CUSTOMER SELECT
Our Buffalo Budget Knotty Grade is a "No Prior Selection" tight knot grade. That means that the mill has not officially graded to be "Select Tight Knot" by the rule book as is done with "Mill Select" grades.
Buffalo "Customer Select" means you the customer spend the time selecting out defect from a higher grade saving the mill time and you dollars.
You will get a few loose knots but nothing that would threaten a 10-15% job site trim and waste margin.
It is usually green or partially air dried though some #3 and better Kiln Dried Wood makes this layman definition. We expect customers to not be too picky about slight flaws in the wood which would not be allowable in a tight knot grade rule but which do not prevent use of the wood.
The picture above is a #3 and better red cedar job we did. Here you are allowing for a larger knot size and frequency. This was milled to a 1x8 Flush Joint T&G and he installed without finishing the wood.
CUSTOMER SELECT CEDAR #3 or STD&BTR (Standard and Better) Mill Grades are the initial tier of appearance grade woods. The grade from which the Select Tight Knot (STK) grades are manually selected at the mill. Buffalo "Customer Select" means you the customer are selecting out defect from a higher grade. At this level the mill does not select the flaws - you do - but the grade of wood you are selecting from is higher to begin with.
Here is another great example of this grade. Our customer in Texas choose “Customer Select” PAD (Partially Air Dried) Run to a channel lap and stained with Olympic 716 “Cedar” Semi-transparent Oil Based Stain factory finished at the mill.
Layman Terms- If we were talking about a 1x8" board 12' long- Customer Select would allow a knot every 6 inches no bigger than a silver dollar piece and a 50 cent piece sized loose knot every 3 or 4 boards. 80% should be usable off the top and with some creative cutting you should be able to use another 10%. The flaws that you encounter in this grade will fall within the 20% jobsite trim and waste every project should have.
CUSTOMER SELECT PAD (Partially Air Dried) - is our lowest cost option - see "Saving money with Green and Partially Air Dried Woods". It is for the rustic customer looking for the cheapest way to cover in cedar and still have something pretty nice. We can run BEVEL, Channel Lap, Shiplap, and Dutch Lap (Cove Lap) patterns. Note that Dutch lap is a little more prone to knots blowing out of the thinnest part of the lap, usually hidden when installed.
Here are some more pictures of “Customer Select” in action. This was 1x8 Dutch/Cove Lap PAD (Partially Air Dried) Stained with Olympic 716 “Cedar Tone Semi-transparent stain.
CLOSE-UP of same dutch lap customer select house - note how lighting affects the colors!
