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Quest for Wood in Apopka

13K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Tomcat1066 
#1 ·
Hood Distribution, McEwen Group

If my research is correct, Hood Distribution is a company that distributes wood, and McEwen Group is our local franchise of this company, so I don't believe the following information applies to all Hood Distribution facilities, this is just my experience with this local facility in Apopka.

After a previous project posting I received a few suggestions on places to go for wood, other than the big box stores. Last year when I first joined the central florida's woodworkers guild I went to Hood Distribution, McEwen Group (which I'll call McEwen from now on) because their address was printed on the back of my membership card. I stopped by within their business hours and asked about information about the lumber yard, I was nervous because I didn't really know what I was talking about or doing I had just started woodworking a month or so prior.

When I entered the main office an older heftier woman asked if she could help me, I said sure and explained that I was a new woodworker and that I had taken this up as a hobby and wanted to come buy and see what is available. The woman sighed and acted like I had asked for her kidneys or something, and told me that they don't deal consumers and that you need to have a business to open an account with them. This in itself is understandable, but they way the woman presented herself seemed very rude to me but that's ok I left the facility.

At the next wood workers guild meeting I mentioned what had happened to some of the members and I was told that as a member of the guild I shouldn't have any problems purchasing with them. And to think back I didn't mention I was a member at the time it just didn't cross my mind so maybe they did have special exception for guild members.

I was still disappointed about my first visit that I didn't go back, at least not until yesterday. Yesterday I decided to give McEwen another shot and I would make an point to mention the woodworkers guild and their recommendation to visit the facility. When I arrived it was around 3:30 and I entered the main office a nice gentleman asked if he could help me. I explained I was a hobby woodworker that has been doing this for about a year and was looking for local places to get wood besides home depot and lowes. I also mentioned that I was a member of the central florida's woodworkers guild and that it was recommended I come by and check out the facility.

The gentleman apologized and said that they don't do tours after 2pm but offered me a catalog and then put me in contact with a woman named Holly. She was a new sales rep there and I could tell was eager to make a sale, which would work out great because I was eager to spend some money. She gave me her card and said I should come back in the morning to check out the facility and they'd be happy to have someone show me around. I asked for a price list or some print out of what they had available, all I got was a catalog with no prices and she told me that they carry some different items than the catalog. I shook her hand and left with a better feeling about McEwen and decided to check them out on my way into work in the morning.

On my way into work I stopped by McEwen and the same gentleman I spoke too yesterday was there and greeted me and said that I should talk to a man outside about a tour and pointed to a group of 2 men standing outside of the main office. I stepped outside the office and introduced myself to the two men and explained who I was and I was a member of the woodworkers guild. Once the man heard that I was a hobbyist he jumped in stating that they only sell to businesses. I explained that I was told to come out and ask for a tour and that my fellow guild members recommended this place, their address is even on the card (I even showed him my membership card at this point). The man just did not look interested in spending time with me so I said I'm sorry to have wasted your time and left.

The truth is I'm sorry they wasted my time, it seems their sales staff are eager to sell to anyone, but the rest of their staff doesn't want to put any effort into helping anyone that isn't going to spend several thousand a day with them. I understand they're setup if they are only set up to work with businesses that is perfectly reasonable I can accept that. I just wish I wouldn't have wasted a second trip visiting them this morning because I was told by the sales staff they would help me.

At my next woodworkers guild meeting I'm going to make a motion to remove their address from our cards because I think it's confusing to new members to have a distribution place that won't sell to hobbyist on our cards.

Next up I will try Quality Plywood Specialties and Pro Builder up in Sanford.

-jeremy
 
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#3 ·
Hi Dave,
I visited QPS today and they were eager to sell me anything I was willing to buy, though central florida's woodworker's guild may have made special arangements with them I don't know. But I posted about my trip: http://lumberjocks.com/jgreiner/blog/25964

I'll have to check out this ole general store though.

