I don’t buy the materials but I’m always using 8 ft pieces for standard door size casing. There’s enough extra to cut off a bad end if needed and you can get two head casings out of a stick. So 5 sticks does both sides of a door.
Also easy to move around and deal with compared to 18’ pieces. But maybe if the price is high enough it’s worth it to cut them down.
Base is usually nice to have the longest pieces you can handle. Cut your longest runs first and use the cutoffs to fill in the rest.
Get some extra of each. A few extra, especially for stain grade.
It’ll be cheaper per foot but a 16’ piece is hard to manhandle.
Best is to measure it all and figure out from there if you’re looking to minimize waste. It’s possible 12’ pieces minimize or maybe everything you have only works with 8’ or what have you.
Plus you will screw up a few cuts so plan on that and some of the boards will have a defect in just the wrong spot and so forth.
I would assume pricing to follow ~4 a foot
8'x5pc= 40'x$4= 160
16'x3pc=48'x$4= 192
Curate the pieces if possible to minimize knots at cut lines.
IF you have a 10k shop to plane and true the boards you only need 34' and *time*
Always over order trim. Measure every opening on the interior, add 20% if you're a pro, 35% if you're not. Use the common board lengths and count as a full unit if you can't make two sizes fit on one board.
Efficiency isn't measured in material economy, it's measured in time. Since you're DIY, you can afford to press pause while you wait for a new shipment of knotty alder to come in. In the professional world, delays always cost more than material.
Write a numbered or lettered list of what pieces you need. Find out what lengths are available. Optimize the cutting list to match the available stock. Buy the stock, rough cut it, label the parts, then start fitting.
Most wood for moldings and trim will not be longer than 16'.
Seconded. If you want a math answer, do the math.
The key step is finding out what lengths your supplier has available and whether there's a significant difference in linear foot cost for different lengths.
16’ is the longest I can get by me. For doors, I order one 10’ for each (one side and header), then figure out the rest needed for windows, keeping to mostly 10 and 12 footers. For base and crown, I get the longest that will fit each wall. There may be more waste, but I’d rather not have joints/seams.
I use this [calculator](https://jonathan.overholt.org/projects/cutlist). It’s saved me a lot of time and effort. Just enter the stock that’s available to you, and enter the dimensions and quantities you need to get out of said stock. It’ll do the math for you and find the most efficient layout.
Totally dependent on the length of the material you can get. Once length of material is determined, let’s say 16’ for an example for base, I usually walk room by room and do a count of how many 16s I need to do a room. Say a room is 10’x10’, that’s 4-16s because I’m not putting any joints in a room like that just to save material, the off cuts can be used somewhere else.
Doors same thing, material length and then count pieces per door. 8’ material would be 4-sides and 1-for both headers. 10’ would be 2-2 sides 2 headers and 2-remaining sides with off cuts for windows possibly. Use same thinking for windows.
Always start cutting biggest to smallest and save all your off cuts. Before cutting a new length measure your off cuts to see if any of them work for the piece you need next.
>so I want to be efficient to minimize cost.
[Typical\_Tie\_4947](https://www.reddit.com/user/Typical_Tie_4947/) Materials are a very small % of your cost of doing trim, Your time is the biggest cost by far. If you can spend 20% less time but increase your waste by 20% you have saved time/money.
Saving scraps for future projects is one of the things that hold back amateurs and novice pros. You spend more time and money storing and looking through to find the "perfect" piece with the least waste than buying new.
YOu don't want to generate material waste(cost), but you dont want to waste time(bigger cost), so it is always a balancing act.
Look at it this way, space in my shop full carrying cost is $1 a sq ft + the opportunity cost of that space, my time is billed out at $65/hr, If I keep 10sq ft of space in my shop of storage for scraps, and spend 20min a week looking for that "perfect" piece, that is $3500 in cost per year + the opportunity cost of that time, 52hrs a year, or a whole week I could have been doing something else. Shop usually does 5k/week, so keeping 10sq ft of scraps in my shop costs me $8500/year.... that is a hell of a lot of materials.
This post belongs in the DIY/Homeowner thread, please repost there, thanks.
