Pricing Wood at the Lumber Yard

[Paul Madden]

I'm unsure if I'm pricing this correctly. Please take a look at this pricing page:

kmhardwoods.com/Ebony-thru-Red-Oak.cfm


...priced per board foot based on the rough thickness shown.

I'm looking at Hard Maple - it's the 2nd wood listed in the chart. I'm just going to throw out even numbers to make sure I'm pricing this correctly.

If I bought a 12" x 12" piece of 4/4, select & better, it would cost me $2.39 (1 board foot).
If I bought a 6" x 72" piece of 4/4, select & better, it would cost me $7.17 (3 board feet).

That's pretty easy. But here's where I get confused:

If I bought a 12" x 12" piece of 12/4, select & better, what would it cost me? Would it be $5.34? Or would it be $16.02?

Thanks in advance!

[Matt Day]

3bdft, so 3x$5.34=16.02

[Prashun Patel]

Here's where it gets MORE confusing:

4/4 is a common thickness, so the per-board-foot price may be 2.39, but because 12/4 in 12" widths is harder to come by - you may find that's double or triple the per-bf-price of 4/4.

The calculation to convert to bf is: lxwxt/144 (assuming inches).

[glenn bradley]

From their website:

"Wide board premium is 25% more than the prices shown. Wide starts at 11" in most species. Wide starts at 10" in Basswood, Birch, Cherry, Hickory, and Walnut."

[Matt Day]

I think the OP's intention of using 12" wide stick as his example was simply to make the math easier. I don't think he wants/needs it that wide.

[Scott T Smith]

3bdft, so 3x$5.34=16.02

What Matt said, and the reason why thicker lumber costs more per board foot is due to drying costs.

A 4/4 maple board will be in a conventional kiln for about 2 - 3 weeks, because the maximum safe daily drying rate is 5% per day.

12/4 maple must be dried significantly slower in order to prevent internal checking / honeycomb. It's maximum safe daily drying rate is 1.6%, so it takes over 300% longer time to dry from green in a kiln than 4/4.

It can be air dried for a year or so before going into a kiln; however maple is prone to discoloration when dried slowly so there is additional degrade and loss of value.

Just about all kiln dried species of lumber will cost more per board foot as the thickness increases.

[J.R. Rutter]

The calculation to convert to bf is: lxwxt/144 (assuming inches).

Just wanted to restate this. The "x" confused me:

L*W*(thickness fraction in quarters)/144

Lets you just reel it off on a calculator, like such:

12 * 12 * 12 / 4 / 144 = 3

[Prashun Patel]

sorry, I was using 'x' like '*'

For a non-pro like myself, the 'thickness fraction in quarters' is not intuitive. 'Thickness fraction in quarters' as you mean it in your equation is 'thickness in inches'.

So, bf = length in inches * width in inches * thickness IN INCHES. I think?

[Pat Barry]

From their website:

"Wide board premium is 25% more than the prices shown. Wide starts at 11" in most species. Wide starts at 10" in Basswood, Birch, Cherry, Hickory, and Walnut."
So its really $5.34 * 1.25 = $6.68 per bd ft or $20.04 for the 12in by 12in by 3in example requested

[Daniel O'Neill]

Sort of on the topic of purchasing lumber. There's a mill nearby that sells "4/4" which is actually 13/16" or something like that. Based on this page from the original mill kmhardwoods.com/DomesticWoods.cfm they say you get what you pay for. So my question is when you purchase 4/4 is it common to get less or do you actually get a 1" thick board?

[Michael Stein]

Around here, it is typically 4/4 rough or 13/16 surfaced, which is sold at the 4/4 price.

[Matt Day]

Some yards will have a heavy 4/4, more like 4.5/5. Others the opposite. Depends. Either way, if you want a true 1" after milling get 5/4 material, IME.

[J.R. Rutter]

sorry, I was using 'x' like '*'

For a non-pro like myself, the 'thickness fraction in quarters' is not intuitive. 'Thickness fraction in quarters' as you mean it in your equation is 'thickness in inches'.

So, bf = length in inches * width in inches * thickness IN INCHES. I think?

yep, yep. I just intended to just plug in the 5/4, 6/4 or whatever odd thickness directly into the equation rather than converting to inches first. It's all the same :)

[Scott T Smith]

Sort of on the topic of purchasing lumber. There's a mill nearby that sells "4/4" which is actually 13/16" or something like that. Based on this page from the original mill http://www.kmhardwoods.com/DomesticWoods.cfm they say you get what you pay for. So my question is when you purchase 4/4 is it common to get less or do you actually get a 1" thick board?

Some mills sell on "the green scale", others the "dry scale". Typically mills that sell on the green scale will rate as 4/4 a board that is 6% - 12% thinner (1/16" - 1/8").