How much additional wood do you budget or purchase for your projects?

[ChuckM]

Woodworking magazines seem to suggest 20% - 30%.

Do you go by any particular %, or do you make allowance for waste at all when you get your lumber?

 

[rmhinden]

My answer is it depends on the project.

If it's hardwood, the yard I usually go to sells full boards (they charge a premium for half lengths), so that usually results in getting more wood than I need.  Also depends a lot on available widths and thicknesses.

For plywood, depends a lot on how the project maps in the full or half sheets.

So no simple formula

Bob

 

[Muttley000]

I go through the pile deciding what pieces will come out of what boards. This allows me to cut it a little closer, around 10% if selection is good.

 

[kevinculle]

I usually buy from a couple local suppliers of rough sawn hardwood.  The answer depends on the quality of the stock I find and how critical the need is for close grain and color matching between boards.  I would estimate that I usually purchase 15% to 30% over the nominal board footage the project calls for...less if the stock is really clean and more if there are significant defects to work around.  I am not including in the estimate the nominal wastage for reducing say a 4/4 rough sawn board to 3/4" finished thickness as that amounts to about 30% all by itself.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I try to select sizes and grades in what I need to avoid any waste as much as possible, but I also buy at least 10-20% more than I need generally on smaller jobs, as I know I'll always use up the left over at a later date on another project.

Bigger jobs you have more flexibility to mix and match, so I buy just a little extra in case of stuff ups, unknown issues.

 

[jimbo51]

One issue is your level of confidence in not having an "oh fudge" moment when cutting a large piece near the end of the project.

Once (?) upon a time, cutting a final miter at the reverse angle sent me back to buy more wood.

Inexplicable mistakes on setting the saw fence have also resulted in additional trips.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

As a pro, that's not in my purview. Someone else does that, weeks or sometimes months before I ever see the job. It can be all over the place though. Sometimes they are way over and we just "stock" it for the next time. Other times it is so short that I know it won't work before I ever get started. That just happened this week. We were an entire sheet short.