Softwood comes from needle-bearing trees like fir, pine, cypress and cedar. The name refers to the cellular structure of the wood rather than its strength—many softwood trees make a harder surface than hardwood. While the construction industry uses the majority of the types of softwood, other industries also work with softwood.
You can buy timbers rough, meaning unsurfaced, or dressed which means a lumber company smoothed at least one face, or side. Smaller mills that don't have planers for surfacing produce rough timbers. You can use these when your building components don't need to be uniform. Since softwood trees vary even in the same species, softwood producers indicate how strong softwood timbers are by assigning softwood lumber grades.
1. Find out which softwood producers sell to clients in your type of business.
2. Save money on softwood lumber with rough timbers when uniformity isn't an issue.
3. Consider buying softwood from a softwood exporter.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Use softwood information to find a supplier for your industry
Some softwood producers sell only to clients in particular types of businesses such as industrial builders or homebuilders. Other softwood companies focus on woodworkers. Look for softwood sold to customers in your field to find what you need.
I recommend: Universal Forest Products supplies softwood for industries such as do-it-yourself retail home stores, manufactured housing, site-built construction and more. Its user-friendly interface lets you put in information about what you're looking for.
EasyCreek Lumber specializes in softwoods for cabinets, flooring, moldings, furniture, tabletops, stair treads, boats, musical instruments and other woodworking needs.
Save money when buying softwood
If you're building a structure that doesn't require every that component be planed, consider using a sawmill that will sell you sawn softwood which generally costs less than dressed, or surfaced, wood.
I recommend: Troymill Wood Products sells softwood at wholesale prices.
Jackel Enterprises, a specialty lumber yard, sells softwood products and milling services including custom sawmilling to builders and craftsmen.
Find a softwood exporter from abroad
High demand for lumber and low trade prices have made the global lumber market boom. You can often find high-quality, fairly-priced softwood lumber from a foreign softwood exporter.
I recommend: Trans Pacific Trading, based in British Columbia, exports the finest softwoods all over the world and is a reliable source for hard-to-find items made of Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, hemlock and cedar (both yellow and red).
Haut-Doubs Sciages is the third largest sawmill in France. It exports softwood lumber and sawn logs and specialize in fir and spruce.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Rough sawn softwood timbers are slightly larger than dressed timbers of the same nominal dimension.
- Order softwood lumber in random lengths if you don't need specific lengths of timbers and ask that a minimum percentage of the timbers come over a particular length to cut costs.
The official source of Softwood is the Softwood page at Business.com
Related Resources from Business.com
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