It’s another effect of deforestation. Up until about 50 years ago, the 2x4 that were used to build houses came from trees that on average were about 60, 70 even 100 years old.
We ran out of those trees about 30-40 years ago.
Now most of the trees that are harvested for lumber are fast growing weaker trees that take about 10 - 20 years to grow … and they don’t even grow that big any way … so the way they deal with smaller trees is to just harvest more of them.
Younger weaker trees will bend and twist more, break easier, not as strong and more suseptible to bugs bacteria and mold, because the wood is not as dense or hard.
Great example … this is why I reclaim most old lumber I find in an old house. Pine from a 100 year old even a 50 or 60 year old house looks like the one in the bottom while pine from a house from 20 years ago and earlier looks like the one above.
The new lumber is good firewood … it makes excellent fire starter and kindling because it burns like paper … a scary thought is that this is the kind of wood that makes up modern houses … we are all living in fire starter. And every time I expose this new lumber, about half the time, parts of it already started to wet rot, dry rot or are infected with insects or disease.
The old lumber that is 100 years old can still be planed, shaped and used to make furniture or woodworking projects.
It’s more sadder than that
It’s another effect of deforestation. Up until about 50 years ago, the 2x4 that were used to build houses came from trees that on average were about 60, 70 even 100 years old.
We ran out of those trees about 30-40 years ago.
Now most of the trees that are harvested for lumber are fast growing weaker trees that take about 10 - 20 years to grow … and they don’t even grow that big any way … so the way they deal with smaller trees is to just harvest more of them.
Younger weaker trees will bend and twist more, break easier, not as strong and more suseptible to bugs bacteria and mold, because the wood is not as dense or hard.
Great example … this is why I reclaim most old lumber I find in an old house. Pine from a 100 year old even a 50 or 60 year old house looks like the one in the bottom while pine from a house from 20 years ago and earlier looks like the one above.
The new lumber is good firewood … it makes excellent fire starter and kindling because it burns like paper … a scary thought is that this is the kind of wood that makes up modern houses … we are all living in fire starter. And every time I expose this new lumber, about half the time, parts of it already started to wet rot, dry rot or are infected with insects or disease.
The old lumber that is 100 years old can still be planed, shaped and used to make furniture or woodworking projects.