PSA: I was looking through some old house plans from the 70s and the lumber sizes were totally different

Honestly, I was cleaning out my dad's garage in Toledo and found the original blueprints for his house. I noticed the floor joists were listed as 2x8s, but when I measured them with my tape, they were actually a full 2 inches by 8 inches. Tbh I always thought the 'nominal' size thing was just a recent change. It made me realize how much the actual material has shrunk over the decades. Has anyone else run into this while doing a renovation on an older home?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_miller843d agoTop Commenter

My uncle's a contractor in Akron and he told me the switch to smaller actual dimensions happened in the 60s. They used to cut rough lumber on site more often. Now it's all planed smooth at the mill, which takes off that extra quarter inch. Finding true 2x4s in an old wall is a huge pain when you go to match new wood for a repair. The new stuff just looks so skinny next to it.

matthew1663d ago

Yeah, and that mill planing also makes the wood way more consistent, which is the trade-off, I guess.

blair_martin3d ago

Ran into this fixing a wall in my 1950s place. Had to sister a new stud next to an old one and the size difference was a joke. Ended up ripping down a bigger piece of plywood to make a shim, just to get everything flush for the drywall. It's a messy fix but it worked. Why does everything have to get smaller and more complicated?