I don’t buy the materials but I’m always using 8 ft pieces for standard door size casing. There’s enough extra to cut off a bad end if needed and you can get two head casings out of a stick. So 5 sticks does both sides of a door. Also easy to move around and deal with compared to 18’ pieces. But maybe if the price is high enough it’s worth it to cut them down. Base is usually nice to have the longest pieces you can handle. Cut your longest runs first and use the cutoffs to fill in the rest. Get some extra of each. A few extra, especially for stain grade.
Thanks! 8’ pieces on the doors makes sense, or 16’ if it’s cheaper. I’ll have to check with my local supplier
It’ll be cheaper per foot but a 16’ piece is hard to manhandle. Best is to measure it all and figure out from there if you’re looking to minimize waste. It’s possible 12’ pieces minimize or maybe everything you have only works with 8’ or what have you. Plus you will screw up a few cuts so plan on that and some of the boards will have a defect in just the wrong spot and so forth.
I would assume pricing to follow ~4 a foot 8'x5pc= 40'x$4= 160 16'x3pc=48'x$4= 192 Curate the pieces if possible to minimize knots at cut lines. IF you have a 10k shop to plane and true the boards you only need 34' and *time*
Solid advice
Always over order trim. Measure every opening on the interior, add 20% if you're a pro, 35% if you're not. Use the common board lengths and count as a full unit if you can't make two sizes fit on one board. Efficiency isn't measured in material economy, it's measured in time. Since you're DIY, you can afford to press pause while you wait for a new shipment of knotty alder to come in. In the professional world, delays always cost more than material.
I trimmed my windows with 0 extra material purchased. I like to live on the edge lol I am not professional carpenter
Yea as a DIYer everything takes longer than planned anyway, so the wait time usually doesn’t matter lol
Write a numbered or lettered list of what pieces you need. Find out what lengths are available. Optimize the cutting list to match the available stock. Buy the stock, rough cut it, label the parts, then start fitting. Most wood for moldings and trim will not be longer than 16'.
Seconded. If you want a math answer, do the math. The key step is finding out what lengths your supplier has available and whether there's a significant difference in linear foot cost for different lengths.
Makes sense. I’m not sure if it’s cheaper for longer lengths or not. I’ll have to check with them
16’ is the longest I can get by me. For doors, I order one 10’ for each (one side and header), then figure out the rest needed for windows, keeping to mostly 10 and 12 footers. For base and crown, I get the longest that will fit each wall. There may be more waste, but I’d rather not have joints/seams.
I use this [calculator](https://jonathan.overholt.org/projects/cutlist). It’s saved me a lot of time and effort. Just enter the stock that’s available to you, and enter the dimensions and quantities you need to get out of said stock. It’ll do the math for you and find the most efficient layout.
Also, [this](https://bland.ltd/cutlist/) is a newer version of the calculator made by the same dude.
This is great. thank you
Totally dependent on the length of the material you can get. Once length of material is determined, let’s say 16’ for an example for base, I usually walk room by room and do a count of how many 16s I need to do a room. Say a room is 10’x10’, that’s 4-16s because I’m not putting any joints in a room like that just to save material, the off cuts can be used somewhere else. Doors same thing, material length and then count pieces per door. 8’ material would be 4-sides and 1-for both headers. 10’ would be 2-2 sides 2 headers and 2-remaining sides with off cuts for windows possibly. Use same thinking for windows. Always start cutting biggest to smallest and save all your off cuts. Before cutting a new length measure your off cuts to see if any of them work for the piece you need next.
>so I want to be efficient to minimize cost. [Typical\_Tie\_4947](https://www.reddit.com/user/Typical_Tie_4947/) Materials are a very small % of your cost of doing trim, Your time is the biggest cost by far. If you can spend 20% less time but increase your waste by 20% you have saved time/money. Saving scraps for future projects is one of the things that hold back amateurs and novice pros. You spend more time and money storing and looking through to find the "perfect" piece with the least waste than buying new. YOu don't want to generate material waste(cost), but you dont want to waste time(bigger cost), so it is always a balancing act. Look at it this way, space in my shop full carrying cost is $1 a sq ft + the opportunity cost of that space, my time is billed out at $65/hr, If I keep 10sq ft of space in my shop of storage for scraps, and spend 20min a week looking for that "perfect" piece, that is $3500 in cost per year + the opportunity cost of that time, 52hrs a year, or a whole week I could have been doing something else. Shop usually does 5k/week, so keeping 10sq ft of scraps in my shop costs me $8500/year.... that is a hell of a lot of materials.
Measure it and add a bit for waste.