MacBeath Hardwood

Have used Macbeth many times over the past 15 years. Always found them to have a good supply and helpful. But this past weekend they were awesome. Showed up on Saturday with my 10 year old daughter who had drawn up plans for a loft bed. Every guy was super helpful and talked to her about her plans. Walked out with a load of ash and an excited kid.

I love this place. They have an absolutely phenomenal selection of woods, including many exotics. The staff, especially Mani, are very knowledgeable!
I recommend going there and hand-​picking your wood to avoid getting something with imperfections.
My only complaint is that if you want a certain length of lumber, you must leave at least 6′ of material (boards are about 8−10ft, so if you only need 5 ft, you have to buy the whole thing). I’m a non-​pro DIYer, so it’s not often that I need a lot of material for my projects. Unfortunately if you only need a foot or two, you’re stuck with the scrap bin.

Today I tried to by 2 sheets of plywood and I asked to do 2 cuts for each of them. They said I got 2 free cuts and for second sheet I have to pay $ 30. I asked why is that? they said this is a policy. I say I buy today 1 sheet and get 2 free cuts, then I’ll be back tomorrow and buy another sheet with 2 free cuts, is that ok? They said NO, you will pay $ 30 any way, we’re gonna remember you. I said goodbye and left. I was a loyal customer for this store for decade.
I bought 2 sheets at Discount builders and they cut them for $ 4.

Great selection of hardwood with a side of beetle infestation. We used to come here to pick up lumber or woodworking projects but after seeing their cherry crawling with wood boring insects, we stopped. We also made the mistake of ordering about 10 boards of walnut and having them deliver it. Didn’t inspect closely and half of the boards were infested. Hoping the insects did not move into my garage structural support.

Great selection of veneer sheets (and wood in general). Friendly and helpful staff; very proactive.

Upping it to five stars just because I went there yet again yesterday and found a lovely piece of quartersawn walnut. They let me borrow a measuring tape. They are helpful with my weird requests for cuts.

amazing variety of gorgeous wood.

This place is very cool. As a beginning woodworker, its very cool to be able to browse through a huge selection of wood. The guys in the warehouse are super friendly, and while the guys in the shop are a little on the short side, they’ll definitely help ya if they can.

OH MY GOD!!! I’m completely straight, but, can I say, I LOVE THEIR WOOD!!!; — P Never has such hard wood gotten me so excited! Enough puns/​jokes…
Seriously, they have an amazing selection of wood to carve/​use, and they are very knowledgeable. If you need to fix something exotic, check these guys out, they WILL have what you need, and the scrap pile is something to be heavily desired!

I needed a walnut or maple furniture square for a project; I looked around the web, and what do you know, they had exactly what I needed – great!
As soon as I had free time, I drove in. Having read reviews saying that it might be hard to get access to their stock, I was a little iffy on the place, but it turned out that they had their furniture squares right in the main showroom – great again!
I picked up a knot-​free piece of walnut, took it to the register, and they asked me for $ 40. What? On the web they advertised $ 35. What’s the deal?
Manager: Maybe that’s the web price.
Me: Should it be cheaper on the web than in person?
Manager: …no.
I show them the price on the web on my phone.
Manager: You probably have to go to Berkeley to get that price. We don’t sell it at that price here.
There’s nothing on the website that says «Oh, and these prices only work at Berkeley». They should stand by their advertised prices, especially when a customer calls them on it. Heck, for all I know, if you try those prices at Berkeley, they tell you they only work at the SF store.
No sale, and screw you.

Great selection of hardwood, softwood, plywood, exotic wood.
Plus they provide an interesting but limited selection of tools and supply.
Great place to get wood if you know what you want and are ready to pay for it, not cheap.

Foreman on our project recommended we visit them to look at custom butcher blocks for a kitchen island and a desk. Great quality (not cheap but worth it). Dan worked with us on timing and we got awesome butcher blocks, ahead of schedule even. He even worked with us and got a fix when there was a problem (it was our mistake). Absolutely recommend them.

I just want to correct Neil A.‘s comment regarding looking at the material prior to purchasing. I’ve been to Macbeath before and all you have to do is ask and they’ll let you go back into the yard and look through the lumber piles and hand select your boards. Once you’ve picked them, let a staffer know and they will bring them up front to ring you up. Just remember to leave the pile as you found it when you’re done looking.

