Board Footage Calculator

In this Excel lesson, you will teach yourself how to prepare Board Footage Calculator.

What is board footage?

Board footage is a volume of hardwood lumber (to buy).

One board foot equals one square foot of wood which is one inch thick. Here is the relationship:

1 board foot = 144 cubic inches = 1/12 cubic foot 

To prepare such lumber calculations you need to prepare the data first. You will need:

  • board length [feet]
  • width [ft or inches]
  • thickness [in]

If you prefer metric units you may need cm to inches converter.

How to calculate board footage?

To calculate wood board footage you just need to multiply length * width * thickness.

Board foot formula = length * width * thickness

To adjust units you need to use these formulas:

board foot = length(ft) * width(in) * thickness(in) / 144 

Board Footage Calculator

board foot = length(ft) * width(ft) * thickness(in) / 12 

Lumber Calculator

To format the board footage as a number with 2 decimal places, select the cell, right-click, and select “Format Cells”. In the Format Cells dialog box, select the “Number” category, choose the number format with 2 decimal places, and click OK.

Now you know how to calculate board feet.

Here’s the place where you can download the Lumber Calculator I described above.

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