Board foot confusion

[Laurie Brown]

Ok, I'm realtively new to all this, and I recently bought some wood from a local lumber supplier. I suspect I was overcharged now that I've worked over the numbers.

According to my receipt, I have 4 board feet of hard maple, and $5.213/bdft, for a total of $20.85.

However, after measuring the board at home, I'm not sure where the 4 board feet was arrived at.

From what I understand, 1 board foot = 1 inch x 12 inches by 12 inches, or 144 cubic inches? Is that correct?

The board I have is 13/16" thick by 5 1/2" wide by 73" long. I calculate that as 326.2 + inches, or roughly 2.265 board feet.

Or do I have no clue what I'm talking about? If it's really 4, can someone tell me how that's calculated?

[tod evans]

laurie, the thickness is nominal, to be considered 1" but the length and width are figured actual....02 tod

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Laurie,
The thickness is based on when the wood was rough sawn. After drying and surface planing, it's usually between 13/16 to 7/8" thick. But it's called 4/4 anyway. So you pay for something that really doesn't exist in the end product.

From your measurements, the board should have been considered 3 bdft (6ft x 1/2ft). Also, lumber yards usually round to the nearest bdft. (2.9 bdft = 3 bdft). So I think they were off a little.

-Jeff

[Laurie Brown]

From your measurements, the board should have been considered 3 bdft (6ft x 1/2ft). Also, lumber yards usually round to the nearest bdft. (2.9 bdft = 3 bdft). So I think they were off a little.

Ok, then I think what they probably did was round everything up. That gives us 1/2 ft x 7ft, or 3.5, rounded up to 4. Which sucks, if you ask me, since I was thinking it should have only been around 3 board feet. They similarly rounded up a soft maple board that was probably a less then a foot longer and the same width and called it 5.

I'd like to say I won't buy from these guys any more, but they still have the lowest prices per board foot that I've found yet locally, and that's sad if you ask me. I can get lower prices if I want to drive 3 hours to another state, but I shouldn't have to do that to get decent wood at a decent price.

[john whittaker]

You should have been charged for 3 board feet. I'd ask them about it the next time in just to confirm how they are figuring bd/ft, and ease your mind about doing business with them. Most wood retailers are good honest folks.

[Jeff Geltz]

I do the math for bf calcs as follows:

5.5 X 73 = 401.75 / 144 = 2.78

If you want to be generous, you can use 6" instead of 5.5 which gives you 3.04 total board feet.

Neither one comes up to 4 bf in my book.

[Luther Oswalt]

Laurie,
Here is the way I was always taught to measure a Board Foot:http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...oard_Foot.html
Leo

[Jim Becker]

Length is actual or thereabouts. Width is rounded up or down to the next whole inch and thickness is based on "quarters"...a 13/16" board is considered 1" thick (4/4) for the purposes of figuring board feet. Therefore, your board would be measured at 6" x 1" x 73" = 438 / 144 = 3.04. So I agree with others that you should have been charged for 3 board foot.

[Lee DeRaud]

Ok, then I think what they probably did was round everything up. That gives us 1/2 ft x 7ft, or 3.5, rounded up to 4. Which sucks, if you ask me, since I was thinking it should have only been around 3 board feet. They similarly rounded up a soft maple board that was probably a less then a foot longer and the same width and called it 5.

Let's see, their pricing is to the tenth of a cent per board foot...but when they calculate quantity, they round up two measurements, multiply them together, and then round up the result?!? That's a rip-off, plain and simple.

Run fast, run far.

[Brett Baldwin]

If it wasn't just an honest mistake or a poorly trained sales rep. then you may have discovered the "secret" to their excellent prices.

[Jim W. White]

Laurie,

In Virginia, you should have a variety of good sources to pull rough sawn lumber from. The East Coast is littered with hard wood. I'm from Vermont originally; and I think it would pay off in spades for you to do a little more research and find a few more suppliers.

Also, it's been my experience that the more business you do with any particular wood supplier; the more generous their tape measure will become . The lesson in all this, buy more wood!!!

my 2 cents,

Jim W

In his defense, the board you describe might have come of an 8' long bunk. Perhaps he didn't note that you had pulled a 6' long stick?!? I'd just go back and ask him nicely, I 'm sure he'll be more than happy to keep you as a happy customer and will readily admit the mistake.

[Mark Rios]

I just emailed my brother who is a math professor at MIT. He ran the numbers through their Craig 9002 supercomputer and, after six minutes of number crunching, the computer came back with 3.003697854268985559787435 bd ft.

He said that you got overcharged.

[Richard Wolf]

I think that if you return with the board and say you would like to return it for a refund. They will remeasure it and come up with 3bf. So now you have used 1 bf of wood and never even seen it.
It's amazing how they can work magic with the hardwood stick. It's just bad business. For 5 bucks they may have lost a good customer.

Richard

[Dev Emch]

The Good Stuff (hard wood) is usually sold by the board foot in the buff. Rough that is. First of all, 1 board foot is a 12 in by 12 in by 1 in slab. In otherwords, its 144 cubic inches of termite fodder.

Second, rough lumber is sold by the quarter. So a rough slab about 1 inch thick is called FOUR QUARTER or 4/4. Should this be planed down for public consumption, it often is planed to 3/4 inch finished. So 3/4 in finished stock is 1 inch nominal. Now, depending on what your doing and what machines you have and how skilled you are, its not uncommon to plane 1 inch rough stock to 7/8 in finished. But if your using a brain dead high school student on a moulder set to do S4S, bet on getting 3/4 inch.

Lastly, the wider the stock is or the thicker the stock is, the higher the price. So you may pay a bit more to get 8/4 stock. But dont let that fool you. The higher price is still a per board foot price. Your just buying the opportunity to buy fatter material which is harder to come by. Its still based on 144 cubes at a time!

Hope this helps. Back to the shop to butcher more lumber. At the rate I am going, there will be no baltic birch and maple left in this country!

[tod evans]

to clarify devs anology of "fat"rough lumber....it takes a very skilled kiln operator and much more time to properly dry lumber much fatter than 5/4 that`s why the price climbs quickly with fatter stock..02 tod