This is definitely the place to go if you are a wood worker looking for a nice piece of quality hardwood or fancy veneer. As others have indicated, the place is pricey but as I always say, «you get what you pay for.» I mean if you are looking to find some esoteric material imported from god knows where for your special project you should be ready to get out your wallet… If you are looking for something small you may have some good luck finding what you need in their scrap ends bin.
Normally for specialty places like this I go in with a positive attitude thinking that they are not trying to appeal to everyone and I appreciate that somebody is providing a service that can’t be found in all the massive chain stores. I have to give Mac Beath Hardwood a two star wake-​up call though. First of all, unlike all other lumber outfits, you can’t roam around the yard looking for what you need. Everything from the yard is purchased up front in their showroom and then brought out to you. So if you want to inspect what you are purchasing for top dollar before you pay or don’t know exactly what you are looking for, doing business with Mac Beath is akin to ordering over the internet. Second, given that it is a specialty store, it is often very busy and they have exactly one register which incidentally looks like it is circa 1970. This bottle neck was exasperated by the fact that the fellow serving me moved at such an incredibly slow pace. Sure they have several staff members to help the waiting crowd but they are often observed waiting around trying to access the register. Secondly, parking is an issue. If you are going down to pick up a bunch of plywood sheets or something you’ll have some fun. They have about three spaces in the lot, which of course are always occupied. There is plenty of parking on the street but that doesn’t help so much if you need to load up 4X8 sheets in a pick-​up truck. My advice to them would be to do away with their little lot and utilize that space as a loading area.
Next time I need some stock I’ll be driving over to their Berkeley store to see how that goes. I’m sure they’ll have the same merchandise and if payment goes smoothly with little hassle loading up my bounty they will be on the north side of three stars.

I came into what is referred to in my family as ‘The Scottish Lumber Yard” to get some wood for a bar I’m making. The selection available here can be more than a little overwhelming.
I pulled in and talked to the yard guy whose name I did not get and he recommended that I start in the showroom looking for my selection. That advice was spot on.
When you enter the sales office the first thing you see on your left are 8′ wide drawers of veneers for all types of wood that look a lot like chart drawers that you would see on an old ship except that they have the wood veneer on the drawer face so you can easily find what you’re looking for. You will also be greeted by Julio the dog that loves to be scratched behind his ears, please be sure to accomodate him.
We searched the samples and decided that walnut would fit our size and price range that we were looking for and headed out to the wherehouse where we found a perfect 14″ X 2″ x 9′ piece with some nice grain for about $ 160. Lumber here is sold by the board foot which is equal to a 12″ X 12″ X 1″ piece. The cost to get our selection surfaced was $ 30 (or $ 45 for same day service). We got a really nice piece of wood for less than we were going to spend on granite and it’s going to look great in our new kitchen.
They have every kind of wood you could possibly want from alder to zebrawood and everything in between.

A great selection of domestic and exotic woods in all sizes, perfect for the casual or professional woodworker. I bought some cherry and walnut boards for a console table, and was very pleased with the quality and price. It’s nice to know there is still real-​world, hands-​on, blue-​collar industry in San Francisco.

Bought some cedar liner for our closets here. Brandon was very helpful and friendly, unlike the big names down the road. We’ll definitely be back when it comes time to do the floors and for other projects.

much more than five whole grains.

I love going to Mac Beath Hardwood. They have absolutely the best choices for wood veneer and exotic hardwoods. Just going through their flat files full of grained rosewoods and mahogany is usually enough to give me manly-​man goosebumps. And, the guys behind the counter are very helpful, not rude at all. I just tell them what I am trying to accomplish and they are usually more than happy to guide me along. I am taking off one star for the lack of parking. It’s usually streetside on Oakdale, and if your stars are not aligned, you have to park further away — meaning that if you have large items, you may have to fetch your car first before you can load.

They only get stars for having a huge selection of material.
They went to the school of «Service with a Snarl», not a very nice staff. I’ve bought wood there before and left feeling semi-​abused. Today I called and asked if they could cut the wood I planned to buy and was told, «We don’t cut PLYWOOD, ever. We don’t do custom cuts, either» in a way that you would have thought I had asked something awful. So then I asked if they’d recommend someone and I was told the yellow pages could help me with that.
So I did try the yellow pages. Turns out Discount Builders Supply will cut anything for a $ 1 a cut. Hey, why not just buy your wood there while you are at it.