Is this a fair price for oak boards?

[Parbynat]

My local timber yard sells oak boards priced as-
10" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £10
9" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £9, and so on.
Is this a fair price, or should I try and shop elsewhere?
I looked at the How to buy hardwoods link but couldn't find any recommendations as there was no admissions for Lancashire.
Thanks

 

[niall Y]

My local timber yard sells oak boards priced as-
10" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £10
9" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £9, and so on.
Is this a fair price, or should I try and shop elsewhere?
I looked at the How to buy hardwoods link but couldn't find any recommendations as there was no admissions for Lancashire.
Thanks

Depending on quality then I would expect a reasonable price for sawn stock, to be between £ 35 to £60 a cubic foot. To put that in context a piece 12 inches wide by 12 inches long, by 1 inch thick ( slightly bigger than your first board) is a 1/12th of a cubic foot. At the top end this would equate to £5. without the VAT
Judging by the thickness you quote , I guess this is planed stock, so there will be an element added on for this. Also, what price for the convenience which also has to be taken into account,
A good place to get an idea of stock availability and price , is to look at the website of English Woodlands Timber. But then you have to think of carriage costs...............

 

[TRITON]

a cubic foot. To put that in context a piece 12 inches wide by 12 inches long, by 1 inch thick

How weird. We measure boards by length, not width. so a cubic foot is a board 12' long, by 12" wide, by 1" thick.
I've never heard of a boards length spoken as width.

 

[Daniel2]

There's relatively a lot of labour gone into producing those short boards.
For the time that will have been spent on them, I think the price is quite
reasonable.
Could you think about buying longer boards, the price may be more
interesting.

 

[okeydokey]

If the quality matches your expectations then go for it as the cost of shopping around/petrol /carriage will quickly swallow up any potential savings of buying elsewhere.

 

[HOJ]

Board sizes that small would be classed as waste, but relative to current m3 or ft3 rates they are good prices,
All depends on species/grade/cut

 

[Hornbeam]

I think £35 to £60 a cubic foot is a bit optimistic these days, I would suggest more like £50 (2 waney edge)to £90 (2 square edge excluding sap)

 

[Inspector]

We pretty much measure by the board foot. 12"x12"x1". When they tally up the purchase they calculate the volume in inches as if it were rough cut (even if it is surfaced) no matter what the widths and then divide by 144. The price is dependent on if it is rough, skip planed, or dressed to thickness and more if cut to widths. Sometimes they add a shrinkage factor on kiln dried wood and sometimes it is built into the cost. Most hardwood sellers will not include major faults in the measuring like big loose knots or a big taper at the end. Retailers selling project wood like the OP is looking at price per board. My preference is rough cut but often it is skip planed and I have no choice. Rough leaves me with the most to play with when I don't want standard thicknesses like 3/4" and flattening to correct bow, twist, cupping etc. I always make sure I get more than enough extra for waste, mistakes and surprises like case hardened wood that moves when cut.

Pete

 

[Kayen]

They're offering a retail item at a retail price - the only person who can determine if it's 'fair' is the person buying it, or not. If it was what I wanted then I would have no problem paying 10 quid for it.

 

[Jones]

Seems pricey to me ,rough sawn air dried £40-45 per cubic foot, with deduction for splits,excess sap etc . PAR with no sap kiln dried might be £60-90 per cube. The prices you've quoted are £130+ per cube so I'd want something really special for that.
Edit: I've presumed they're charging per foot for the boards, if you are just buying very short lengths there may be a premium or discount depending where you go.

 

[Oakay]

You expect to pay a premium for very small quantities of good quality. Imagine the time involved in the preparation and the sale, including in the accounts department. Maybe they would negotiate on larger quantities, and planed/unplaned makes a big difference too, which is not stated in the original question. If a timber yard is open to the hobbyist and offering small quantities of hardwoods, with a planing service, they are offering a useful service which is due charging relative for the time and space needed for that.

 

[Parbynat]

I probably should have been clearer.
The boards are not in lengths of 300mm that is just for price reference, the lengths are like 20 foot long. As for the quality my inexperienced eye would have to say they are good quality and yes they are PAR.

Niall Y, you mentioned English Woodlands Timber I will have a look at that website.
Can anyone recommend any other places that are reasonably priced?

 

[niall Y]

It's always struck me as rather odd, that the more material you take away from wood - the more it's worth

 

[Jones]

A Google search for timber mechants and sawmills near Wigan throws up a few results.

 

[Parbynat]

Niall Y I have just looked at the website, if only I lived near a place like that so I could browse.
I have trawled through the internet to try and find a similar place that is around 20 miles or so from my Wigan location but have failed to find anything similar.

 

[Jameshow]

Try British hardwoods at crosshills.

Do you have PT?

If do you can buy rough sawn boards much cheap like £2 a ft an put them though the PT.

You'll have to take the rough with the smooth though....

 

[Bob008]

My local timber yard sells oak boards priced as-
10" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £10
9" wide, 20mm thick, 300mm for £9, and so on.
Is this a fair price, or should I try and shop elsewhere?
I looked at the How to buy hardwoods link but couldn't find any recommendations as there was no admissions for Lancashire.
Thanks

I use the wood yard at heywood nr bury fantastic service and good choice typically for kiln dried oak planks there 40% cheaper than what your being quoted
01706625880
The Wood Yard Heywood, just off Pilsworth OL10 2TA. Adjacent Park Cakes

 

[Parbynat]

Thanks Bob008 that isn't too far to travel.
Jameshow I have a planer/thicknesser I'll check that out.

 

[Keith Cocker]

I probably should have been clearer.
The boards are not in lengths of 300mm that is just for price reference, the lengths are like 20 foot long. As for the quality my inexperienced eye would have to say they are good quality and yes they are PAR.

Niall Y, you mentioned English Woodlands Timber I will have a look at that website.
Can anyone recommend any other places that are reasonably priced?

I have had very good experience of Hardwood Timber Merchants & Hand Tool Supplier | G & S

 

[Mal-110]

There are a few timber yards selling hardwoods in Lancashire. I recently collected five Oak 7 foot boards averaging between 6 -8 inches wide and just over an inch thick from FH Bleasdale in Chorley, £30 per board. Hoghton Timber In Preston sells some excellent hardwood boards but they don't like to sell to hobbyists. CW Berry's in Leyland have some excellent boards but you have to buy them as is or they send them to the joinery yard for finishing which adds to the cost.
Three options close to Wigan