What is boardfoot?

Answer 1

A board 1 inch thick and 12 inches square is 1 board foot. Any combination of these measurements is 1 board foot. A board 2 inches thick, 6 inches wide and 12 inches long is 1 board foot.

For instance, to calculate the board feet in a beam that measures 6" wide x 8" high x 10' long the formula is 6x8x10/12=40 bf .

Likewise, a 2"wide x 10" high x 10' long piece of lumber is calculated 2x10x10/12=16.66 bf.

So a 1x12x12 would calculate 1x12x12/12=12 bf.

All board footage is calculated on rough dimensions, so even though a 2x10 S4S measures only 1 1/2"x 9 1/4" the board footage is calculated by multiplying 2 times 10 times the length divided by 12.