A lumber yard is a retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

 location for lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 and wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 related products used in construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 and/or home improvement

Home improvement

Home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.-Types of home improvement:...

 projects. Lumber yards can also provide services such as the use of a planer

Planer

The term planer may refer to several types of carpentry tools, woodworking machines or metalworking machine tools.*Plane : a hand tool used to produce flat surfaces by shaving the surface of the wood...

 and other large machines.

Lumber yards sell products made at the lumber mill, where customers pick up products at the yard themselves or request that an order be built and delivered to them by the lumber yard.

Lumber yards may also sell wood-plastic composites, such as Trex, any other type of construction material or supplies, and general hardware

Hardware

Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....

 store items.

Lumber yards are the primary resources for contractors and homeowners when construction material is needed. Home Depot stores also have lumber sections, but this may not be considered a lumber yard, although it serves the same purpose.

Operation

Lumber yards use forklift trucks to move the large heavy units of lumber around the yard. Saw

Saw

A saw is a tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade or an abrasive...

s may also be available to cut boards to a desired length for customers.