe’s isn’t. I’ll take his word for it since his bridges are holding up well. Thanks for all the input about lumber stock. Unfortunately Menards isn’t located in Florida.
Neither one has grade 1 lumber that I would use to frame up a concrete pour. You could use it to make a rollercoaster track though.
West coast Home Depot construction lumber sucks. Most of the time it’s twisted and wet. If you leave it out to dry it twist and bends like a pretzel.
I use to like "DIY home improvement " before Lowes .
you cant find help at Lowes are homeport
Great video Stumpy, Thank you!!
Very good information. Possibly the best breakdown I’ve heard/seen.
I respect your opinion it’s nice to know the truth
I tend to shop at Lowes because they offer a military discount on essentially all products. HD has a discount on select items and often wood is not always discounted.
You should look into treated wood. Lowes carrie’s two versions of treated wood. The above ground treated wood is absolutely terrible. I have had terrible experience with this wood. Don’t buy it.
Any time I want to build a rocking chair, I just buy lumber from Menards. No adjusting needed. Sometimes, their lumber is so twisted, if I paint it red, it looks like a giant Twizzler. Was building garage shelving a few weeks ago. Needed 25 6′ 2x4s. Of the entire pallet, I found maybe a dozen decent ones, with the rest either being so warped or looking like a woodchuck infestation hit the store. Their 8′ and 10′ lumber was marginally better. Haven’t tried the other box stores yet. I do love Menard’s "scrap" section in their catwalk area. Great for testing stains, paints, and cuts on really cheap throwaway scraps (less than $2 per piece). Menards pre cut and wrapped boards are great if you just want one nice hardwood plank for a shelf.
That crazy just keep the video it’s a free land we live in.
I line in Knoxville, TN And we do not have a Menards, but we do have Lowe’s and Home Depot. Home Depot has the best selection of plywood goods and other sheet goods like MDF and Masonite. The Lowe’s has a very very limited selection. Especially of dowels and Masonite in fact the last time I was there they didn’t have any Masonite. The pickets for fences look a lot better at Home Depot. And I totally agree that the construction lumber looks better at Home Depot.
0:44 Windows XP shutdown sound???
Lowes pressure treated lumber is terrible.
We just got a Menards and I want to love it, but I don’t. I hate Lowes and won’t go there for any reason and Home Depot is 25 miles further away.
So I’ve worked at home Depot and had family that’s worked at Lowes and Menards. Lowe’s does have a lower grade of lumber. Menards and Home Depot have grade 2 and Lowe’s has grade 3
I respect your opinion and it’s nice to know the truth.
Can’t shop at the woke depot. I’m not going to frequent a store that trains its employees to be guilty because they were born a certain color.
From Western Canada: prices on wood (and even moreso steel/metals – although I know this is not the subject at hand) at hardware stores are absolutely ridiculous. If you can deal directly with a mill or even a commercial/industrial distributor, you will likely find the prices are MUCH better… with wood, I’ve seen price differences as large as 2X to 5X, and with steel I’ve seen price differences as large as 5X to 15X (!!!!!). The latter is absolutely ridiculous… getting something that would’ve cost you $30 at a hardware store for $2 at an industrial distributor feels like a cheat code – although you will probably have to buy more than you know what to do with, as industrial distributors often have large MOQs.
For example, my I can get my bread-and-butter project material (1" OD .100" wall steel square tube, yes I know this is not wood, but the principle still holds) for $40 per 4ft at a local hardware store. Or I can get the exact same tube for ~$14 per 12ft at a local industrial distributor. Of course, they’ll only sell it to you in 12ft lengths, but extrapolating… for the same $40 you could get either 34ft from an industrial distributor (well, you’d have to buy 36ft, so you’d actually end up spending ~$42.34… NBD) or 4ft from a retail store. The retail store is literally 8.6-fold more expensive… for no gain aside from being able to buy less at a time.
I’m not even joking. Retail prices are straight-up AWFUL. Don’t buy retail if you can avoid it. It’s almost never worth it.
If the price delta is as large as the one I mentioned, and you’re absolutely dead-set on not ending up with extra stock, buy the MOQ then give away the extra… or sell it, that works too. Or take it to a recycler/scrapyard/whatever. Or donate it to a local nonprofit like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore… I bet they’d take it off your hands.
