If you don't know a 2x4 isn't actually 2"x4".....
 

Maybe you shouldn't be buying lumber.

Just saying.....

Marin judge orders Lowe's Home Centers to pay $1.6 million settlement - Marin Independent Journal

And people ask why I left California.

it could have happened anywhere else. What does this have to do with Ca? One dumb @#$$#% judge, and you blame the entire state?

The problem is CA does have a disproportionate percentage of dumbass judges (and dumbass lawyers, dumbass politicians and just plain dumbasses in general).

I wonder if this ruling measure up to appellate court scrutiny. :p

Well, there was also a different problem - the 1.5" x 3.5" boards weren't actually measuring up to that - and that was the crux of the lawsuit.

"led by the district attorneys of Marin, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties"

It was a government shakedown.

They are all idiots and need to find something worthwhile to do.

Wow.

2x4's have been that same size (1.5 x 3.5) since the day after they switched from using logs for houses (aka log cabins) to using planks...

-Z

don't you worry, it will move east ward.

From now on, instead of telling my men to " put a 2x4 in there" I will have to say "put a 1.5x 3.5 in there.;)

Wow just wow.......it's a industry standard. It's the dimensions of a rough cut piece of lumber before it's milled smooth. Or that's what it was before modern milling practices made the practice obsolete.

Appeal the judgment based on selective prosecution. If everyone is calling the same thing and they only picked on one company........

fwiw: It's a 4x2 in the UK.

This is what I always thought too!!?? I've known this since I was a little kid. Just thought it was part of construction industry jargon; referring to them as "2x4" instead of "1.5x3.5"

A law-suit about the actual dimensions of 2x4's?
wow!
1.6 mil
I wouldn't call the lawyers dumb, they won after all. The Judge is a dumb-ass for not dismissing these types of cases.

btw: a 20" bicycle wheel can be either 405 or 451 circumference.. if you don't like it, call my lawyer!

No.

If you look at the lawsuit, it's that the lumber did not even measure the 1.5" x 3.5" nominal standard, and that the lumber was out of specification, NOT that a 2x4 is not actually 2" by 4".

Who knows, but we will never find out. Lowe's settled, rather than engage in a long expensive legal fight with a bunch of pedantic assclowns.

And they will of course raise prices to cover costs of the litigation on to consumers.

For a company the size of Lowe's, $1.6 million is not much more than a rounding error (their profits last year were $1.8 billion on $16.6 billion in revenue ).

That's a good point! Lots of "stuff" in all types of industries have stated dimensions, which vary when you take a physical measurement! Maybe now it can be a "2x4 +/- .50"

Next lawsuit...

Penny nails aren't a penny....

120V really isn't...

Lifetime latex paint only lasts 10 years if youre lucky...

The list goes on...

Kalifornia is wacky...

I see.

I don't know if this is still available anywhere, but if you wanted lumber that actually measured, say, 2 x 4, or 4 x 6, or whatever, you specified "rough-cut." When you did that, you got material that actually measured to the specified dimensions. It was not, however, smooth, like todays lumber is. It was, well, rough cut.

Would I get sued in Kalifornia if I said my wood is a foot?