What's a Board Foot?
Paul wrote asking about the term "board
foot", specifically, what is it? Simply put, a board foot is a piece of lumber
(usually solid wood) that measures 12" x 12" x 1" thick when the wood is "rough
cut". However, when that same wood has been run through a thickness planer to
smooth the top and bottom surfaces, the resulting material is usually closer to
3/4" thick. Since trees, and consequently, boards, come in different sizes,
it's unlikely you'll be buying boards that are exactly twelve inches wide or
one inch thick. One easy way to calculate board footage and the cost of lumber,
is to use a simple board foot calculator. This one from
the University
of Missouri seems to do the trick.
extension.missouri.edu/scripts/explore/g05506.asp