Board feet in a 2×2×8

There are two honest answers. The wood you actually carry out of the store is 1.50 board feet — a 2×2 really measures 1.5″ × 1.5″. But if you're pricing or trading lumber, the industry counts this board as 2.67 BF, because board feet are by convention figured on the nominal 2″ × 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 1.50. If you're comparing against hardwood priced per board foot, or reading a mill tally, use 2.67 — 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 2×2 is for

The 2×2 is the deck baluster, the corner cleat, the workbench-drawer runner, and the leg of a thousand shop carts. At 1-1/2″ square it's the biggest stick you can still call small — and the smallest one that takes a screw from two directions without splitting.

Many 2×2s are milled from the juvenile core of the log or ripped from the middle of 2×4s, which is why the rack always holds a few propellers. Wood near the pith twists as it dries. Buy straight ones, buy a spare, and build with them soon rather than storing them — a 2×2 left alone in a garage for a month is a 2×2 with opinions.

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 1.5″ × 1.5″ section, a 8′ board holds 0.13 ft³ of wood — about 4.4 lb kiln-dried, and closer to 6.9 lb dripping fresh off the pressure-treated rack.

What that volume costs at hardwood prices

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