quick question....

[JamieT]

Had a lady call this morning wanting a quote for flooring. She wants pine to cover the floors in her house. She says she wants 6,8,12 inch wide boards and needs to cover 1800square feet. Is there a quick way to figure board footage?

[drobertson]

1800 bdft,

[backwoods sawyer]

Length x width x thickness, devide by 12
1800 sqft = 1800 bft x1"
but you need extra for tounge and grove, with wide pieces there will be a % of degrade in the processing, may want to add an over run % to compensate, maybe as high as 25% others will be able to give more accurate info on this.

[JamieT]

She wants 3 different sizes. Would I just divide 1800 by 3, then figure how many of each width its gonna take to make 600 each?

[drobertson]

Jamie, that is what came to my mind too, and as backwoods suggested, add extra for sure, how much? not sure might consult with a pro,, for what is a common amount for extra. 

[scsmith42]

Usually when making flooring I assume at least a 35% loss - more if it's longer boards (6' +) and less on shorter boards.

The reason why is due to straight line ripping loss.  You're going to lose around 1/2" - 3/4" of face width due to milling the T&G (1/8" off of the groove side, plus 3/8" off of the tongue side), and you will also lose 10% or so of width during the drying process.  Then when you straight line rip the lumber (if any boards are crooked ) you will lose another 1/2" or so - more if it has a significant crook which you will experience in longer, wider boards.

So for 1,800 square feet of flooring, better start with at least 2,400 board feet of 4/4 lumber.  Also, with wider boards you will want to mill thicker to allow for cupping during the drying process - otherwise you may not be able to clean up the entire width and length of the board (or you will have to cut it into shorter lengths - adding to your labor costs).  I usually mill 8" + flat sawn boards at least 1/16" - 1/8" heavy (more if it's a wider board) to make sure that I have enough meat to clean up any cupping over the entire width / length of the board.

[JamieT]

I explained to her that all im capable of is cutting the wood. I dont do any finish work. I figured 150 1x6x8's, 113 1x8x8's, and 75 1x12x8's plus extras....

[backwoods sawyer]

I have milled wide board flooring and the planer mill here likes them a full inch wider then the target size, 7,9,11,13

[red oaks lumber]

to give 3 equal patterns you will need (not figuring waste) 118 1x6   118 1x8   118 1x12
total b.f. cover is 2045
pine is very forgiving for flooring , if i was sawing for the job i would round up to 120 each and i would be fine. my disclaimer is this,  i know  looking at the lumber in green form how the floor will turn out
alot of your sucsess or failer is how you saw the lumber, and i dont mean your sawing ability. the 2 rules i have .. saw thick and saw wide... those 2 things will save someones burro in the long haul.
i used a cover of 5" 7" 11"  if this was hardwoods i woulnt' do 11" and i would talk them into a heavier number of 5"

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Two additional thoughts: first, the wood will shrink about 6% during drying to a low MC.   Second, if you saw an piece that is 5-1/2" wide, you will have zero yield.  If you saw a piece that is 7-3/4" wide, you will get one 6" piece of flooring and 1-3/4" of scrap for a yield loss of 25%.  Third, if the wider pieces are sawn from near the center of the log, they will likely cup quite a bit.  Plus they will have spike knots which may make them unsuitable.  Fourth, the tongue for wide pieces of flooring needs to be a bit longer than for narrow pieces...probably at least 3/8".  So add another 6%.   So, if your question is how many feet of lumber will it take to make 1800 sq ft of flooring, I would estimate closer to 50% more, but in some cases even more than that.

An oak strip flooring mill making oak flooring usually figures it takes 3 bf of green lumber to make 1 sq ft of dry flooring, which includes cutting out objectionable defects.  However, they would not make 12" pieces as the lumber does not come that wide very often.

If the floor is softwood, for a 12" wide flooring piece, it will take a piece of lumber, including the tongue and waste and shrinkage at least 13" wide, which is often quite expensive and not commonly made that wide, except for white pine.  In fact, if you buy the lumber, it would take a 1x14" piece to make 12" wide flooring.  A 1x14 is very rare as such green lumber will cup too much in drying to make a flat, dry piece.  So, make sure you charge enough, as the wide pieces do have a high market value.

Hopefully this lady knows that wide flooring cups as it cycles through the yearly humidity changes, and will not blame you when cracks open between the pieces.  The shrinkage of a 12" width from summer to winter (3% MC change) will be about 1/10".

[red oaks lumber]

gene
i dont know where you come up with some of your figures. ;) i have easily made over 100,000 s.f. of wide plank pine floor and i have never come close to 10% waste let alone your wild figure.  why would you saw a board 7 3/4 wide to make 5" floor?
if you explain the pitfalls of a wide floor, then no one is to  blame during the season cycles. i believe our climate up here is some of the harshed cycles from winter to summer and thus havent really seem that much movement.
i buy 16'  pine logs period, it takes alot nicer log to make a 16 than it does an 8' if i'm making this floor i'll sort my 16' cut them to 8's and start cutting. one thing most everone forgets about flooring or i guess wall board for that matter, every board has a fair amount of end trim. that dosent me you have to cut it back to 8'.
example the 118 boards of each size should give you an extra total of just under 5 boards each size.if you can leave your floor at 100".  if your mill spec is 102'' for 8's and make your mill spec 16' 10" you can gain on lenght.
like most things figuring them out the best way dosent come from a book.

[36 coupe]

Explain to her that white pine is not good for flooring.My house was built in 1806 and has white pine flooring.I have seen pine flooring in an old country store that was worn thru to the sub floor.Kitchens in most old houses here are hardwood.Hard pine makes good flooring, it is almost always quarter sawn.Spruce is often used for flooring in bedrooms.Wide pine boards will be trouble on floors.I have made T&G oak for customers.It takes a lot of rough lumber to get a good finished floor.