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What is considered a board foot?

Author

Daniel Rodriguez

Published Mar 25, 2026

What is considered a board foot?

A board foot is a wood measurement for a piece of lumber 12″ wide by 1′ long by 1″ thick for estimating purposes.

Is board foot the same as square foot?

A board foot is actually a measure of volume. By definition, a board foot is one square foot, one inch thick. The most common mistake made in calculating board footage is forgetting to multiply by the thickness. Example 1: A 4/4 board 8 inches wide and 8 feet long has 5.33 bd.

What is the difference between board foot and linear foot?

Linear feet (LF) is a measurement of length of a specific sized board. Board feet (BF) is a measurement of volume which the a Board foot is 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch thick volume. If you have any questions about how to go about the conversions or the units feel free to ask below in the comments or contact us.

How big is a board foot in feet?

Board foot. Jump to navigation Jump to search. The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It is the volume of a one-foot length of a board one foot wide and one inch thick.

How to calculate the volume of board feet?

Board foot is a volume measurement used for lumber, where 1 board foot = 144 in3 = 1⁄12 ft3 = 2360 cm3 = 2.360 liters = 0.002360 m3 Board feet can be calculated as BF = w t L / 12 (1)

What do you call a million board feet?

Board foot can be abbreviated FBM (for “foot, board measure”), BDFT, or BF. Thousand board feet can be abbreviated as MFBM, MBFT, or MBF. Similarly, million board feet can be abbreviated as MMFBM, MMBFT, or MMBF. In Australia and New Zealand the term super foot or superficial foot was used to mean the same.

How big is a piece of lumber in feet?

Some lumber companies sell lumber by the board foot, a unit of measurement defined as a piece one inch thick (nominal) by one foot wide (nominal) by one foot long (actual) or its equivalent. In the chart below (at the bottom of the page), we translate common or “nominal” or “true” board sizes into board feet measurements.

How many square feet are in a board foot?

A BOARD FOOT is equivalent to one square foot of a 1-inch-thick board. In other words, it is a square-foot-inch (ft^2-in), or 1/12 cubic foot. Linear feet are used for the pricing of a single size such as two-by- fours.

How do you measure board foot?

A board foot is a volume measurement and, therefore, a volume equation is used since the cavity, which has a length, height and depth, is being filled with spray foam. How to measure a board foot is a pretty simple equation. It can be done by length x height x the thickness or R-value you require per cavity (depth).

How many board feet in a 2×4?

If you are talking board footage, you aren’t talking about dressed sizes anyway. An 8′-2×4 has 5.3 board feet. A 16′ 2×4 will have 10.6 board feet and a 14′-2×4 will have 9.3 board feet. multiply the height in inches times the width in inches times the length in feet and divide by 12.

How do you calculate the square footage of a board?

Take the total board feet and divide it by the thickness, in inches, of the boards. For example, say you have 1,500 board feet of lumber. If the boards are 3 inches thick, divide 1,500 by 3, which is equal to 500. So, 1,500 board feet is equivalent to 500 square feet.