Point is, there’s no reason you have to give the huge money-grubbing retail stores extra money for commodities like wood or steel unless you literally CANNOT buy from a commercial/industrial distributor.
It won’t always be cheaper no matter how much you need, but the value for money you get will basically always be better. Unless your distributor sucks and gouges you (or straight-up won’t sell to you) because you’re not a business… but you could always find another distributor, and if there isn’t another one available you COULD always just start a business wholly owned/controlled by you (it’s not hard, at least here), and just buy through that – telling them it’s for business purposes, even though it’s actually for personal use. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that, at least IME.
I get my wood from home hardware or rona
Problem with specialty and mompop stores is they are always closed when I am off work. They are based around professionals only and they are missing out on a huge weekend warrior market because of this short sightedness.
Check out who Home Depot contributes to politically. you may change your mind about shopping there.
My decision on which store to go to depends on how much time I want to spend sorting through the pile of crooked, warped, twisted, etc. boards. Neither of the 3 is any fun to go to buy wood, period
Lowes give military (active and retired) a 10% discount at the register
South Florida
Good stuff is sold in Northern area of USA in spring summer fall. Florida gets crap spring summer fall.
Home Depot & Lowes have differences in availability of other items. Gardening tools, no landscaping shovel (narrow long blade) at Home Depot. I found landscaping shovel and purchased along with a Angelo digging bar at Lowes. South Florida Home Depot didn’t have coil of plastic pipe used for lawn sprinkling, and they told me they didn’t stock the stuff anymore. I bought that at Lowes too. I wanted a pressure reducer for plumbing. 90 PSI may be wonderful to use, but not with 60+ year old plumbing installed and inspected by negligent slobs. Ordered & paid in person at &#$+* Home Depot, an expensive item. The one.recieved in the mail has no mounting lugs, So only held by pipes when installing or servicing. Same shit as water filters, but at least those have a mount you can buy, but not stocked by Home Depot. I should have gone to Lowes for those things. If you have both near by or near each other, Check both, especially when you’re not happy with item availability or quality. Assistance can be spotty at both in my area. BTW – i’ve read paulownia can be sold as "whitewood" paulownia can be grown fast or slow. I think it is the slow grown produced in USA that is then shipped to Asia for use in Asian culture musical instruments. Features good strength for weight, probably few or tiny or no knots.
If you repeat these store trips, there’s a technique that you might try to get photos without security hanging around. Take along a son or daughter and give the impression that you’re just taking pictures of them out shopping.
Menards is top for me. Decent quality (most of the time), they have the cheapest prices (most of the time), and about 75% of the year they do their 11% rebates on everything
At Menards you can buy it online and enter in the yard without ever stepping inside. You are making the process harder on yourself. If you just want to browse then yeah the process can be a pain.
Great video! I’d love to see you talk about the various pressure treated boards and sheet goods.
I generally order the yard materials online at Menards. That way I bypass all the in store ‘fun’ you mentioned and get in and out quick.
I’ve noticed menards has mixed in some finger jointed boards for their "top shelf" pine boards a while back
Needed a few pieces of 1x solid Oak and 1/4 oak plywood to finish a project. Nothing at the two HD stores in Panama City Beach FL however plenty of material at Lowes
All we have is Lowes and Home Depot. Home Depot has the better construction lumber. Straight, solid and clean. Their 1x lumber is poor to horrible and their plywood selections are very limited. Lowes has some nice 1x lumber and a better selection of plywood. The plywood availability at Lowes is an issue as their choices change a lot but I can usually find what I need. Lately they’ve had some really nice 9 ply 3/4” blonde wood plywood, some nice 3/4” luan plywood and some 3/4” birch plywood (not Baltic birch but still pretty nice).
Great comparison video, I like your Redwing mug.
