How Many Board Feet in a 4×6×8?
4×6 board feet by length
| Size | Board feet | Pieces per 100 bf |
|---|---|---|
| 4×6×6 | 12.00 | 9 |
| 4×6×8 | 16.00 | 7 |
| 4×6×10 | 20.00 | 5 |
| 4×6×12 | 24.00 | 5 |
| 4×6×14 | 28.00 | 4 |
| 4×6×16 | 32.00 | 4 |
The 4×6×8 is typical stock for heavy posts and short beams. Ordering for a whole plan? It takes 7 pieces of 4×6×8 to reach 100 board feet — tally the real cut list, mixed sizes and all, in the board foot calculator and print it as a slip for the yard.
Worth remembering: dimensional softwood like this usually sells by the piece, not by the board foot — but the BF figure still matters for comparing costs across sizes, estimating framing packages, and talking to mills. Hardwood in random widths is where per-BF pricing rules; see the price table for what species run per board foot.
Why a 4×6 isn't really 4″ × 6″
Every 4×6×8 starts life rough-sawn at (close to) its nominal size, then loses material to drying and surfacing — which is how a 4×6 arrives at the store measuring 3½″ × 5½″. The nominal-size convention is written into the American Softwood Lumber Standard (NIST PS 20), and it governs everything downstream: the label on the rack, the invoice, span tables and this page's board-foot figure of 16 bf. Measure a 4×6×8 with calipers and punch the actual size into a calculator, and you'll come up about a quarter short of what the yard will charge you for — always figure nominal.
What does a 4×6×8 weigh?
Handy when you're loading the truck: at 16 board feet, a kiln-dried SPF (spruce-pine-fir) 4×6×8 runs about 37.3 lb, and a denser southern yellow pine version about 48 lb. Fresh, still-wet stock is heavier — roughly 45.3 lb (SPF green) to 73.3 lb (SYP green). A 50-piece framing lift of 4×6×8s is therefore on the order of 1865–2400 lb dry, which is real payload. Species-by-species figures live in the lumber weight calculator.