SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The board's NOMINAL thickness — a board sold as one inch measures about 3/4 in once surfaced, and board footage is charged on the nominal size.
Use the nominal (labeled) thickness, e.g. 1 in, 2 in — not the smaller actual milled dimension.
The board's width.
Use the nominal width printed on the lumber tag.
The board's length.
Board length is conventionally measured in feet even when thickness/width are in inches.
How many identical boards you're calculating for.
Useful for getting a total board-foot count for an entire order at once.
Total board feet
4 board feet
- Per board
- 4 board ft
- Number of boards
- 1 board
- Cubic feet (total)
- 0.33 ft³
- Total volume in m³
- 0.01 m³
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Board Feet Calculator: 4 board feet — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Standard formula: board feet = (thickness in inches x width in inches x length in feet) / 12
Inputs used
- Thickness
- 1 in
- Width
- 6 in
- Length
- 8 ft
- Number of Boards
- 1
Intermediate steps
- Per board
- 4 board ft
- Number of boards
- 1 board
- Cubic feet (total)
- 0.33 ft³
- Total volume in m³
- 0.01 m³
What this calculation does not cover
- Nothing in the calculation maps nominal sizes onto actual milled ones — thickness, width and length are multiplied exactly as typed, so entering the surfaced 1.5 x 3.5 in (89 mm) of a 2x4 returns that board's true volume instead of the nominal footage it is invoiced at.
- No waste, kerf or cutting-defect allowance is folded in: the figure is the finished footage sitting inside the boards, so rough or random-width stock needs its own margin added on top of it.
- Length is used exactly as entered and is never rounded up to a stock length, so a 7.5 ft requirement stays 7.5 ft rather than becoming the 8 ft board the mill actually sells.
- Per-board footage is carried through as an unrounded decimal and multiplied by the board count, with no rounding applied piece by piece, so the total will drift from a tally that rounds each board before adding it.
- The board-count field repeats one identical board, so a cutting list of mixed thicknesses, widths or lengths has to be run size by size and the answers added together by hand.
- The cubic-feet line is a straight division of the board-foot total by twelve — the solid volume of the wood itself, not the stacked space a delivery occupies once stickers and uneven lengths are accounted for.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-09-05 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1
Regulatory standards & verification citations1
- Standard formula: board feet = (thickness in inches x width in inches x length in feet) / 12
Cite this page
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