I spent this past weekend installing Knotty Pine tongue and groove paneling in the new woodshop. As with the floors, I cut costs on materials by purchasing the “value line” stuff (offcuts, etc.) However, unlike the flooring, this stuff was awesome! When they said that most of the pieces were 3′ – 8′ long, they weren’t lying — in fact, there were far more 8′ pieces than I expected and though I tried to stagger my usage, I ended up running out of the smaller pieces before I was done. The 1′ – 4′ pieces were simply more convenient to handle when cutting out notches for doors, outlets, ceiling peaks, etc. This is good stuff and I highly recommend these guys.
The only real downside was that FedEx freight from Michigan cost nearly 50% of the cost of the lumber itself…however it was *still* comparable in price to buying the crap T&G paneling they sell at Menards or The Home Depot. In fact, I was a bit concerned that I would run out near the end and went to HD to buy a piece or two of theirs to use in an unseen area. Not only didn’t it match, it was just plain bad stuff…full of checks and dings and just not very attractive. I wound up buying a couple 8′ pine boards and milled a bevel top and bottom to match the look. I wound up with 2 8′ pieces left over after using 3 of the “mock” T&G boards.
Did I mention that I didn’t have to discard a single piece of of the paneling…or cut around any defects? Honestly…it was all good.
Here’s the time-lapse: