Almost can’t believe it - now, in addition to undried (“Green”) stick lumber (which will warp, twist, and split as it dries)*, they now offer “Pressure Treated Lumber” - in brown color.
Pressure treated comes in 2 flavors:
Green (good stuff) - rated for structural use
Brown (crap) -NOT rated for structural use.
If you look closely, you will find 2x4 and (select) smaller dimensional (stick) lumber with the K.D. notation - this is Kiln Dried, and is reasonable stable.
Unless you are building use-once-throw-away (concrete forms, a playhouse for the (older) kids, who will outgrow it in 3-5 years,
For oG’s sake, go to a real lumber yard, pay real money, and get real lumber.
Do we need to talk about Husky tools and Behr paints?
Home Depot is becoming more like Harbor Freight every day. My own personal beef against HD is how everything they sell is undersized. Depend on it: if the product is denominated by a size, you can bet your bottom dollar the product is actually smaller. Take a tape measure and see for yourself.
And yet, I’m ashamed to say, I shop there constantly. Around here, most of the independent lumberyards have gone out of business.
Stick lumber has colored ends - the real stuff has wax to seal against moisture. HD originally painted the ends to imitate real lumber. The few stacks I noticed today don’t even do that.
Redwood is NOT generally KD - only the (super expensive clear heart) is. Don’t yell at them over that. Yell at them because the “redwood” they sell isn’t particularly red.
At one time, I saw a carpet worth what they were asking (well, close). Of course the “Whole house carpet install - $39.00!” Is done by charging 8/sq ft for pad (a .50. sq ft item, generally included in install price). Surprised they don’t charge for tackless strips.
NEVER buy cheap paint - the time and trouble to apply paint make doing it more often than absolutely necessary a waste.
I ran into trouble buying Maximizer ready mix concrete. The pallet on the floor had gotten wet and the bags were rock hard. I needed 12 bags and refused to buy them. They had another pallet way up high and needed a forklift. None of the HD people working that shift were qualified to run it. This was 5:30pm early evening time. I waited over 45 mins for them to find someone to operate that forklift and lower the pallet to the ground. The circus was in full operation at HD that night.
I’ve seen people on other boards berate Behr as well but they never give specifics as to what the problems are or recommend other brands. I’ve used other brands before and learned my lesson. Use good quality paints (like Behr) or do twice as much work. IOW, put 3 or 4 coats of crappy paints on or 2 coats of Behr on. I’ve done almost the entire interior of my house with Behr and haven’t had a single problem. All the paint looks great, it’s bold, nothing is showing through, it was easy to put in, no more than two coats anywhere. The only issue I’ve ever had is that the super glossy paint I used in the bathroom was tacky for about a two months, but that’s to be expected with that type of paint in that location.
On paint message boards, they had some (joke) acronym for the word Behr, can’t think of it now, but it worked out to how you’d be better off just not painting your walls then using Behr. Maybe it wasn’t an acronym, maybe it was like Better Bare Than Behr, that was probably it, but, like I said, they never tell you what’s wrong or what’s better. And I’ve never had any problems.
And WTF is wrong with Husky? If I’m at Depot, I’ll grab Husky airtools. FTR, I don’t use a lot of airtools, so I can’t give some giant review, but I’ve never managed to break a Husky airtool or split a Husky socket in half.
But is Behr sold anywhere else but Home Depot? My impression is no. Behr is, I think, a brand that started off elsewhere, but has become a Home Depot house brand. I think the same is true of Ridgid. Husky might have gone the same direction. Husky has always made okay tools, but you’ve started to see at Home Depot these cheap, made-in-China sets of low-quality tools under the Husky brand.
Of course, everything is better than the HDX “brand.”
I’m not really buying this. In the past, boards that were air-dried might have had their ends painted or waxed so that the ends didn’t dry out quicker than the middle, causing checking. But is kiln-dried wood every treated that way?
In any event, you would readily expect that as wood is dimensioned for sale, whatever end treatment there is would be cut off. This is not a Home Depot thing, in other words.
Rigid is a legitimate, quality tool manufacturer. Do they make special, lower quality units for sale at box stores? I don’t know, but many manufacturers do. Toro and John Deere are two examples.
I’ve read up on the different chemicals used in the treatment that ends up with different colors but I haven’t seen anything that mentions the brown not being structural. You have any link or reference for this?
I’m just a homeowner DIY guy, not a contractor, but I’ve had zero problems with my Husky hand tools (mostly a big socket set) and the Behr paint we used on a recent bedroom remodel went on very nicely and looks great. A friend of mine who does a lot more work (rebuilds cars for fun, etc) has Husky tools and I’ve never heard him say that he’s had any issues with them. He’s got a set of Snap-On tools that he won on “Monster Garage” and he rarely uses them.
Never had a problem with lumber from HD either - you certainly have to sort through the stacks of cheap construction-grade wood to avoid twisted or split studs, but I haven’t bought something that was not the size specified. And yes I bring my own tape measure with me to check
Haven’t heard anything about different colored pressure-treated lumber being suitable/unsuitable for structural use. The lumber itself is graded and some of the cheaper stuff sounds like you wouldn’t use it for your deck or whatever but that’s purely a function of the wood itself.
Painting contractors get their paint at a paint store. Sherwin Williams or Pittsburgh paints. We have several here that open early. I think 6:45 or 7AM. Contractors are in there buying the 5 gallon buckets of paint before heading out to their jobs…
I’d be concerned if I saw my painting contractor buying paint at HD. He probably isn’t a experienced painter. Sherwin Williams or Pittsburgh paint stores give discounts to contractor accounts. I’ve picked up paint for remodeling at Sherwin Williams and told the guy my contractor’s company name.
So the next question is, is Sherwin Williams and PPG better than Behr or do the pros go there because the get discounts and can put things on account (so the workers can pick things up and not have to carry cash or credit cards). If the paints were exactly equal, I’d send my employees to the place that gave me a discount and sent me a bill each month (and 30 days to pay).
