Free apps that do the lumber math

Every woodworking project starts with arithmetic nobody enjoys doing by hand.

Board feet from a cut list, waste on top of that, tax on top of that, and what it all weighs when you go to load the truck — the numbers aren't hard, there are just a lot of them, and one slip early on ripples through the whole budget. Zero Kerf is a small set of free apps that carry those numbers for you.

There's no account to create and nothing stored on a server. Projects live in your browser, a share link carries the entire plan inside the URL, and every app keeps working offline once it has loaded — useful in a metal-roofed lumberyard with one bar of signal.

Board foot calculator & project planner List every part — four legs, 8/4, 3 by 18 — and the board feet, cost, waste, tax, and weight total themselves as you type. Open the planner → Shop layout planner Beta Arrange machines and benches in your floor plan. Sheet cut layout Later A plywood cut optimizer — parts laid out on the sheet, kerf included.

Quick calculators

Sometimes you don't need a project — you need one number while standing in an aisle. The tools each do a single job: board feet for one size, log scaling by Doyle, Scribner, or International 1/4″, linear feet to board feet for trim, how many boards to buy, and what a 2×4 actually measures.

The reference shelf

The apps sit on a stack of reference pages you can use without touching a calculator at all.

Lumber prices by species — thirty hardwoods and softwoods with dated price estimates, weight, and hardness, plus a page on each one.
Board feet by size — the common thickness-and-width combinations, worked out at every length.
Conversions — every lumber unit, into and out of board feet.
Learn — short, practical explainers: the math on one side, the material on the other. There's also a printable lookup sheet for the shop wall.
Example projects — real cut lists you can open in the planner and resize to your build.
Your price list — the prices the planner is using right now, all in one place.

If you have a build in mind, open the planner and list the first part. If you're still pricing an idea, start with the species pages and see what the lumber runs. Either way, do the arithmetic before you drive to the yard.