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Board Feet

What it's for

Lumber is often priced by the board foot. Enter your pieces — size, length and how many — and Board Feet totals the footage, and the cost if you put in a price per board foot. The drawing shows the size you pay for against the size the board really is. Nothing here is checked against code.

Step by step

The example is the screen as it opens: one line of ten 2x6 at 8' 0", no price.

Board Feet inputs: PIECES with PIECE 1 set to 2x6, 8' 0" and × 10 and a trash button, then ADD PIECE, and PRICE $0.00 / bd ft with a minus and plus stepper. The answer bar reads 80.0 board feet, and RESULTS holds only the BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED row and the link Check before you cut · Measure twice. The drawing below shows a 2x6 with L 8' 0" and W 6", an end section dimensioned T 2", 6", 5-1/2" and 1-1/2", the notes 2x6 × 8' 0" · 10 PC · 80.0 BF, 2 × 6 = 12 IN² × 8 FT / 12 = 8.0 BF/PC, DRESSED 1-1/2" × 5-1/2" = 8.25 IN² · 31% LESS and TOTAL 80.0 BF · 1 LINE · 10 PC · 80 LF, and a title block reading BOARD FOOT, NOMINAL — NOT DRESSED, NOT TO SCALE. 1 2 3 4 5
Steps 1–5. The total is in the answer bar under the title.
  1. Each piece is one line: PIECE 1, then its nominal size — pick the size the yard sells it as: boards 1x4 to 1x12, 2x2 to 2x12, 4x4 to 4x12 beams, and 6x6 and 6x8 timbers. The example is 2x6.
  2. Then its length — the length of one piece. The example is 8' 0".
  3. Then the × count — how many pieces of that size and length; tap it and type the number. The example is 10. Set it to 0 to leave a line out of the total without deleting it.
  4. Tap Add piece for each further size or length. Every piece gets its own line; the bin at the end of the line deletes it.
  5. PRICE — the price per board foot, if you want a cost. Tap it to type a price, or use − and + to move it by $0.25. It opens at $0.00, which leaves cost out.
  6. Read the answer in the bar under the title: 80.0 board feet. With a price entered, RESULTS gives the total cost, with the thousands grouped ($1,250.00). A price typed to a tenth of a cent ($3.456) shows as typed, and the total is worked on it.
  7. Scroll down to the drawing. The lines under the board show how the figure was reached.
  8. MATERIALS lists each line as a size, a length and a piece count.

Reading the results

Board Feet scrolled down: the answer bar keeps 80.0 board feet. Under the BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED row sits the drawing of a 2x6 with the notes 2x6 × 8' 0" · 10 PC · 80.0 BF, 2 × 6 = 12 IN² × 8 FT / 12 = 8.0 BF/PC, DRESSED 1-1/2" × 5-1/2" = 8.25 IN² · 31% LESS and TOTAL 80.0 BF · 1 LINE · 10 PC · 80 LF, and the title block BOARD FOOT, NOMINAL — NOT DRESSED, NOT TO SCALE. Then MATERIALS lists 2x6 × 8' 0" 10 pcs, over CUT SHEET with a list icon at its right end, SAVE (lit), CUT LIST and SEND LIST (dimmed) and the line Enter your own measurements to export, start a cut list or send one. 7 8
Step 7: the working under the board. Step 8: the materials list.

The headline is the total board feet across every line, to one decimal place. A ≈ in front means that decimal is rounded: ten 2x4s at 8' and six 2x10s at 16' come to 213.333… board feet, which reads ≈ 213.3 board feet. The defaults' 80.0 is exact, so it reads bare. The total cost appears under it only when PRICE is above zero.

The drawing shows one board: the line that carries the most board feet. The boxed end section has the nominal size dimensioned above it and down its left side, and the dressed section inside that, dimensioned down its right side and along the bottom. The notes under the board read, in the example:

The title block reads NOMINAL — NOT DRESSED to remind you which size the footage is worked from. Pinch to zoom, drag to move around, double-tap to reset, or tap the expand button at its top right for the whole screen. See Reading the drawing.

MATERIALS has one row per line: size × length, and the piece count. Nothing is added for waste. This screen has no waste factor.

The buttons wait for your own numbers: the export buttons stay dimmed, and SAVE tells you to enter them first. After that CUT SHEET shares a PDF with the drawing and the list, the list icon at its right end shares the material list alone, SAVE puts the result in History, CUT LIST starts the list on the Lock Screen and SEND LIST sends a checkable list to another phone. BASIS & WHAT WAS ASSUMED opens to the one rule the count rests on: board feet come from the nominal size, thickness × width in inches × length in feet ÷ 12 — the softwood lumber convention. On the drawing the thickness is marked T, the width W and the length L. Hardwood and rough lumber are tallied on their actual thickness, which this screen does not do.

Board Feet is a Pro calculator. The cut sheet, the cut list on the Lock Screen, sending a list and History are Pro too. Pro is a one-time purchase. See Free and Pro.

Common mistakes