Services
International Export
Milled to your import specification, documented for your destination, and loaded at a Puget Sound port.
Scope
Be Clear Where Our Job Ends
The single most useful thing to settle on an export order is who is responsible for what, and at which point it changes hands.
Our published pricing is FOH, Free on Hook, which means the price covers the timber available at our yard in Arlington. Freight is quoted separately because it depends on weight, destination and freight class, and on an ocean shipment it is a large enough number that burying it in a timber price would be unhelpful to both of us.
From there we mill to your specification, package for ocean freight, coordinate the documentation and treatment your destination requires, and work with freight forwarders to get the shipment to port. Import clearance, duty and inland delivery at the far end are yours. We have found that buyers who already import prefer it that way, because their own customs broker is better placed than we are.
Note that FOH is a pricing term. It is unrelated to FOHC, Free of Heart Center, which describes how a timber is sawn and is covered on the milling page.
Inquire About ExportWorth Raising Early
Green Timber in a Container for Six Weeks
Heavy timber ships green, because large sections cannot be kiln dried without tearing themselves apart. On a domestic flatbed that is a non-issue. Sealed in a steel box crossing an ocean, moisture has nowhere to go and the transit is measured in weeks rather than days.
That is a solvable problem, but it is solved in the packaging and the specification rather than discovered on arrival. It is one more reason the destination and the transit time belong in the first conversation, along with whether the timber is structural or appearance material, because the tolerance for surface staining is completely different between the two.
Expect the same seasoning behavior as any green timber once it arrives. It will shrink slightly and check on the face as it reaches equilibrium with your climate, which is set out in twist, splits and checks in solid sawn Douglas Fir.
How It Works
Export Process
Inquiry
Submit an estimate request with International Export Inquiry selected. Include species, sections, lengths, quantity and the destination country. The last one matters more than people expect.
Quote
A quote covering the timber at Free on Hook pricing, the packaging, and estimated freight to your port, as separate lines rather than one number.
Mill and package
Timber is milled to your import specification, dried to the agreed spec, treated where the destination requires it, and packaged for ocean freight.
Port
We coordinate with freight forwarders to get the shipment to Seattle or Tacoma. Import clearance and inland delivery are handled on your end.
Domestic orders follow a simpler version of the same path. See lumber and milling for sections and rates, or build kits if the frame should arrive cut.