Buy what the yard sells, and see the waste

Lumber is packed into real yard stock lengths, with the cuts taken out of each stick and the drop left on it shown rather than hidden.

What it is

First-fit packing of every cut length into 8/10/12/14/16/20ft dimensional stock (12 through 24ft for treated 6x6 columns, which are never spliced), producing a purchase mix, a per-stick cut list, and consumed / purchased / waste footage on every lumber line.

Also called: cut list · stock lengths · purchased vs consumed · drop · waste

See it
Buy what the yard sells, and see the waste
Prepared for
Sutter Kline
1140 Ridge Line Rd · Fair Play
Shell package$37,405
Concrete & site$10,859
Doors & windows$7,240
Trim & finish$4,826
Total
$60,330
Signature
A girt line expanded: stock mix chips (12x16ft + 3x20ft), consumed/purchased/waste, and the per-stick cut rows beneath. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
How it works
  1. 1Spliceable runs (purlins, girts, skirt, eave struts) are exploded at 16ft before packing so a long run becomes real sticks.
  2. 2Posts are packed on their own ladder and never spliced.
  3. 3Each line reports its stock mix (12x16ft + 3x20ft), consumed LF, purchased LF and waste LF.
  4. 4pieces[] carries the per-stick cut list — the same shape as SmartBuild's Cuts[] plus WasteLength.
  5. 5Anything longer than yard stock is flagged specialOrder rather than silently drawn.
Why we built it

A material list that calls for one 60ft 2x4 is not an order, because that is not a product — and a single rounded quantity hides how much of what you buy ends up as drop. The cut list packs the required lengths into the stock lengths a yard actually sells, and shows purchased, consumed and waste as three separate numbers. A builder sees what the offcuts are costing before the order goes out rather than after.

The problem
  • Quantities in linear feet that a yard cannot fill.
  • Waste invisible until it is stacked behind the shop.
Sound familiar?
What you get
Order in sticks of a stated length.
Drop is a number you can see before you buy.
The crew gets a per-stick cut list.

See it on your own jobs

Twenty minutes, your numbers, no slide deck. We’ll build one of your real buildings in front of you and send you the estimate link at the end — yours to keep either way.

or keep browsing features →