Help me with hardwood prices please.

[Jmac80]

Hi all

I'll be honest, I'm new to buying hardwood and especially by the cubic metre so it all means nothing to my simple brain

Always worked in pine bought by the length and hardwood that i was given, reclaimed or milled myself from tree work i do.

I called my local merchant (who i have a good relationship with)
Explained i was after oak to make some bathroom furniture and what's the best price they can do...
I wanted 18mm oak veneered for the cabinets and some solid oak for the face frames etc.
He just came back with this from his supplier:

i was hoping for a price in lengths... to get my head around it.

Are these price ok or extortionate lol? if i got say a length of 1" x 8" wide x 120" long would that cost about £40?.. is there an easy calc for working prices?

thanks

 

[Jmac80]

Oh yeah, prices exclude VAT

 

[Chrispy]

Using those prices then one piece ex 25mm x 100mm x 3m = £9.97 + vat but you probably wont get anything only 100mm wide.

 

[Zeddedhed]

I read that as 25mm x 200 x 3m which by my sums comes to £13.30, but then it's Friday afternoon, I've had to listen to the apprentice's Drum'n'bass playlist all day so I could be miles out!!

 

[Jmac80]

lol ok thanks guys
Do you think mdf veneered on both sides is ok for bathroom cabinets? it's less than half the price of the ply oak veneered.

 

[Andy RV]

Calculate the volume for the board using meters, so for your 25x200x3000 board;

0.025x0.2x3=0.015m3

Once you've got your volume in m3 multiply it by your price per m3;

0.015m3 x £1330= £19.95 +vat

 

[Jmac80]

Thanks

so is the prices ok then? not the best not the worst?

 

[katellwood]

divide the cubic metre price by 35.315, this will give you the price per cubic foot or more visualised

a 12' length of 12" x 1"
a 24' length of 6" x 1"
a 36' length of 4" x 1" (100mm x 25mm)
a 12' length of 6" x 2"

Therefore £1330 m3 = £37.66 ft3 for 1" stock and £2092 m3 = £59.23 ft3 for 2" stock (plus VAT)

when prices were quoted if cubic feet timber sizes where much more apparent and much easier to guesstimate (or too me anyway)

 

[Andy RV]

its probably about average for good quality square edged boards. If you're only after a couple of boards it seems about right.

Edit - after seeing the cubic foot prices I'd say slightly above average!

 

[Jmac80]

its probably about average for good quality square edged boards. If you're only after a couple of boards it seems about right.

Edit - after seeing the cubic foot prices I'd say slightly above average!

Thanks
Slightly above average price sounds about right for the northern Highlands of Scotland :roll:

 

[custard]

These prices seem fairly normal. The more significant question is what's the quality like?

The simple fact is that there's a huge range of quality out there, ranging from boards that are just about okay for construction but no good for decent furniture, right through to long, wide specimen boards with gorgeous quarter sawn grain and no defects to stop you utilising every square inch.

Oak has a more detailed and widely accepted grading system than any other hardwood, so at least there's a fighting chance you can talk the same language as a supplier when buying Oak. If you dig around the English Woodlands Timber website you'll find quite a bit of information on Oak grading, and you'll also be able to see all the different Oak quality grades that they use and how this gets reflected in the price.

http://www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk

Regarding Oak veneered MDF, provided it's Moisture Resistant MDF (it will either be all green or have a green core) it'll be fine for bathroom cabs.

Good luck!

 

[Wizard9999]

I'm new to all this so maybe I am barking up the wrong tree (ha ha) but doesn't the answer to the price reasonableness question depend on what oak we are talking about? A recent thread identified SL Hardwoods as a supplier of reasonable timber at a slightly high but not outrageous price. If I look at 3m of sawn oak board 50mm x 150mm (about a ft3 I think) it would be £39 for American red oak, but £58 for European oak.

Terry.

Edit: post overlapped with Custards response.

 

[RobinBHM]

I'm new to all this so maybe I am barking up the wrong tree (ha ha) but doesn't the answer to the price reasonableness question depend on what oak we are talking about? A recent thread identified SL Hardwoods as a supplier of reasonable timber at a slightly high but not outrageous price. If I look at 3m of sawn oak board 50mm x 150mm (about a ft3 I think) it would be £39 for American red oak, but £58 for European oak.

Terry.

Edit: post overlapped with Custards response.

Yes it does, American White oak and red oak is cheaper than European oak.

Red oak isnt used a great deal.

European oak is durable, so used for external joinery in the uk.

European oak takes a long time to season so the cubic price increases a lot with thickness. 3" oak is expensive, 4" oak is very expensive, if you can even obtain it kiln dried.

Generally available in, prime, joinery grade, character.

American oak is always square edged stock. Euro oak is mostly square, also waney edged. Waney edged is much cheaper but expect 130% waste!

 

[katellwood]

quote "Yes it does, American White oak and red oak is cheaper than European oak."

that being said, in my recent experience the difference in price between euro oak and AWO are getting very close to each other

In the last month I was offered euro oak cheaper then AWO for the similar section and this was after shopping around (I only went for AWO as it was to match other items I had previously made and to top up on currently held stock)

 

[Jmac80]

Morning everyone.
Just called them the now. It is american white oak.
I have the order on hold at the moment until i decide.. Looking online the price does seem a bit steep.