Board Foot Measure

Here's a question that I get all the time. Woodworkers are often confused by what the heck is a board foot. Board feet are the way that hardwoods are measured. Now, I've got a board prepared here which is a perfect board foot. It's one inch thick, 12 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Now, here's the problem. That's a board foot. That's a board foot. That's a board foot. Until trees start all growing in this perfect dimension, you gotta be able to figure out board feet for your project.

So here's the formula. It's really pretty simple. It's thickness in inches multiplied by the width in inches times the length in inches divided by 144. Now, if you want, you can work in feet instead. It's just a little bit different, thickness in inches times the width in inches times the length and feet divided by 12.

Both of those will give you the same results. So now, what you can do is you can take the cut list from your project. You can do those calculations, figure out how many board feet your project calls for. As a general rule, I might add 10 or 20% so that I have enough just in case I make a mistake. The other thing that you should be aware of when you start buying your hardwood is that, for the most part, when people talk about hardwood measure they don't refer to this in inches, they refer to it in quarters.

So to be more accurate, instead of a one inch piece we should call this a four quarter, instead of a two inch piece, we should call this an eight quarter. That's gonna help you talk the talk a little bit better so that when you go to the hardwood supplier you know how many board feet you need and you can communicate with them well.