services we offer

How to Order Our Products

How to Order

You may place your order by phone or email, and some orders may be placed on our online store. Before placing your order, there are a few options you should look over. We will need to know what species of lumber you would like, if it will be dried or green, rough or planed, graded or ungraded.

The information below should help you better understand your options and our process, availability, and turn around times. Please contact us with specific questions, and to discuss your projects needs. Call us: (207)587-2145 or Email us: contact@thewoodmillofmaine.com

In the lumber industry, the saying “you get what you paid for” holds true. It is important to recognize the differences in lumber grades and the difference in planing/milling quality when shopping for lumber. If you have any questions, please ask them before placing an order.

Grades for Products Made by The Wood Mill of Maine

Graded

We are a small production mill, which allows us to have higher-quality standards. This means we are able to visually inspect each piece of lumber as it comes off our mill. Graded products have sound tight knots. There can be a mix of both solid red and black knots, and we guarantee the lumber to have no holes, cracks or planing defects. Please note: for lumber thicker than 1″, checking from drying is not considered a defect. You will receive a zero waste product, which means every piece of lumber you receive will be suitable for your home.

Ungraded (run of the mill)

Mill-run lumber is impartially pulled and milled from our inventory. It is not graded at any point of production. Some of the lumber will resemble top grade, and some will have defects that include sweep, large knots, loose/missing knots, cracks, wane, rot, holes, and minor planing defects (like nicks). Many defects can be cut out of the wood during installation, so you will still have a lot of good quality product. Eastern Hemlock is only available in mill run or industrial grade. If you are worried mill run grade is not up to the standards of your project, we suggest you either order extra to account for waste, or consider buying our zero waste graded product.

Seconds (industrial grade)

Seconds are the lumber discards from when we mill a graded order. Seconds will have defects that include sweep, large knots, loose/missing knots, cracks, wane, rot, holes, and/or planing defects (miss). Seconds are sold at up to 75% off of the graded product price, and are only sold as full units.

Pine Flooring

We grade our White Pine flooring more thoroughly than any other product we manufacture. For more information on our Pine flooring grades, click here!

Grades for Common Pine Products Made Elsewhere

Many other Pine mills follow the NELMA grading standard. The grades are: Industrial, Standard, Premium, Finish, & Select. For detailed information on this grading system, check out the NELMA grader sheet:  Download the NELMA Grader Sheet

When ordering products manufactured by a NELMA mill, you should expect to see some damage from handling, more sweep, lower quality finish from milling, and a higher moisture content than can be found in products manufactured by The Wood Mill of Maine.

Eastern White Pine

Since the early settlers arrived, Maine has been made famous for its Eastern White Pine.  Known to grow up to 250 feet tall, Eastern White Pines were called the “giants of the Northeast” and were sought after for the production of ship masts in the Royal Navy in the 17th century. Eastern White Pine has a fine grain and a uniform texture. It shapes easily for patterns and profiles, stays true to form, and holds finishes very well. White Pine has been an American favorite because of its versatility, stability, and desirable white, yellow, and tan colors. Knots are typically red or black in color. It is the lumber of choice for timber framing and is often used as paneling, wainscoting, siding, wide pine flooring, log cabin logs, furniture, mouldings, and many other lumber products. New England is home to a plethora of beautiful homes over 200 years old that showcase alluring original pine construction and wood work throughout. Here at the Mill, we typically have rough-sawn pine available in various dimensions. Custom rough-cut pine is usually available with a 1-2 week turnaround time. Kiln drying and planing can take up to 5 weeks. Pine, when sawn in the summer, can develop a blue stain from the summer heat. If this is a concern for you, please call us, and we can discuss alternatives.

Eastern White Cedar

Also called Atlantic White Cedar, Northern White Cedar, and Swamp Cedar, Eastern White Cedar is a highly desirable lumber known for its rot and insect-resistant traits. Cedar lumber products are often used for projects where water, moisture, or soil are present, such as decking, sauna wood, log cabin logs, boat building, fencing and fence posts, shingles, siding, and throughout homes as paneling and trim. Cedar trees do not grow large or strait like pine, which makes it very difficult to produce long lumber lengths. A typical piece of cedar paneling can be anywhere from 4′ – 10′, with the average being about 8 feet. Here at the Mill, we specialize in high quality cedar. Cedar is not recommended for load-baring structures, such as beams and floor joists.

