$5 million lawsuits: 4-by-4 lumber not 4 inches by 4 inches
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Two popular home-improvement stores are accused of selling 4-by-4 lumber that don’t measure up, according to parallel lawsuits filed this month against Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based Menards Inc. and Atlanta-based Home Depot.
The problem, according to lumber experts and carpenters quoted in media reports, is that they aren’t supposed to. The popular planks dubbed “4-by-4s” are actually about 3 ½ inches by 3 ½ inches.
“Anybody who’s in the trades or construction knows that,” said Tim Stich, a carpentry instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College, to a USA Today reporter.
“They haven’t measured four inches by four inches since the ’50s,” Scott Sunila told the reporter while loading his truck with said lumber at a Milwaukee Menards.
Both stores have called the lawsuits bogus, according to USA Today.
Filed within five days of each other in U.S. District Court OK for the Northern District of Illinois and made public on Wednesday, the plaintiffs are asking for more than $5 million each.
“Defendant has received significant profits from its false marketing and sale of its dimensional lumber products,” the action against Menards states, according to the newspaper.
“Defendant’s representations as to the dimension of these products were false and misleading,” the suit against Home Depot asserts, the newspaper reported.
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