That’s a lot of lumber

How much usable lumber does a tree contain? Sometimes, much more than you’d think.

Guessing how many board feet of lumber I could get out of a specific tree is always an enjoyable idle pastime. You can use a variety of formulae, but there are lots of online calculators that do the math instantly. I did some lumber guessing just last week on a visit to my daughter in Connecticut.

In front of her house there are four huge old-growth pines (their house was built in 1760). Not only are the trunks massive – about 4’ in diameter on average – but some of the places where they branch out are up to 2’ and more in diameter.

But for this exercise we’ll just use the main trunks below the branching out, which are between 9’ and 12’ – let’s average that to 10’ 6” – and use 48” for the diameters.

So, averaging the lengths and diameters of these four trees, the calculator tells me that there are 4,840 board feet of lumber there. It’s likely that the bf would at least double once you added the larger lower branched trunks.

And as if that much pine isn’t enough, they have a very large yard and their property is also home to more than a dozen huge walnut and oak trees, several with diameters of 3’. That much lumber-on-the-hoof could keep me busy in my woodshop (and probably a few others) for years. But these trees are magnificent right where they are, and I hope none of them ever see the inside of a shop.