Commonly Available Rough Sawn and PSE / PAR Timber Sizes

This can be another minefield.

Take a tip from me, check if you can get the actual the sizes before designing and working out a complicated cutting list. If you ask a Timber Merchants the question:

“ Can I have 25.2 m (4.2m x 6 ) of 22 x 225 U/S redwood please?”

When answered with “NO we’ve got none of that.” is very dispirating. Especially when you’ve spent hours designing and working out a really efficent cutting list.

Table of typical metric soft wood timber sizes (nominal/sawn sizes, not actual)

Finshed PSE, PAR timber sizes below

Thickness (mm)	75	100	115	125	150	175	200	225	250	275
16	x	x		x	x
19	x	x		x	x
22	x	x		x	x	x	x	x
25	x	x		x	x	x	x	x	x	x
32		x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
38	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
50	x	x		x	x	x	x	x	x
63		x		x	x	x	x	x
75		x		x	x	x	x	x	x
100		x			x		x	x	x

Don’t forget PSE / PAR is planed down from these sizes and will be 3 to 5mm smaller AND not all these sizes are available all the time, everywhere.

What are the Actual Finished sizes of PSE or PAR Timber?

After much trawling and measuring I've determined the finished timber sizes will be approximately:

Actual Finished PSE PAR Timber sizes
nominal	16	19	22	25	32	38	50	63	75	100
Finished+	12	15	19	21	27	33	44	57	69	95
Finished -		14.5	18	20

The chart shows some of the differences I've come across.

The sizes are based imperial inch dimensions 2”x4” becoming 50 x 100mm.

Softwood comes in standard lengths of 1.80m 2.10m 2.40m 2.70m 3.0m 3.30m 3.60m 3.90m 4.20m 4.50m 4.80m 5.10m 5.40m 5.70m 6.0m and 6.30m. The Timber Merchant, in general won't stock the smaller sizes and will preffer to sell the longer lengths.

The lengths are an approximation of the old Imperial sizes in feet, hence the 300mm increments.

Next- How to choose a Timber Merchant / Supplier

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Commonly available rough sawn and PSE / PAR timber sizes

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Inspecting wood at the Timber Merchants