Editorial policy

A 2x4 is not 2 by 4 inches, and a board foot is not a foot. Lumber has its own math, and getting it wrong at the yard counter costs money.

That is the whole reason BoardFeetMath exists. We would rather show you one number you can trust, and exactly how we got it, than ten numbers you have to second-guess. Here is how we work.

We show our working

Our calculator pages show the formula behind the answer, so you can do the math on paper if you would rather. Where a result depends on published data, such as a standard size or a typical weight, we link the source, and we keep adding step-by-step worked examples. If our answer and yours disagree, one of us has made a mistake, and we want to know which.

We test before we publish

Our sizes come from the American Softwood Lumber Standard, and every calculator is checked against boards measured and priced by hand. Right now BoardFeetMath has 8 calculators and 24 automatic checks. Each check is a hand-worked answer the calculator has to match exactly. They run every time the site is updated, and an update that breaks one does not go live.

Nominal is not actual

Lumber is priced on its nominal size and built from its dressed size. Where the two differ we show both, and where a figure is an estimate, such as the solid wood in a cord, we state the assumption behind it.

Dates mean something

The "Updated" date on a page only changes when the page itself changes. We do not bump dates to look fresh.

Ads pay the bills, not the answers

BoardFeetMath is free to use and is meant to be supported by advertising. Advertisers never see or influence our numbers, and we do not sell links, sponsored rankings or paid reviews.

Tell us when we are wrong

If a number looks off, send us the page and the value. Hassan Nawaz reads every message. Confirmed mistakes are fixed, the page date is updated, and if your note made a page better, we are grateful for it.

Hassan Nawaz
Publisher, BoardFeetMath