by David Dobbs
Don't look now, but you might
have recently switched one of
your most basic lumber products
— 2x4s and 2x6s — from
western to eastern lumber.
Particularly across the
Southeast and Midwest,
changes in quality and price
have driven lumberyards to
replace western and southern
sticks with eastern sprucepine-
fir 2x4s and 2x6s. The
strange twist to this story is
that some dealers aren't
telling customers they've
switched framing lumber,
despite generally good results.
"It's not a concern about
quality," says one Michigan
lumberyard owner, who quietly
made the switch to eastern
s-p-f in 1992. "We've checked
with the builders, and they've
had good results. But some
builders have prejudices about
eastern lumber. So I don't tell
unless they ask."
The main reason dealers
are switching