Alder price per board foot
Plan on about $4.60 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $18.40.
Foresters in the Northwest used to curse alder as a weed choking out the valuable firs. Then two discoveries changed its life: cabinet shops found its even, gentle texture, and in 1956 Leo Fender started cutting Stratocaster bodies from it. Most Strats since — including some you've heard on the radio your whole life — are alder. Not bad for a weed.
Soft, even-toned, and stable — the Pacific Northwest cabinet standard. Takes stain to imitate cherry convincingly.
Alder at a glance
| Price per board foot | $4.60 (2026-08) |
| Weight, dry | 28 lb/ft³ · 2.3 lb per BF |
| Janka hardness | 590 lbf |
| Shrinkage, green → oven-dry | 7.3% tangential · 4.4% radial |
| Cost of 10 BF | $46.00 |
| Cost of 25 BF | $115.00 |
What common thicknesses cost
Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):
| Thickness | Board feet | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | 4.0 | $18.40 | 9 lb |
| 6/4 | 6.0 | $27.60 | 14 lb |
| 8/4 | 8.0 | $36.80 | 19 lb |
| 12/4 | 12.0 | $55.20 | 28 lb |
Will it stay flat?
Thoroughly domesticated: alder dries fast, stays flat, and barely distinguishes heartwood from sap. It's a wood with no drama in it anywhere.
The measured numbers: drying from green, alder shrinks about 7.3% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 4.4% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.
Buying alder without regrets
West of the Rockies it's often the cheapest cabinet hardwood on the rack; east of them you may need to ask. 'Knotty alder' — the rustic door look all over the Southwest — is the same wood, graded proudly backwards.
At the finishing bench
Alder is the great impersonator: with the right stain it passes for cherry at a third the price, and thousands of 'cherry' kitchens prove it daily. Just remember it dents under a firm fingernail — keep it on doors and faces, not countertops.
Sources & further reading
Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: Cypress ($4.50). A step up: Elm ($4.75).