Lumber Tally field notes
A Worked Lumber Pricing Example
A mixed order of priced and unpriced boards, tallied by hand, to show exactly how board feet and cost add up. Prices below are invented for illustration only.
The prices in this example are invented for illustration — they are not quotes from any supplier. The arithmetic is what matters: this is how the calculator turns a mixed list of boards into a board-foot total and a cost subtotal.
The order
| Label | Qty | Thickness | Width | Length | Price / bf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8/4 white oak | 2 | 2 in | 6 in | 8 ft | $6.50 |
| 4/4 walnut | 5 | 1 in | 5 in | 6 ft | $9.25 |
| 5/4 soft maple | 3 | 1¼ in | 4 in | 10 ft | (blank — not priced yet) |
Board feet, row by row
8/4 white oak: one board is 2 × 6 × 8 ÷ 12 = 8 board feet. Two boards: 8 × 2 = 16 board feet.
4/4 walnut: one board is 1 × 5 × 6 ÷ 12 = 2.5 board feet. Five boards: 2.5 × 5 = 12.5 board feet.
5/4 soft maple: one board is 1.25 × 4 × 10 ÷ 12 = 4.1666… board feet. Three boards: 12.5 board feet (calculate before rounding: 1.25 × 4 × 10 × 3 ÷ 12 = 150 ÷ 12 = 12.5).
Cost, row by row
The maple row has no price entered, so its cost is unknown — a blank price field means the row is tallied for board feet but left out of the priced subtotal, and the calculator counts it as one unpriced row rather than guessing a price.
- Oak: 16 bf × $6.50 = $104.00
- Walnut: 12.5 bf × $9.25 = $115.625
- Maple: unpriced
Totals
Total board feet across all three rows: 16 + 12.5 + 12.5 = 41 board feet.
Priced subtotal (oak and walnut only): $104.00 + $115.625 = $219.625, displayed as $219.63. The calculator does not round each row's volume or cost before summing. It uses browser floating-point arithmetic, so very small numerical differences are possible. Supplier invoices may use different rounding.
Unpriced rows: 1 (the maple), representing 12.5 of the 41 total board feet.
Try your own list on the calculator, or read how to calculate board feet for the underlying formula.
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