How do you choose good lumber for your next custom build? In this video, Matt Risinger, master builder and his framing carpenter Bill Wood discuss the type of lumber to use. I this build, SPF. also known as spruce pine is used. It's a good quality framing lumber for walls. One tip is to find out where custom builders buy their lumber and talk to high-end framers and ask where to purchase from. Find the yards that stock better grades, such as grade number two and better. Be cautious about grade. There's utility grade, there's a very low-grade stud and there's standard and better and then number two. Yellow pine and Doug Fir are not used because of their high fat content they tend to move around. They would use them for a header, beam or floor system. Douglas Fir is sometimes used for decorative functions. A major consideration is moisture content. They are bringing these studs out dried from the Kiln. HT means heat treated for the bugs that might be in the lumber. Kiln dried is important as we want to lower moisture content. Equilibrium is 10 to 14% moisture content. If studs are 20%, or they've gotten wet, those studs will move. At times straightening is necessary. After walls are framed, we return a check for wall straightness. One option is, if a stud is bowed out or bowed in you can cut a notch out of it and then install a block horizontally and attach that to the studs on either side of it. Another way Is to set your saw blade at 45 degrees and cut across horizontally the bowed section a couple of times so that you can actually push that stud in and nail it. Some lumber is man-made lumber like LVL. You might consider man-made studs. 5 ½" wide, they are 1 ¾" thick and are also available in 1 ½" thick. Perfectly straight and super strong, they have a waxy coating, which will help them do well until a roof is on the house. With LVL, we can frame a 20-foot wall straight up and down with just single members and have a good straight and super strong wall surface. It's also great for a gable and wall where there's balloon framingwhere the stud goes from the bottom plate all the way up and you don't want any scissor action that may happen at the break of a top plate. There is a downside. They are harder on tools including nail guns and saws. They're heavier and they come up to 48-ft. lengths. We cannot get a pre-cut stud length in this product, which Increases labor and material cost. On the plus side, you have an incredibly structurally strong house.