You have probably see many sawyers or lumber yards use the unit, board foot or board feet. Majority of sawyers use board feet to price out their lumber and live edge slabs to give the most accurate price. At 612 Milling, all of our slabs are priced off of the board foot of the wood.
So what is a board foot?
The basic calculation for board feet is:
Thickness x Width x Length / 12 = BDFT
1″ T x 12″ W x 1′ L / 12 = 1 BDFT
Lets say you are looking to buy a live edge slab that is 10 feet long, 15 inches wide and two inches thick. 10′ long * 15″ wide * 2″ thick is 300. 300 / 12 equals out to 25 board feet,
If the sawyer pries their boards at $10 per board foot, the slab would cost you $250.
Another way to do this quicker, is use online calculators. For example, Omni board foot calculator. I use this calculator almost daily. Just add in the dimensions of the slab and it will do all the hard work for you.
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