Board feet in a 1×2×8

There are two honest answers. The wood you actually carry out of the store is 0.75 board feet — a 1×2 really measures 0.75″ × 1.5″. But if you're pricing or trading lumber, the industry counts this board as 1.33 BF, because board feet are by convention figured on the nominal 1″ × 2″ name.

The math, both ways

Which one do you want? If you're figuring weight, volume, or "how much wood is that really," use 0.75. If you're comparing against hardwood priced per board foot, or reading a mill tally, use 1.33 — the whole trade runs on nominal, for the historical reasons on our nominal vs actual page. (Construction lumber itself is usually priced per piece, so at the store neither number appears on the shelf tag.)

What a 1×2 is for

The humble 1×2 is the smallest board the lumberyard bothers to name: furring strips, lattice frames, cleats, screen-door stops, garden stakes, and the sacrificial batten you clamp across a glue-up. At 3/4″ × 1-1/2″ actual, it's less a board than a stick with ambitions.

A 1×2×8 holds just 1.33 nominal board feet — barely half a board foot of actual wood — so even at pocket-change sticker prices, the 1×2 is often the most expensive wood in the store per board foot. If you need many, ripping them from a wide board on a table saw is the classic money move.

Eight feet is the default length — it matches the ceiling, fits inside a pickup bed with the tailgate down, and wastes the least when cut for typical walls. It's usually the cheapest per foot, too, because it's the volume seller.

Heft check: at its true 0.75″ × 1.5″ section, a 8′ board holds 0.06 ft³ of wood — about 2.2 lb kiln-dried, and closer to 3.4 lb dripping fresh off the pressure-treated rack — you can carry a bundle of these under one arm.

What that volume costs at hardwood prices

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