-jeremy
 
#5 ·
We do have an 84 Lumber (just checked their website) near by .. a few. one in sanford, one in winter garden and another near mt. dora.

I've never heard of 84 lumber before, but theone in winter garden is 15 minutes away so I'll have to add it to my list of places to check out thanks!

-jeremy
 
#7 ·
I visited Hood Distribution today in Apopka. After discussing lumber purchase with the local woodcraft in Casselberry, ( a suburb of Orlando) they could not order the lumber and guarantee a few minimum widths and lengths. They get alot of their lumber from Hood.

The manager of woodcraft offered to contact Hood and allow me to make a personal visit. I would pick out the lumber and then Hood would call woodcraft and I pay them the retail price.

Sorry to hear Jeremy had a bad experience. Mine is the complete opposite. I dealt with three different people and they were all very nice and helpful. In fact, one went out of his way to make sure I got what I needed.
 
#8 ·
Would you go to a Ford Taurus car factory and ask to see their selection of knobs for the radio in your car? No.
They are not set up to serve the public for retail orders or small quantities.
I managed this company in the 80's and weekly had people come in to get one piece of basswood for carving or 3 pcs of mahogany to make plaques for an award.
Our bundles were standard 500 bdft to 1500 bdft, tallied and ready to ship to our customers.
A $20.00 sale would cost us $100.00 to process.
I know you want the piece of wood, or the 100' of a variety, requiring us to dismantle 5-6 bundles to let you look through them for an hour or so of browsing.
Wholesale means wholesale. It's not wholesale unless you really really really want to get that one piece for your hobby project.
I understand why that woman sighed. She is trying to get her weekly $200k of lumber bundles shipped out by Friday, and you want her to stop everything to let you break down 5 bundles to pick out 3 pieces for a total of $40.00.
It sucks that your retailer doesn't want to carry what you want, but don't judge McEwen for not stopping everything to give you a tour, break down bundles for you, or sell you a piece of wood when Disney is screaming about needing their 20,000 bdft of mahogany yesterday!
You just need to all get together and convince one local retailer to carry a limited inventory of the woods you all as a group will end up buying from them.
It's the same idea why you don't pull up to an oil refinery and ask to fill up your car.
They'd sigh too.
 
#9 ·
Pro Builder in Sanford

I skipped out of work early to make a short trip up to sanford (turned out to be 20 minutes from my office so not to bad) to visit Pro Builders and Quality Plywood Specialty.

I arrived at Pro Builders, parked in the wrong lot and was directed to the correct area, when I entered the sales office I noticed a big "Welcome Contractors" sign and for a moment I was preparing myself for another McEwen group. When I entered the building I was greeted with several hellos and I introduced myself mentioned that It was recomended that I come check out Pro Builders as an alternate source for lumber or plywood. One of the sales represenatives aproached me and shook my hand and said that they mostly deal in framing materials and he offered to show me around so I could see what he means.

I took him up on his offer and he showed me around one of the wharehouses. We chit chatted a bit as he explained their primary business and showed me their stocks of wood. They had some various pine but it was pretty slim, they had 3 or 4 sheets of baltic birch that had seen better days .. then they had miles and miles of OSB. He showed me an entire warehouse full of it and he said he has another across the way full of OSB as well and that's pretty much most of their business. They also do doors that you can order in and some moulding and trims but all custruction stuff.

I mentioned how I was recomended on Lumber Jocks and he said that several of the Pro Builder locations have a retail store front, or have different inventory focus based on the region but for them it's pretty much 2×4 and OSB.

I thanked him for his time and the tour it was very nice of him and he appologized that he couldn't be more helpful and I told him that he was plenty helpful.

McEwen could take lessons from these guys, they went above and beyond what they really needed even though they knew there wasn't any money in it for them. If I needed a truckload of OSB and 2×4's I would visit them in a heart beat as polite as they treat people I can only immagine how nicely they treat their paying customers.

