Wood · Lumber
Board foot calculator
Board feet = thickness (in) × width (in) × length (ft) / 12. A 2×4 eight feet long is 5.33 board feet; a 4/4 board 6 in wide and 10 ft long is 5. The hardwood table in the example below, top, aprons, legs and stretchers, comes to 61.00 board feet (0.1439 m³) before waste.
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Board feet
— BF
Cubic metres
— m³
Pieces
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Cost
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Cutting the pieces from boards? The linear cutting optimizer works for wood lengths too: pieces from stock boards with the fewest boards and the saw kerf.
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How this is calculated
board feet = thickness (in) × width (in) × length (ft) / 12 × qty
m³ = thickness (mm) × width (mm) × length (m) / 1 000 000 × qty
1 board foot = 144 in³ = 0.002359737216 m³ 1 m³ = 423.776 board feet
to buy = volume × (1 + waste)
The example, by hand: top 2 × 8 × 7 / 12 × 4 = 37.33; aprons 1 × 5 × 8 / 12 × 2 = 6.67; legs 3 × 4 × 3 / 12 × 4 = 12; stretchers 1.25 × 4 × 6 / 12 × 2 = 5. Total 61.00 board feet.
What this page does not do
- Sizes as you enter them. Dimension lumber is sold by nominal size (a 2×4 counts as 2 × 4); hardwood by rough thickness. Enter what your yard charges for.
- No log scale. Board feet in a log (Doyle, Scribner, International ¼) are a different calculation.
- Waste is your figure. It depends on the grade, the species and how the parts nest in the boards.