Lumber Weight Calculator
What the stack actually weighs — by species, dimensions and how wet the wood still is.
Total weight
171.1 lb
- Per board
- 17.11 lb
- Board feet
- 46.67 BF
- Volume
- 3.889 ft³
- Density at 12% MC
- 44.0 lb/ft³ · 3.67 lb/BF
- Specific gravity
- 0.71
Species averages carry roughly ±10% board to board. Weigh a sample piece if the load is close to a limit.
Pricing the pile rather than hauling it? Use the board foot calculator →
How this is calculated
BF = thickness(in) × width(in) × length(ft) / 12 × qty volume = BF / 12 (12 BF = 1 ft³) density(MC) = density at 12% × (1 + MC/100) / 1.12 weight = volume × density(MC)
Moisture content in wood is expressed against the oven-dry weight of the wood itself, not against the total, which is why green lumber can legitimately read above 100%. Scaling the 12% reference by the moisture ratio treats volume as fixed. Between 6 and 15% that holds to about one percent, since wood barely moves in that band.
Above the fibre saturation point near 30%, the wood has swollen to its full dimension and the fixed-volume assumption starts to overstate density by roughly 5%. For green and wet treated stock, read the result as a firm upper bound rather than a precise figure — which is the safe direction to be wrong in when the number decides whether a load is legal.
Wood density by species
| Species | lb/ft³ at 12% | kg/m³ | lb per board foot | Specific gravity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poplar, yellow | 29 | 465 | 2.42 | 0.46 |
| Oak, red | 44 | 705 | 3.67 | 0.71 |
| Oak, white | 47 | 753 | 3.92 | 0.75 |
| Maple, hard (sugar) | 44 | 705 | 3.67 | 0.71 |
| Maple, soft (red) | 38 | 609 | 3.17 | 0.61 |
| Cherry, black | 35 | 561 | 2.92 | 0.56 |
| Walnut, black | 38 | 609 | 3.17 | 0.61 |
| Ash, white | 42 | 673 | 3.50 | 0.67 |
| Hickory | 51 | 817 | 4.25 | 0.82 |
| Birch, yellow | 43 | 689 | 3.58 | 0.69 |
| Mahogany, Honduran | 34 | 545 | 2.83 | 0.54 |
| Sapele | 42 | 673 | 3.50 | 0.67 |
| Teak | 41 | 657 | 3.42 | 0.66 |
| Padauk, African | 45 | 721 | 3.75 | 0.72 |
| Purpleheart | 56 | 897 | 4.67 | 0.90 |
| Wenge | 54 | 865 | 4.50 | 0.87 |
| Ipe | 69 | 1,105 | 5.75 | 1.11 |
| Pine, eastern white | 25 | 400 | 2.08 | 0.40 |
| Pine, southern yellow | 37 | 593 | 3.08 | 0.59 |
| Douglas fir | 34 | 545 | 2.83 | 0.54 |
| Spruce-pine-fir (SPF) | 28 | 449 | 2.33 | 0.45 |
| Cedar, western red | 23 | 368 | 1.92 | 0.37 |
| Redwood | 28 | 449 | 2.33 | 0.45 |
Figures are species averages at 12% moisture content from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook. The pounds-per-board-foot column is the practical one: multiply it by your board footage and you have the weight without touching the volume conversion.
What a common board weighs
| Board | SPF | Southern yellow pine | Red oak | Ipe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x4 × 8 ft (1.5" × 3.5") | 7.9 lb | 10.4 lb | 12.4 lb | 19.4 lb |
| 2x4 × 10 ft | 9.8 lb | 13.0 lb | 15.5 lb | 24.3 lb |
| 2x6 × 8 ft (1.5" × 5.5") | 12.4 lb | 16.4 lb | 19.4 lb | 30.5 lb |
| 2x8 × 12 ft (1.5" × 7.25") | 24.5 lb | 32.3 lb | 38.5 lb | 60.3 lb |
| 2x10 × 16 ft (1.5" × 9.25") | 41.6 lb | 55.0 lb | 65.4 lb | 102.6 lb |
| 4/4 × 8" × 8 ft board | 12.0 lb | 15.9 lb | 18.9 lb | 29.6 lb |
| 8/4 × 8" × 8 ft board | 24.0 lb | 31.7 lb | 37.7 lb | 59.1 lb |
Calculated at 8% moisture using actual surfaced dimensions, by the same function as the tool above. Nominal sizes would put every figure here about a third too high, which is the single most common error in lumber weight estimates.
Frequently asked questions
How much does lumber weigh?
It depends far more on species and moisture than on grade. Air-dried at 12% moisture, western red cedar runs about 23 lb per cubic foot and ipe about 69 — a three to one spread across the same volume. A cubic foot is twelve board feet, so divide the density by twelve to get pounds per board foot, which is the number worth memorising for whatever species you buy most.
How much does a 2x4 weigh?
A kiln-dried 8 ft SPF 2x4 is around 8 lb, using the actual 1.5 by 3.5 inch section rather than the nominal one. The same stud in wet, freshly treated pine is well over twice that, which is why a bunk of treated lumber feels like a different product from a bunk of studs. Enter the actual dimensions above, not the nominal ones, or the answer comes out roughly 35% heavy.
Does green lumber weigh more than dry?
Substantially. Green stock can carry more water than wood by weight, and a freshly sawn oak beam runs 50 to 80% heavier than the same beam at 12% moisture. Pressure-treated lumber sitting in the yard is soaked with treatment solution and behaves the same way — buy it, stack it and let it dry before you build, or the shrinkage happens inside your finished work.
Will a load of lumber fit in my truck?
Check the payload sticker in the driver door jamb, not the towing capacity, and remember payload includes passengers and anything already in the bed. A half-ton pickup usually has 1,300 to 2,000 lb of payload, which is enough for perhaps 150 board feet of oak or 400 board feet of pine. The load also has to be tied down and cannot overhang beyond what your state allows, which is often the real limit before weight is.
Why is my board heavier than the calculator says?
The densities here are species averages, and individual boards vary by roughly 10% either way — the same tree is denser at the butt than at the top. Beyond that, three things add weight the table cannot see: moisture above what you assumed, resin-heavy heartwood in pines, and any finish or treatment already applied. If a board reads far heavier than expected it is almost always still wet.
How do I convert to kilograms and cubic metres?
Turn on metric above and the result converts directly. For hand arithmetic, 1 lb per cubic foot is 16.018 kg per cubic metre, so a species at 44 lb/ft³ is about 705 kg/m³. Specific gravity is the same number divided by 62.4 for imperial or 1,000 for metric, which is why a species with a specific gravity above 1.0, such as ipe, is one that sinks.
Results are planning estimates. Density varies within a species, within a tree and with resin content, and moisture content is rarely uniform through a stack. Where a legal weight limit is involved, weigh the load rather than trusting a table.