RightQty

Decks & carpentry

Lumber calculator

Turn a full-board count or required linear length into whole stock boards, purchased length, board-foot volume, waste, and optional supplier cost.

Practical stock purchasing

Calculate lumber to buy

Measurement system
Use the length you will actually buy.
Use the seller's dimension for board-foot reporting.
Purchasing, not structural design

This calculator buys whole stock boards and reports their linear length and board-foot volume. It does not optimize cuts or approve a member for a span or load.

Overage

Covers spillage, uneven depth, settling, and minor measurement differences.

Optional material costEnter your supplier's USD price

Material only; taxes, delivery, fasteners, accessories, installation, and labor are excluded.

No signup. Your measurements stay in your browser.

Your material estimate

Stock boards to purchase

11boards

Includes 10% overage and purchase-unit rounding where applicable.

Stock boards before overage
10 boards
Required linear length
80 linear ft
Purchased linear length
88 linear ft
Purchased lumber volume
58.7 board feet

Take this to your supplier

Shopping list

  • Stock lumber boards8 foot each; confirm the actual stocked length and grade.11 boards
  • Purchased lumber lengthWhole stock boards; no cut-list or offcut optimization is inferred.88 linear ft
Calculation assumptions
  • Piece-count mode applies overage to the entered number of full stock boards, then rounds upward.
  • Board-foot volume uses the entered physical thickness and width converted to inches × stock length in feet ÷ 12.
  • Metric dimensions remain the exact user-entered product dimensions; no pseudo-standard metric lumber size is substituted.
  • This purchasing estimate does not optimize cuts, kerf, joints, spans, grade, treatment, strength, or structural suitability.

Practical purchase math

How lumber stock is calculated

1

Required quantity

Start with full stock boards or an entered total linear length.

2

Waste and stock rounding

Apply waste to pieces or length, then round upward to whole boards of the entered stock length.

3

Purchase totals

Report whole pieces, purchased linear length, and thickness × width × length ÷ 12 board feet.

Worked example

Ten 8 ft boards with 10% overage

The order rounds to 11 boards and 88 linear feet. With entered 2 × 4 in dimensions, those purchased boards contain 58.7 board feet. Dimensions are user-entered and are not silently changed from nominal to actual.

Choose the purchasing mode

Whole boards instead of volume alone

  1. Use piece mode when the project already requires full stock boards.
  2. Use linear mode when only total run length is known.
  3. Enter real stock length. The result rounds to that product.
  4. Enter seller dimensions. Board-foot reporting follows the dimensions supplied, including metric products without invented nominal equivalents.
Different from Board Foot Calculator

This page makes a practical whole-board purchase estimate. Board Foot Calculator remains the direct dimensional volume tool. Neither calculator creates a cut list, reuses offcuts, includes saw kerf, or approves lumber for structural use.