Buying Wood for home/furniture projects
I moved to Doha 6 months ago, and was keen to find wood so I could build some customized furniture for our home. I have done a lot of searching on Qatar Living for where to buy wood, and most people inevitably recommend Najma Souq (or Souq Haraj). While you can indeed get wood there, I've found it to be slightly cheaper, and with more options, when I buy in the Industrial Area. And, I found Najma Souq annoying because I had to keep turning down all the guys who followed me and wanted me to hire them, plus the traffic is at least as bad as the Industrial Area.
Specifically, I wanted to recommend National Building Company (don't know the exact hours, but they are open on Saturdays, and they do close after lunch until 3pm). They are located on Street 15 in the Industrial Area (just west of Al Kassarat street, on the south side) They certainly had the best selection of anywhere I've seen for most things relating to carpentry (plus some other things). Aside from construction-grade lumber, they also sell some hardwood boards (rough-cut), and a variety of plain and laminated plywood, pressboard and MDF. They even have edge banding, which I've only seen at one other store in Qatar, and a decent selection of tools. They have lots of decorative molding as well (large selection) and wood "applique."
They do NOT have what in the USA would be called "craft woods" - cut pieces of oak, clear pine, etc. - and only one kind of rough-cut hardwood (I'm not sure what kind it is; they didn't say, but it reminds me of mahogany). The only thing sort of like that I've seen is in the craft section of Jarir Bookstore. Jarir has a variety of basswood (and some other woods) plaques that are finished for woodburning, painting, or carving, though of course thy aren't really suited to furniture building.
Carrefour also sells some simple pine-wood shelves, which could be adapted for furniture use, though they are fairly small.
There were a couple of places on Street 11 (near the intersection with Al Binaa street, on the Southeast corner) that seemed to also sell several kinds of rough-cut lumber, but I haven't investigated much, as I don't have the tools to use rough-cut lumber properly.
Anyway, hope this might be of use to someone. If anyone else has found a place to purchase furniture-quality woods, do share; I haven't seen anyone post that yet.
Almost 8 years and your post is probably the most helpful I found. I'm gona drop by those places you mentioned and check out what kind of wood they still offer
Do you know any place that I can buy good quality wood like mahogany, narra, oak..etc. that I can take small pieces such as 1 x 6 or 1 x 8 for my small project.
What about the prices?
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Definitely a better selection of lumber and panels in the Industrial Area.
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Thanks for sharing.
Awesome post Andrew, as a fellow furniture maker I will check these guys out. Agree with you about the souk, not a good selection down there and the carpenter that I hired from there were rubbish. Cheers Mark
TFS, I was looking for wood to arrange custom furniture as well