How Many Board Feet in a 2x4x12?
Total board feet
8 bf
One nominal 2x4, twelve feet long.
How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Thickness, nominal2 in
- Width, nominal4 in
- Length12 ft
- How many pieces1
- Price per board foot, 0 to skip0 $
Total board feet8 bf
| Board feet per piece | 8 |
|---|---|
| Pieces | 1 |
| Total board feet | 8 |
| Total linear feet | 12 lf |
Length compared
The same stick in every length the yard normally stocks.
| Length | Total board feet |
|---|---|
| 8 ft | 5.33 bf |
| 10 ft | 6.67 bf |
| 12 ft | 8 bf |
| 14 ft | 9.33 bf |
| 16 ft | 10.67 bf |
What else matters here
A 2x4x12 is exactly 8 board feet, and it comes out clean because twelve feet cancels the divide by twelve: thickness times width is the answer. A 2x6x12 is 12 board feet, a 2x8x12 is 16, and so on down the rack.
That trick is worth keeping. Any twelve foot piece is just thickness times width in board feet, which makes a twelve foot length the easiest one to estimate a whole package from.
What this calculator assumes
- A board foot is nominal thickness times nominal width times length in feet, divided by 12. Use the nominal size, the 2 and the 6 in a 2x6, not the real 1.5 by 5.5.
- Hardwood is sold by the board foot. Softwood framing is usually sold by the piece, so this is for pricing and for comparing two quotes written differently.
Questions people ask
How many board feet in a 2x4x12?
Exactly 8 board feet.
Why is a twelve foot piece so easy to calculate?
Because the formula divides by twelve to turn feet into the length in units of a foot. At twelve feet long that division cancels, so the answer is simply thickness times width.
What is a board foot?
The volume of a piece one inch thick, twelve inches wide and twelve inches long, which is 144 cubic inches. Board feet are a volume measure, so a 1x12 and a 2x6 of the same length hold the same number of them.
The board foot calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.