Replies

1. 
   dieselpig | Apr 13, 2004 12:50am | #1

   I can't tell you exactly what's going on in your particular situation, but I have found that homes built during or in the ten years after WWII hide the most surprises.  Homes of this era were built using whatever a builder could get his hands on.

   My area has a TON of capes built in the late forties and fifties.  You get to see lumber of every dimension imaginable and learn to expect anything and everything.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 4/12/2004 6:06 pm ET by dieselpig

2. 
   caseyr | Apr 13, 2004 01:28am | #2

   Boards used to be slightly larger than are today.  Don't remember the exact date of the change but someone gave the date in a post to Breaktime some time back.  The dry planed thickness of 2X shrank from something like 1 5/8 to 1 1/2.  Don't recall the change in the width.  I think the rationale was that better grading allowed for boards with less need for extra width to allow for defects.  Of course, making more $$ for the sawmills would never have entered into it... 

1. 
   JohnSprung | Apr 13, 2004 02:10am | #3

   Lumber also used to be a lot less accurate and consistent.  In the 1920's, 2x10's could be anything from 9 1/8" to 9 1/2".  Thickness ranged from 1 7/8" to 2 1/4". 

   -- J.S.

3. 
   OneofmanyBobs | Apr 13, 2004 02:23am | #4

   They probably did not shrink that much, just used an odd size because that was all they needed for the span.  My house is 1940s vintage and uses roughsawn for framing.  2x4s are actually 2x4 pretty exactly.  Maybe shrank an eighth of an inch at most.  Also, mine is random species.  Poplar mostly, but pine, walnut, oak too.  Whatever they had, they used.  Poplar is terrible.  Doesn't hold nails well and rots really easily.

1. 
   DanH | Apr 13, 2004 03:28am | #6

   Yeah, and trying to drive a nail into a 50-year-old oak stud is quite a challenge.

2. 
   MajorWool | Apr 13, 2004 08:23am | #7

   This is a rafter in my 1924 garage. Full dimension 2x4. I stopped counting growth lines at 80. They don't seem to make boards like this anymore. I've been half tempted to pull them out at the reroof and rebuild with new 2x6.

4. 
   DanH | Apr 13, 2004 03:26am | #5

   If the lumber came from a local small mill 50 years ago, they likely weren't too careful about the precise measurements. And then starting about 1955 through the 60s there was a continual shrinkage in "standard" dimensions, until a 2x4 was apt to measure about 1 1/4 by 3. Finally it got pretty silly and the industry started enforcing some standards in the late 60s or early 70s, though suppliers seem to "push the envelope" from time to time even now.