Eastern Hemlock

Eastern Hemlock is known as the softwood that pretends to be a hardwood. It has the looks of a softwood, but turns grey and becomes incredibly hard as it dries. Because of this, Hemlock is only available green and can be planed to your desired specifications. Hemlock is usually considered a construction timber and is used for constructing large beams, floor joists, house lifting cribbing, barn siding, etc. Hemlock can grow to large sizes and lengths, making it ideal for long-length timbers. Hemlock is not recommended for interior finish projects or in the construction of flooring because it can move & twist as it dries, in some cases can easily splinter, and is only offered in a mill-run or industrial grade. Please note that if you want Hemlock planed, it is likely to have some fuzzing as it is planed green.

Kiln Dried

Drying lumber removes moisture from the wood and minimizes the shrinkage you will experience with green lumber. All of our stock-dimension Eastern White Pine is kiln-dried in our Nyle dehumidification kilns. Log cabin logs and siding are dried to 15-20% moisture content to minimize shrinkage and checking. Paneling is dried to 10-12% moisture content, which is suitable for interior walls and ceilings. Flooring & mouldings are dried to 6-8% moisture content for maximum stability and minimal shrinkage. Kiln-drying is a process that must be done the right way to ensure a top quality product; this is a process that can take anywhere from 14-21 days. Most custom-cut pine orders require up to 5 weeks lead time. 

Air Dried

Our stock Eastern White Cedar is stickered and air-dried to below 20% moisture content for log cabin logs and below 12% moisture content for paneling, siding and decking. Kiln-drying Cedar is unnecessary because of how easily Cedar gives up its moisture. In the summer, cedar will be sufficiently dry within just a few weeks of air-drying , and will only experience minimal shrinkage after the installation process.

Green

Green lumber is lumber that has not been air or kiln-dried. For Pine and Cedar, we recommend that you buy an air-dried or kiln-dried product to minimize movement and shrinkage. There are a few exceptions to this suggestion, however. The first exception is for large timbers, such as beams. Any timber over 16′ will not fit in a kiln. This normally is not an issue, though, as most builders are used to working with green timbers and know how they need to be installed. Another exception is for Hemlock, which is nearly impossible to work with after drying. If Hemlock is kiln-dried (or even air-dried) before being installed, it tends to twist, cup and splinter. Because of this, all Hemlock orders are cut out of a fresh logs, leaving the lumber as “green” as possible for installation. Green lumber can still be planed, but the finish will not be as smooth as it is on kiln-dried timber.

Rough Sawn

Rough-sawn is a term that describes how lumber comes off a saw mill. We try to get our rough-“dimentioned” lumber sawn at the actual nominal size desired. This means a rough sawn 2×4 should really be a 2″ x 4″. In a perfect world this holds true, but rough sawn lumber has inaccuracies from sawing and shrinkage while drying. A 2×4 might actually be as large as 2.25 x 4.25 or, in very rare cases, slightly below a true 2 x 4. Rough-sawn lumber can save you the cost of planing if the accuracy and smooth finish of a planed product is not required, or if planing your own lumber is desired.

Planed

Planed lumber is lumber that was put through our 4-sided planer, giving each piece of lumber a smooth and uniform finish. We offer a wide variety of planed products and some of our most popular items include log cabin siding, wall paneling, and cedar decking. We also make custom planing profiles. We can mill almost anything you desire, such as custom moldings, siding, or replacement logs for a log cabin. Customer planing orders require a planer setup fee, as planer blades must be uniquely set up for each order. This fee is waved on orders over 2000 linear feet and on orders for any lumber milled squared-four-sides.

Get In Touch

If you have questions, please contact us

(207)587-2145 Or By Email At

Contact@Thewoodmillofmaine.Com