Why do the Lumber Guys Hate Me?

I feel it nearly every time I hit the lumber department at the local home center. The eyes are on me. I ask myself, "Why? Are they afraid I'll leave a mess for them to clean up?"

The way I see it, a visit to the lumber department at one of the big box home centers is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sure, there's plenty of lumber from which to choose, but 98% of it is, to put it nicely, junk. Warped, cupped, checked, twisted, riddled with knots...junk in every stack. I guess they just expect every customer to take the pieces on the top and move on. However, if you look long enough and set the junk in the stack aside, you can probably find some stock that is worthy of the hours you'll spend shaping that piece of wood into a project that you can be proud of.

Not sure how to differentiate the good from the junk? Learn how to spot potential problems in your stock in Selecting Lumber for Your Projects. It doesn't take long to learn how to separate the good from the bad.

When you're done, please put the junk back on the pile neatly so the lumber guys don't have to do it.