Im sure all the stores are the same… I have been needing 1×6 cedar which used to be 5 1/2", now is 5 " and I now need to buy 1×8" boards and cut them to 5 1/2" to match my siding needs, what a waste of money!!!
mansards the help will slither your way and strut on the way back you can see them on the other end doing nothing
A must have
Menard’s outdoor cold storage lumber is THE way to buy dimensional lumber. Before the big box stores, lumberyards used (and still use) this method. It keeps the lumber in a cooler, more humid environment than indoors. Home Depot and Lowes waste MILLIONS of dollars every year on more warped, twisted lumber by keeping it indoors where it dries out beyond the "kiln dried" moisture content. Worse, shoppers picking through the stack will leave the boards randomly arranged which further hastens dimensional instability. Look for Douglas fir in a LUMBERYARD, and store it in a cool dry place arranged in neat stacks off the floor (use spacers underneath) and don’t let the wood sit there longer than necessary. It even helps to secure it with ratchet straps.
Excellent
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*Links promised in this video:*
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★SOME OF MY FAVORITE CHEAP TOOLS★
-123 Blocks: https://lddy.no/vpij
-Mechanical Pencils: https://amzn.to/2PA7bwK
-Lumber pencil: https://amzn.to/2QtwZjv
-Pocket Measuring Tape: http://amzn.to/2kNTlI9
-Irwin Drill Bit Gauge: http://amzn.to/2AwTkQg
-Nut/Bolt/Screw Gauge: http://amzn.to/2CuvxSK
-Self-Centering Punch: https://amzn.to/2QvbcrC
-Self-Centering Bits: https://amzn.to/2xs71UW
-Angle Cube: https://lddy.no/10nam
-Steel Ruler: https://lddy.no/10mv7
-Utility knife: https://amzn.to/3nfhIiv
-Center-Finding Ruler: https://lddy.no/10nak
-Bit & Blade Cleaner: https://amzn.to/2TfvEOI
-Digital depth gauge: https://amzn.to/3mwRf2x
-Wood Glue: https://amzn.to/3mqek6M
-Spade Bits: https://amzn.to/3j8XPtD
★SOME OF MY FAVORITE HAND TOOLS★
-Digital Caliper: https://amzn.to/384H1Or
-Marking Gauge: https://lddy.no/10muz
-Marking knife: https://lddy.no/10mv0
-Narex Chisels: https://lddy.no/sqm3
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-Mini Pull Saw: https://amzn.to/2UEHBz6
-Gent Saw: https://lddy.no/ss2x
-Coping saw: https://amzn.to/2W7ZiUS
-Shinwa Rulers: https://lddy.no/zl13
★SOME OF MY FAVORITE POWER TOOLS★
-Miter Saw: https://amzn.to/3gqIlQ8
-Jointer: https://amzn.to/3yc3gfZ
-Planer: https://amzn.to/3mn6BGF
-Router: https://amzn.to/3grD22S
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-Bladerunner: https://amzn.to/2Wl0TtJ
-Jig Saw: https://amzn.to/3zetTBY
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-Multi-Tool: https://amzn.to/3muZuMi
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-Drill Bits: https://amzn.to/3B8Ckzh
-Forstner Bits: https://amzn.to/3kk3wEI
-Shop Vacuum: https://amzn.to/2Wkqnbl
-Machine Setup Blocks: https://amzn.to/3gq7kDh
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(If you use one of the affiliate links above, we may receive a small commission)
I find home depot’s Roberts driver bits wear through much quicker than home hardware’s and torque out of fasteners more often plus sooner.
Their wood SUCKS. Grown and cut from “Pretzel trees”.
All I know is that I miss the days of buying lumber from the lumberyard that was down the street from the lumber mill in my hometown. I also miss the days of being able to buy groceries, hardware, clothing, lumber, jewelry, sporting goods, toys, and garden supplies in the same store. Guess where I grew up.
For large projects I try to use a more regional provider local to the area. For example, in the Pennsylvania, W. Virginia, Ohio, and Northern Virginia area I used 84 Lumber. Their quality is always top notch, they stock a significantly larger offering of sheet goods and lumber, with many various species. I’d suggest that the average everyday wood worker consider their local or regional lumber supplies. Nice video. Thanks.
I grew up with Menards, and now I’m out on the west coast and stuck choosing between a handful of hilariously expensive lumber shops two hours away, or the Big Box Brothers. I’ve gotten pretty good at digging through a giant pile to find one or two ‘good enough’ boards. I miss Menards.
Home Depot in my area is awesome. If you want to make an arch, a bow or maybe a wooden leaf spring just buy a home Depot 2×4. It’s already pre shaped!
Our new home is equal distance between all three here in Michigan.