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"At one time" a 3" cast iron pipe would not fit in a 2x4 wall.

How is that relevant?

I wish Charlese was around to elucidate us on the reason for the reduction in structural lumber sizing. I fear the worst!

Okay, found a size chart for dimensional lumber. The note at the top is of interest.

http://mistupid.com/homeimpr/lumber.htm

The lumber is cut full size from green logs and then planed,(I knew that), but there is also some shrinkage due to drying, (hadn't considered that). The shrinkage due to drying would account for the extra 1/4" on the width of wider (7' to 12") boards. It makes sense that wider boards would shrink more.

According to a lumber salesman years back ,they reduced the size over the years to save lumber , just like the metric system was going to save steel, oddly enough our old house had cast iron inside a 2x4 wall , it also had plaster and lath ? we had to remove the oakum and lead before we could get rid of them ,the 2x4 here in the old place measured 1 7/8 x 3 7/8 and they are so hard ya cant drive a nail in them with out it bending .I built a work bench out of some old rafters , had to drill each nail hole and wax every screw , just heard ANWAR was opened up to lumber companies and the mining industry , some of those trees are only 8-10 inches round and are over 100 years old ,thats a lot of trees to harvest for the lumber ya get in return , there wont be too many 2x6 in a 10 inch log cut on a mill with a 1/4 inch thick teeth on the blade ? my biggest concern is there are trees blown down every where just going to waste . not to mention ya now need 3 sets of router bits to save any time working with dimensional lumber . This is just my take on the issue and what I have been exposed to through the years.

but there is also some shrinkage due to drying
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Ron, that's a good good link ,thanks .
When I googled how much will a 2x4 shrink I came up with this
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How much will a 2x4 shrink?
One the 2x4 has been in your house for 6 months and had a chance to acclimate and dry out if it was wet, it will still be nearly 96 inches long. There is very little shrinkage along the length of the lumber. The thickness of the 2x4 will change slightly, but not by much.Aug 24, 2017
https://www.google.com/search?client=op ... 61&bih=501

Similar in the plywood industry. Now 3/4" plywood is 23/32". Well, that is only 1/32" no big deal. But consider that when a plywood manufacturer makes 23 sheets they save 23/32" and the 24th sheet is a freebee.
Bill V

it also sags when ya walk on it !!

the girls removed a set of old side boards on the set of stairs today , in order to replace it they will have to glue a 3/4"strip onto the new 1x10 ,more time , more waste do to the fact they will need a 12' 1x to rip it from . being the board is 12' long they will need to buy a 12' 1x to rip it from and there will be a strip of wood 12' long of some worthless odd ball size left over .they cold have purchased a 1x 12 and ripped it down but that's a lot of waste to,I asked about rough cut umber at the big box since we do have a jointer / planer and they acted like I was speaking some foreign language .

From what I understand, some of the reduction comes from allowance for expected shrinking (once they began shipping lumber around by rail, they realized it didn't make sense to ship water, so they began drying before shipping) and planing loss, and some of it is just chiseling the customer. In my 1902 house, the joists vary between 2" to 1 7/8" and 8" to 7 1/4". All are rough-sawn - the edges have circular saw marks and the faces band saw marks.

John , if that were so then why dont they just rough cut them a bit thicker ,just saying . maybe they are harvesting new growth now and the tees are smaller in diameter ? I can't explain it .

Hobbyman2 wrote:John , if that were so then why dont they just rough cut them a bit thicker ,just saying . maybe they are harvesting new growth now and the tees are smaller in diameter ? I can't explain it .

Again the 1x8 dimension is that when it was in the tree! The rough cut dimension is a saw kerf less.

If one increases the rough cut dimension to say 1", it would than be called a 1(+kerf) x ..

The description(1x..) is what was started with(in the tree), NOT what the end result dimension is.