-jeremy
 
#10 ·
Would you go to a Ford Taurus car factory and ask to see their selection of knobs for the radio in your car? No.
They are not set up to serve the public for retail orders or small quantities.
I managed this company in the 80's and weekly had people come in to get one piece of basswood for carving or 3 pcs of mahogany to make plaques for an award.
Our bundles were standard 500 bdft to 1500 bdft, tallied and ready to ship to our customers.
A $20.00 sale would cost us $100.00 to process.
I know you want the piece of wood, or the 100' of a variety, requiring us to dismantle 5-6 bundles to let you look through them for an hour or so of browsing.
Wholesale means wholesale. It's not wholesale unless you really really really want to get that one piece for your hobby project.
I understand why that woman sighed. She is trying to get her weekly $200k of lumber bundles shipped out by Friday, and you want her to stop everything to let you break down 5 bundles to pick out 3 pieces for a total of $40.00.
It sucks that your retailer doesn't want to carry what you want, but don't judge McEwen for not stopping everything to give you a tour, break down bundles for you, or sell you a piece of wood when Disney is screaming about needing their 20,000 bdft of mahogany yesterday!
You just need to all get together and convince one local retailer to carry a limited inventory of the woods you all as a group will end up buying from them.
It's the same idea why you don't pull up to an oil refinery and ask to fill up your car.
They'd sigh too.
 
#12 ·
Quality Plywood Specialty

My second stop while I was up in sanford was at QPS. It took me a little bit to find the customer enterence door but when I entered I was greeted by 2 young men chit chatting with eachother. They both greeted me and asked how they could help. I explained who I was and I was looking for a good source for plywood and potential lumber that didn't come from the big box store.

One of the gentleman offered me a tour to show me what they had and we walked around the warehouse. He was very friendly showing me all the different types of plywood they keep in stock. And boy do they have a lot of plywood. MDO, Ultralight MDF, Baltic Birch, Maple Veneer, and some really neat stuff I had never seen before (they had plywood that was already pre-primered for paint I thought that was pretty cool). They also had this plywood that was like 2 MDF sheets on the outside, but a plywood core so it's strong to screw into but also a stable face like MDF.

I must be a pretty big dork to be geeking out over plywood but it was neat seeing all the different options available to me. A sheet of ultra-light MDF was cheaper than the hardwood plywood at the big box stores.

As far as plywood goes they certianly had anything I think I'd ever need. And from what I could tell their stock was well taken care of and I immagine they go through it pretty fast so they don't have to deal with warped pieces too often.

Just when I thought I'd died and gone to plywood heaven, I asked if they do any cutting and if so do they charge extra. Sadly they do no cutting, they don't have a panel saw or table saw on premise. So if I want to buy from them I'd need to devise some sort of sawhorse system that I can fit in my car with enough room to fit the cut plywood. Or rent a truck which adds to the overall cost of the purchase.

Certianly a workable solution, just not an ideal one.

-jeremy
 
#13 ·
Hi Jeremy,
I work in Lake Mary and have been hunting for a good local retail source. The only ones I have found in the area are Amazon Exotics in Cassleberry (I think) and Woodcraft on 17-92 just south of 436. Woodcraft's lumber is silly-expensive and Amazon is only open weekdays until 5. Selection at Amazon is a little small but prices are better.

There is a hardwood dealer in Lakeland that sells to the public (forgot the name) and it is bigger and cheaper but man it's a long drive from the northern Orlando suburbs. It is open sometimes on Saturday. It just so happens I'm on my way there tomorrow to check it out for the first time. I'll let you know what I find.
 
#17 ·
84 Lumber

I visited the nearest 84 Lumber today, they close at 6 so I had to do some work to get there before they closed. When I entered I was welcomed by a cashier and I introduced myself and said that I was looking for different plywood and lumber sources around apopka something other than home depot or lowes. The cashier said "Oh, well we are pretty much supplied by the same people as those guys".

