Cedar Solutions & Millworks - Enderby, British Columbia

Katia J.

Update to this review: Over a month after posting this review, the manager did reach out to me and said he would be glad to trade out any of the boards I didn't like, and would even send a truck with an exchange (it is over an hour drive and we had rented a car carrier to transport our order that included 20 foot boards.) Unfortunately it was too late, as I had already spent many hours sanding, filling and then finishing the boards which were mostly installed by then. (Our previous purchase of fence boards had been during Covid and access to the yard had been limited limited so they had packaged them for us and we had picked them up already on a pallet.) We went back for some additional boards and they allowed us to pick through the piles this time. I did find that some board sizes had better quality than others and the fence boards seemed to be the most consistantly free of major blemishes and distortion.

Original review:

So incredibly disappointed. I wrote a 5 star review for them 2 years ago (which I have since deleted) after we bought the material for our fence. It was high quality and very consistant. I didn't do any sanding to make it ready to finish. So much better than the box stores. Customer service was excellent. Two years later the fence still looks great.

So I talked my husband into doing a cedar deck instead of a "plastic one" and ordered 2 x 6 boards in 12', 16' and 20' lengths (500 SF). You don't get to pick your boards, they just load them for you. I feel like we got the reject pile. As this is a deck, only one side has to be "good" but when you inspect each board and can't decide which is the "good" side, that isn't good. Ends of some of these boards were so ragged, but they are true to size, so you will lose at least 1/2 inch off to make them usable. There are so many defects on each side. I was going to use an expensive tinted oil finish on them, but when I did 2 test boards they looked horrible even after I hand sanded with 220 grit. (See photo - board at top is 5/4 board which was much better than the other two are 2x6x12.) I just realized I will need to sand extensively over 100 boards with my orbital sander and 120 grit to get them just decent to finish. Side edges are splintered on both sides in some cases, lots of knots and manufacturing gouges , scratches and burns. I am looking at another 20 or more hours or so to get these board to a decent level, but still not what I expected from Cedar Solutions. I will be changing my finish choice to at least a semi transparent to hide a lot of the flaws. Wow, so disappointed and discouraged! They got 2 stars because I know the big box stores would have been worse but I would have sorted through the sad piles. I looked whistfully at the "plastic" decking as I went to buy sand paper at Rona today. Apologies to my hubbie for insisting on real wood!

Laura H.

Super friendly and helpful staff. They went above expectations with their service. Love that I can support local. Thanks!

Travis M.

These guys are awesome. I have been here on several locations to load lumber to head back to Ontario and they are always accommodating and professional. Super great guys to work with and I have never had less than a fantastic experience.

John H.

Best cedar around. You won't find a better product.

Roger B.

These guys really know their stuff! Great help with ideas and materials
- went out of their way to make sure I had a clear idea what was needed. Super friendly and I got a quality product at a fair price. Very highly recommended!

Lindsay P.

We needed one 6ft piece of cedar. Initially we were communicating with John who was great. We ended up dropping by to pick it up when John was not in and the other fellows that assisted us were great as well. Customer service was thumbs up all the way. Would highly recommend them.

Marten I.

Great friendly staff.

Brandin S.

I drove there for 30 minutes just to find out they aren't actually open, even tho theor hours were listed as open