What year did dimensional lumber change from 1-5/8 thick to 1-1/2″?
Pretty sure same year a 2×8 went from 7-1/2″ to 7-1/4 inch, etc.
1954?, could not find a good web reference for the date, think Weyerhauser was the instigator of the reduction, recall a pop. science article about relative strengths, but cannot find it.
Was anybody here building professionally in ’54?
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Replies
http://www.idahoforests.org/ask/products/f_fp_13.htm
Leslie C. asks:
I am trying to date some lumber in a house. When did a 2 x 4 become a 1 ½ x 3 ½?
Answer...
In 1970, the sizes for dimension lumber changed to the sizes we use today. Prior to 1970, a "2 x 4" measured 1-5/8" x 3-5/8." Today, a "2 x 4" measures 1-1/2" x 3-1/2."
Thanks for asking!
Tom Gorman, Dept. of Forest Products
College of Natural Resources
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
Ah, good way to start a debate.
That Tom Gorman sets off my BS meter.
It sure was earlier than 1970! I guess saying "prior to 1970" is a good way to cover yourself if blowing smoke.
2x4 sizes switched way before I graduated from HS, and that was in the early 60's.
EDIT: A further search with ("dimensional lumber" history weyerhauyser) brought up:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/misc/miscpub_6409.pdf
1953, width reduced, 1956 big debate on thickness started; April, 1963, close to current standards formalized by US dept of commerce.
There is a good read in the appendix of the above about the 1956 debate on changing 1" nominal boards from 25/32 to 3/4.
Edited 12/15/2007 9:15 am ET by junkhound
Whe I started my apprenticeship in 1964 they were still an 1 5/8". If I remember right it was in the late 60's that the change took place.
Interesting read, especially since I'm snowed in today.
Interesting read, since I'm taking a break from cutting the grass. I'm in a T-shirt, and it's 64 degrees here. ;^)We had low 80's earlier in the week. Ha Ha !Greg
Getting any rain? We're getting off & on showers here around Newnan
Just a light mist - supposed to pick up and be a little windy tomorrow.
Hope you guys get a good soaking, 'cause water runs downhill ! ! Greg
ain't enough rain right now to really make a difference. We need a hurricane or 2.
Pthtttt
If it makes you feel any better, I'm working outside today and it is 12* here. We don't have to cut grass in the winter...that is for sissies. 8>{
2 out of my 4 dogs are out playing in the snow now. They can have it.
I am on break, warming up by the wood stove. I do sport the black, insulated Carhartt bib overalls. The sun is out here, so the black color helps...just don't work in the shade.My dog loves the snow.
Our snow is supposed to turn to sleet, then freezing rain, then rain, then back to freezing rain and snow, with 40 mph gusts.
I think I'd stay inside too, given that description.I've lined up shop work for most of the next few weeks, so I'll be inside and don't have to drive much. Shop is heated with wood scraps so life is good.To get the thread back on track, my shop is built with 1-5/8" studs (early 1930's).
My house has 1 5/8 studs also. Built as off Base officer (cape cod style) housing in WWII (1945) for the Defense Electronics Supply Center. This house was also prefabbed, but no lightweight materials here.
I don't break out the bibbs untill it gets down around zero you sissy!;)
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I just wear the bibs so I can wear a Hawaiian shirt and shorts underneath. ;o)
Now that is visually stimulating!
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
It's the steel-toed thongs (footwear not funwear!) that make me go hmmm....
You thought I was kidding, but I have a pics. Funny thing tough, I put this outfit on and the dog attacked me. Canine fashion police!Actually, the Golden goes crazy anytime I get dressed for the cold...loves the bibs, boots and gloves. This means she gets to go out and play rough.
1970 sounds about right to me, but I didn't get out there till a bit later than that.I suspect that many mills were shipping lumber milled at 1.5" much earlier than 1970 and it was 1970 that the industry adopted those standards. Prior to that, buyers simply accepted the "substandard" sizes and really didn't give a hoot. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
I owned a house built in 1970, and it had 1-5/8" studs, with holes drilled in them. I remarked on them to a fellow i had there with an excavator and he said the studs came from Canada, with the holes making it a 'value-added' product legal to import. The holes were apparently for snaking wire - seemed like a grand idea to me, but it was a pain matching them when i needed to move doorways and such.
I was buying 1-5/8" 2byx lumber in the 1990s.
Edit: and bought more last week.
Maybe it's an East vs. West thing.
Edited 12/15/2007 11:04 pm ET by Pierre1
Edited 12/15/2007 11:07 pm ET by Pierre1
I think the truth is that in or about 1970 the industry put some teeth into the standards for dimension lumber. (I remember this making the news.) Prior to that (in the 60s) there was a lot of hanky-panky and it wasn't unusual to come up with a 1-3/8" measurement. The change from the 1-5/8 defacto standard, however, occurred in the late 50s or early 60s, since I remember some men complaining about it when I was maybe 10-15.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
When I started doing carpentry in the late sixties, I think they were all 1-5/8" still. It probably did not change all at once across country instantly. I seem to remember seeing some at 1-5/8" in 1971 or so
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
mid 60's at the latest....
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WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
1971 I framed a small house that was a kit the guy had bought.
In New Mexico. Don't know where the kit came from, but it was all 1-5/8" framing stock. I remember this because it was the first one I ever framed without somebody else doing the thinking for me - I was alone except for one day setting rafters.And I hated that goofy extra eighth inch here and there. Somehow that frustration sticks in my head.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
66... maybe
my father and I did a house that had a mix of 1/2" and 5/8''....
now that was frustrating...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I started in 1972 and there was still some 1-5/8" lumber out there. Jay
You guys must all be talking about either KD or Dry stuff. We still see 1 5/8" all the time here in green framing lumber.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
The only green I see is rough cut.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Thought that was the case. Not at all uncommon here, seems all the good dry stuff is shipped out of state. What we (or rather I) mostly see in KD appears to be a lower grade then the green, and air dried here 7 months out of the year is a joke.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
I started around 75 and I never saw any 1 5/8" stuff. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
It had to be 70 or 71. We were building 12 unit 3 story apt. buildings and I remember the lumber salesman coming on the job in early summer to inform us of the change . I recall the layout man was bitching for a while. Our crew had built so many of these that we never referred to the prints much. That eighth difference made for some mistakes at first. Must have been tough if you were in the middle of a frame and the next delivery was " new lumber".