I said ok and thought maybe their handling of the goods would be better and the plywood would at least be less warped. He said to go ahead in the back of the wharehouse and look around so I did. I walked around, it wasn't very well marked, nor was it organized very well. They have a large outside covered are that looked like it had piles and piles of OSB, 2×4's and other such construction materials.

Unfortunatly their storage for the plywood I could find wasn't any better than home depot, they had the 2 large beams that sit on either edge of the wood allowing it to sag in the middle. I looked around, prices weren't very well marked so I couldn't even tell if it was cheaper than home depot or lowers.

After I looked through their wharehouse area, I had decided that their target audience just wasn't for me. They close to early and are only open from 8am to noon on saturday. Their stock doesn't seem any better, and their hours and location are worse than home depot and lowes near me.

84 Lumber is a franchise, so it's possible other locations are better I don't know.

I still need to visit Amazon Hardwoods other than that I don't know of other places near me.

-jeremy
 
#19 ·
Amazon Exotic Hardwoods

I visited Amazon Exotic Hardwoods (going to call it AEH) today, they are only open 8-5 Monday through Friday so it is not as convenient as woodcraft, but it's certainly cheaper. Wood was 1-3+ dollars cheaper than at my local woodcraft (from prices that I could remember off the top of my head). When I walked into a nice little checkout room that had a bunch of milled lumber with price tags on it. Tons of pen blanks, bowl blanks and small to medium sized boards already milled (not just skip planed). If you don't have a jointer/planer and need to pick up some wood they have a pretty nice selection of already milled lumber to pick from.

They have a work area that you're not allowed to enter where I heard the saws and such going crazy, a nice young man came into the little sales/checkout room and I introduced myself. Fortunately they had more than just the already milled lumber and turning blanks, he showed me to the lumber storage area and they had a pretty good selection of wood. Not truckloads of wood (they only had 1 board of red oak not that I needed any at the time), but a wide variety to choose from.

They do carry some plywood, but I couldn't see any so I didn't see any prices for that sort of thing, but I did ask if they cut wood and he said they will cut it to fit in the car, but if you want half a board you need to buy the whole board. This was perfectly reasonable to me, I told him about my mini cooper and we had a good laugh and he mentioned cutting the wood to fit in the car would not be a problem. He also mentioned they can mill the lumber but I bet that costs money and since I have a jointer and planer and I enjoy milling the lumber myself I didn't inquire about that further.

While the lumber is cheaper than the local woodcraft store, maple was $0.25 more from the mail order place (that includes shipping) that I've gotten wood from. I don't know if AEH has a bulk discount if you buy 20BF or more since I have to buy 20BF at a time from the mail order place, poplar was about $1 cheaper at at AEH so the other woods may be cheaper there I don't know I don't have an active price list for AEH to compare.

I may print out some prices from CR Muterspaw to compare for a full range with AEH I don't know but at very least, AEH should be a good place to get wood when I need a small amount of something and don't want to have to buy a full 20BF pack from the mail order. Also AEH had several woods that CR Muterspaw does not have in packs like purple heart, and I like working with purple heart so I'll be getting that from AEH for sure.

I'm a little torn, I do like the convenience of mail order lumber, I just order it and it shows up a week later. But I also like supporting local companies and building a good reputation with them. I guess we'll have to see how things pan out but at least I know where this place is and everyone there was friendly so they will likely see me more in the future.

I've visited all the lumber places that I know about, now to see if I can find anymore.

-jeremy
 
#20 ·
For what it's worth, one advantage to keep in mind over the mail order place is that you'll have more control over what your wood actually looks like. You buy boards with very similar grain where as you can't really do that with mail order.

It might not matter to much to you, but I know it does to me…but for the time being I'm probably stuck doing mail order myself :)
 
#22 ·
Probably, but I know I've seen some good projects that were marred by the wood grains shifting suddenly. Some of that could have been probably adjusted with better planning on which board go where, but still. If I can avoid it, I'd want to.

Of course, I'm stuck at buying from Lowe's or Home Depot for the time being.
 
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