Guides / Cost and Ordering

Board Feet, Quarter Thickness and How Hardwood Is Priced

September 29, 2026

Hardwood lumber is sold by volume, not by the piece, and the unit in North America is the board foot. Once you know how board feet are counted and how thickness is named, most hardwood quotes become easy to read and compare.

What a board foot is

A board foot is a volume of wood one inch thick, twelve inches wide and one foot long, or 144 cubic inches. To find the board feet in a board:

Board feet = thickness in inches x width in inches x length in feet / 12

A board 1 inch thick, 6 inches wide and 8 feet long is 1 x 6 x 8 / 12 = 4 board feet. A board 2 inches thick, 8 inches wide and 10 feet long is 2 x 8 x 10 / 12 = 13.3 board feet.

Large volumes are quoted per thousand board feet, written MBF. A price of 2,400 per MBF is 2.40 per board foot. Exporters and European mills often quote per cubic meter instead. One cubic meter is about 424 board feet.

You can run your own numbers with the board foot calculator on the home page.

Quarter thickness: 4/4, 5/4, 8/4

Hardwood thickness is named in quarters of an inch, measured on the rough lumber:

Quarters	Rough thickness	Typical after S2S
4/4	1 in	13/16 in
5/4	1 1/4 in	1 1/16 in
6/4	1 1/2 in	1 5/16 in
8/4	2 in	1 3/4 in
10/4	2 1/2 in	2 1/4 in
12/4	3 in	2 3/4 in
16/4	4 in	3 3/4 in

The surfaced sizes are typical, each mill works to its own. The point to remember is that you pay for the quarter thickness, and you get a thinner board after planing. If your part must finish at a full inch, you need 5/4 lumber, not 4/4.

How lumber is tallied

A tally is the list of boards in a lift or load and their board feet. Mills tally in slightly different ways, which is where most confusion in quotes comes from.

• Nominal rough thickness. 4/4 lumber is tallied as 1 inch thick, even after it is surfaced to 13/16 inch.
• Width rounded to the inch. Random width boards are measured and rounded, usually to the nearest whole inch, with fractions handled by the rule the mill uses.
• Length in whole feet. Lengths are usually tallied in whole feet, with any extra trimmed or ignored.
• Surface measure. Graders also work with surface measure (width in inches x length in feet / 12), which equals board feet for 4/4.

Some yards that sell surfaced or cut-to-size stock tally on the finished size, or price per linear foot or per piece. None of these is wrong. The problem is comparing a quote tallied one way with a quote tallied another. Ask every supplier to state the tally method.

Random widths and lengths

Most hardwood is sold RWRL, random widths and random lengths. You get whatever widths and lengths the logs gave, within the grade rules. That keeps the price down.

When you need specific sizes, you can ask for:

• A minimum width, for example 6 inches and wider.
• Specified lengths, for example 8 to 10 feet only.
• Specified widths, for example all boards 5 1/2 inches, which usually means ripped stock.

Each restriction costs more because the supplier has to sort or cut for you. A common compromise is to accept random widths above a minimum and a length range that fits your parts.

What yield loss to allow

Board feet on the invoice are not board feet in finished parts. Between the rough board and the finished part you lose wood to:

• Planing to thickness.
• Ripping to width and removing wane.
• Cutting out defects the grade allows.
• Crosscutting to length and trimming checked ends.

Depending on grade, species and cut list, rough mill yields often land between 50 and 80 percent. When you convert a cut list into a lumber order, add an allowance for this loss. Many shops start from 15 to 30 percent extra for No.1 Common and FAS, then adjust from their own records.

Comparing hardwood quotes

When two quotes for the same species and grade differ, check these before you compare the price:

1. Unit. Per board foot, per MBF or per cubic meter.
2. Tally method. Rough or surfaced, rounding of widths, whole feet.
3. Grade and sorts. FAS or FAS 1-Face and Select, color rules, steamed or not.
4. Thickness. Price per board foot rises with thickness.
5. Drying and moisture target. Kiln dried to 6 to 8 percent or air dried.
6. Surfacing. Rough, S2S or S4S, and any ripping.
7. Delivery terms. Ex mill, delivered or FOB a port, and who pays for loading.
8. Minimum order. A full lift or truckload price can be very different from a small lot.

Once each quote is on the same basis, the cheaper one is easy to see. Often it is the quote that looked more expensive at first.

Price per board foot versus cost per part

For production buyers, the price per board foot is less important than the cost per usable part. A cheaper grade with a lower yield can cost more per part, and a thicker board that lets you skip a glue-up can cost less. If you buy in volume, run a small test lot and measure the parts you actually get.

Next steps

Quantity and tally basis are the last lines of a spec; see hardwood lumber specifications. Board feet are also the first step of comparing offers, and the guide to wholesale hardwood lumber takes them through tally, landed cost and the order.

Work out your board feet, pick the grade that fits your cut list (see the NHLA grades guide) and write both on your RFQ. Send your lumber RFQ and we pass it to up to 3 mills or yards that carry your species, grade and thickness.

See also: lumber thickness in quarters and surfacing codes, with the rough and S2S size for every quarter.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Hardwood Lumber Market in 2027: What Supply, Demand and Policy Mean for a Buying Plan
• US Hardwood Lumber Exports by Market: 2025 Results, First Half of 2026 and Where the Volume Goes