How Many Boards Should I Order for My Project?
This is a great starting place. It can get confusing and confusion can leave you short a few boards on your project.
Let’s say you need enough Southern Pine boards to cover a 12X20 porch. 240 square feet (just simply multiply your length times your width of your ceiling to get your square feet). You will need to convert that number into lineal feet.
What is lineal feet?
Lineal feet, also known as linear feet, is a measurement of length in a straight line. It’s a term often used in construction or carpentry where materials are sold or measured by their length rather than by area (square feet) or volume (cubic feet).
Example:
If you have a 10-foot piece of wood that is 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick, it is still considered 10 lineal feet of wood. If you cut that piece into two 5-foot sections, you would then have two pieces, each 5 lineal feet long.
Why Is It Important?
Understanding lineal feet is crucial when you’re planning projects or purchasing materials because it directly affects the quantity you need and how you budget your project. For example, if you’re installing trim in a room and need 50 lineal feet, you’ll know exactly how much to purchase, regardless of the trim’s width or height.
Lineal Feet is how you will get pricing and order Synergy Wood from a lumber yard or dealer.
Lineal feet is calculated by your square footage multiplied by the Area/Width of the wood product. The area and width of the product is determined by 12″ divided by the actual face width (the height of the board you will be using).
Synergy Wood Face Width
Southern Pine has a 5″ face width.
Red Grandis has a 4.75″ face width.
So that would be 12/5 = 2.4 so our equation will look like this: 240 X (12/5) = 576. If you are not sure how to calculate square footage into lineal feet, give us a call or ask your dealer or lumber yard. They will gladly convert your numbers for you.
It is important to know that the price and the amount of boards you will need will be done in lineal feet and not in square feet. But that is just the bare amount of wood you will need.
This number does not factor in any mistakes, bad spots of wood, damaged pieces, undesired pieces, mechanical defects or wood defects that will most likely present themselves in your project. We call this waste. If you are dealing with unfinished t&g wood planks, you need to factor in at least 20-30% waste. If you use Synergy Wood, we recommend a 5% waste. Waste can increase based on complexity of the installation and skill level of the installer.
We have formulated our square foot to lineal foot that includes a 5% waste. Simply take your square footage and multiply it by 2.52 (for pine) or 2.65 (for Red Grandis) and this will give you the lineal foot + waste that you need for your project.