Note: Board Foot Calculator has 2 fields Price and Quantity that are optional, but we recommend filling them in for a more accurate understanding of your project’s cost and material needs.
Pro Tip: Always round up slightly when buying lumber, it’s better to have a little extra than to run short in the middle of your build
Board Feet Calculator
What Is a Board Foot?
In woodworking, a board foot is a standard unit of volume used to measure lumber. It represents the volume of a piece of wood that is 1 foot in length, 1 foot in width, and 1 inch in thickness. This volume unit is used for measurement of unprocessed and planed lumber.
Sometimes board foot can be confused with area unit like square feet but it represents the volume of a wood piece. It is widely used in the United States and Canada as a standard for measuring and pricing lumber. For this reason, we have created the Board Foot Calculator to know the quantity you need and how much it can cost.
How to Calculate Board Foot Manually
Board Feet Calculator takes the same steps to calculate the board feet that will be manually solved below. To do board foot calculation manually we need the thickness (in inches), width (in inches) and length (in feet) and divide them by 12. This simple calculation will give the number of board feet for a piece of lumber. Below you will have an image of the board foot formula and an example from real life.
Board foot Formula
Example :
Thickness = 4 in / Width = 12 in / Length = 16 ft
Board feet = (4 x 12 x 16) / 12 = 64 BF
How Board Foot Differs from Linear Foot and Square Foot?
The main focus of this post is board feet, but it’s easy to get confused by other common measurement terms used in woodworking and construction. When starting your first project, you may come across terms like linear foot and square foot, which might seem similar but refer to entirely different measurements.
Board foot is unit of volume, typically represented by a piece of wood that is 1 inch thick, 12 inch wide and long. Square foot is unit area, that is used to measure 2 dimensional space such as walls, floors, etc. Linear foot is a length unit that measures straight line, for example from point A to B. Below you have some of the key differences of this measurement units.
- Board foot: It only needs thickness, width, and length.
- Linear foot: It only considers a straight line from A to B.
- Square foot: It calculates the surface of a two-dimensional space.
Why Use a Board Foot Calculator?
This kind of tool easily and effectively evaluate the amount of lumber required for a project. Board feet calculator reduces the need for manual calculations, saving time and reducing the possibility of error. It helps you to correctly evaluate the required amount of lumber, helping with project planning, spending and resource management. Being a big or small project managing the amount of wood and waste, our tool helps a lot. This tool works with different types of wood and easily estimate costs.
Board Foot Calculator can be valuable for your project, so don’t hesitate to use it. Additionally, our website features a variety of other helpful calculators for different types of calculations. If you’re looking for a specific tool and can’t find it, feel free to contact to us—we’d love to hear your suggestions and are always open to creating new tools to meet your needs.