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?

Citation needed.

That is not what any of the press releases I see say, even those by the aforementioned Pedantic assclowns.

I can't speak for other states, but what really concerns me about CA is that the agency that does the enforcement gets to use that fine as part of their operating budget.

This happens all the time throughout CA, with air quality, job safety etc. and it encourages the regulators to go after anyone with cash. With respect to a lot of the "dirty" work, it's often the small guys who are the worst. But they have no assets so they are seldom pursued.

WCLBMA: Lowe's Case Partly Involves Labeling Non-Wood Products as Wood | ProSales Online

This is not the only article citing the deeper issues.

We buy specialty cut clear select lumber for our catwalks above our sound stages to replace old damaged lumber because the original lumber for the walking surfaces is like 70 years old and not made commercially anymore. I think its true 1" by 6".

You hit the nail right on the head. It happened to my father's small jewelry business and its happening to mine. Yes, we pay their salary and make sure they have job security through fees and more fees. Its for our own safety:rolleyes:

I'm suing Porsche because they said they sold me a 911 but it really is a 991.

what happened to buyer beware? Supplanted by an abundance of bored lawyers?

I mean, when I buy lumber, I know that uniformity is poor at places like HD or Lowes.

If I want high quality and uniformity, I go to Dunn. ...and verify. (really, how hard is it to measure such simple dimensions?)

Just imagine if they went after the "food" industry...

...And a lifetime roof will last about 30 years...

...And a Mercedes AMG C63 has a 6.2 liter motor

---Next they are going to go after cereal boxes with the bags half-empty. Nevermind the statement: "this package is sold by weight, not volume. Some setlting may have occurred during shipping..."

But here's where I'm gonna make some real money:
I am going to sue all of the schools in America, as well as all the textbook publishers for falsifying information and leading young people into deception, since they have been teaching that the wars/conflicts from 1337 to 1453 is called "The Hundred Year's War."

FYI: from wikipedia (if you can trust them), I found this:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1410892923.jpg


-Z-man.

Not so. My place in Los Angeles was built in 1928. most of the framing is done with real 2"X 4" redwood lumber and it is rough saw cut, not smooth like today's 2X4's.

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

They were 3-5/8" x 1-5/8" before the 3.5" x 1.5" standard was developed. I think we should retroactively sue for that too.

My house is full dimensional (built in 1940). You could probably park a 747 on it too.

And they round the corners - what a rip-off.

Meanwhile Home Depot is running around replacing all their signage.

...and TrueValue just ordered a massive supply of sawdust, wood shavings, and wood glue...

red wood???

My first house was built out of redwood... 2"x3" redwood on 24" centers with 1/4" drywall... little concrete piers underneath with chunks of log stuffed in there to hold up the floor joists...

Good times... good times...

Rumor had it the guy who built that house had a job building shacks for the railroad... I suspect he built the house with materials he brought home from the job.

To the OP, if you didn't know a 2x4 isn't actually a 2x4? You haven't worked with lumber in the last 20 years. :D

I thought this was a right of passage for boys. I remember as a young kid helping my Dad with some project or another and grabbing a tape and checking out a 2x4. I thought I had found something when the wood was undersized until Dad set me straight.

We are going through a remodel/addition now. I got piles of lumber everywhere. At some point in the last few months I explained to my eleven year old that lumber is not the actual size listed. -J

Hmmmmm... so what are the dimensions of the new sheet metal studs?

metal 2x4's are 1 5/8 x 3 1/2, slightly "thicker" than wood. 2x6's are 1 5/8 x 6.

NO
I have worked on older wood boats that were full inch dimensions
you have to buy 5/4 stock now to get a 1'' stick of wood finished
but it was not always that way
pre-1900 homes are full dimension ie a 2x4 is 2'' by 4''

MY 1940 HOUSE WAS VERY NEAR FULL SIZE LUMBER
later in the post war boom they began shrinking/cheating

and the yards are still cheating with ever smaller undersized pieces
newer planning mills can get a smaller shave then 1/4 per side
they start under size now and CHEAT YOU