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Lumber Quantity Calculator

Calculate pieces, lengths, volumes, and board feet

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FLFlorida Building Code

References & Sources

Standards Cited
  • NDS โ€” National Design Specification for Wood Construction
    Standard for structural wood design in North America
  • PS 20 โ€” American Softwood Lumber Standard (ALSC)
    Defines nominal and actual dimensions for dimension lumber
Formulas Used
  • Member count (area-based): count = ceil(perpendicularSpan / spacing) + 1
    Source: NDS โ€” Perpendicular span = area / member length; +1 for the end member
  • Total linear length: totalLength = memberCount ร— memberLength
    Source: Basic geometry
  • Volume: volume = totalLength ร— crossSectionWidth ร— crossSectionDepth
    Source: Basic geometry
  • Board feet: BF = actualWidth_in ร— actualDepth_in ร— length_ft / 12
    Source: PS 20 / ALSC โ€” Board foot is the standard NA unit for lumber volume (1 BF = 144 cubic inches)
Key Assumptions
  • Lumber sizes use actual (dressed) dimensions: 2ร—4 = 1.5" ร— 3.5" (38 ร— 89 mm) โ€” PS 20
  • Standard lumber lengths: 8 ft, 10 ft, 12 ft, 14 ft, 16 ft โ€” Industry standard