They’ve already sued over the issue of two-by-fours not actually having a cross section of 2”x4”.
>> They’ve already sued over the issue of two-by-fours not actually having a cross section of 2”x4”.
Wouldn’t it be fun to cut a three foot (that’s 24.000”) piece of 2x4 — oops, I mean 1 7/8 x 3 5/8 — and beat the shysters black and blue with it?
Early standards called for green rough lumber to be of full nominal dimension when dry. However, the dimensions have diminished over time. In 1910, a typical finished 1-inch- (25 mm) board was 13⁄16 in (21 mm). In 1928, that was reduced by 4%, and yet again by 4% in 1956. In 1961, at a meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Committee on Grade Simplification and Standardization agreed to what is now the current U.S. standard: in part, the dressed size of a 1 inch (nominal) board was fixed at 3⁄4 inch; while the dressed size of 2 inch (nominal) lumber was reduced from 1 5⁄8 inch to the current 1 1⁄2 inch.[9]
I learned that in junior high, and it's been a while but it seems to me that the actual dimensions for lumber are posted in the descriptions.