do it yourself projects

hi, i'm james, with jnc home repair. todayi'm going to show you how to buy lumber for a do-it-yourself project. one thing you needto consider when you're buying lumber is whether your project's either going to be indoorsor outdoors. if you're doing an outdoor project, like maybe a deck or a fence or a playhouse,something like that, you want to use pretreated lumber. you want to use something that's goingto withstand the weather, the conditions of moisture and heat and all different typesof weather conditions, you want to use pretreated lumber. if you're doing something inside youdon't really need to use that type, you can just use standard grade lumber. you may bebuilding a cabinet or something like that, you may decide on oak or maple or birch ordifferent types of wood, most common is pine,

yellow pine. what we've got here today issome basic pretreated lumber here. we've got a 4x4 post, a 2x4 and a 2x8. these are allpretreated lumber, these are all for outdoor projects. another thing to consider when you'rebuying lumber, they advertise that it's 2x4's and 2x8's and 4x4's, but one thing you needto consider is when you're measuring, if you're trying to build something off a blueprintor something, you need to take into account that the lumber is never a 2x4 or a 2x8 ora 4x4, it's never a true 2 inches by 4 inches. say this 2x4, for example, for here, it'sbasically a 2x4, but if you get into measuring it you're going to find out that it's a halfinch short either way. the width of it, you'll see, is only 3 1/ 2 inches, it just soundsbetter to advertise it as a 2x4. actually

a long time ago they used to be actual 2 inchesby 4 inches, but like everything else these days, you're getting less and less for yourmoney, and what they're doing is they're shaving off the lumber and you're getting a littlebit less, and a little bit less here and there. but you can see, this is 3 1/2 inches, it'ssupposed to be 2 inches wide, and it's only an inch and a half wide. same thing with a2x8, you can see this is supposed to be a 2x8 here, and it's barely over 7 inches, soyou need to consider that. especially if you have an older type home and you're tryingto replace some boards, maybe you've got a rotten, some termite damage or something andyou maybe want to replace some studs or something and they may be a true 2x4, but then whenyou go buy your lumber now these days it's

going to be a little bit smaller, so you'regoing to have to make some adjustments. you may have to get a 2x6 and rip it down to theexact size of what you're trying to match. same thing with a 4x4, it's supposed to be4 inches by 4 inches, but it's only a 3 1/2. this is pretty common, usually they're a halfinch short of what they actually say they're supposed to be. so these are some things toconsider when you're buying lumber for a do-it-yourself project.