Lumber sizes and sheet goods
Lumber is sold by a nominal name and planed smaller: a 2×4 measures 1½ by 3½ inches. Mortise draws every board at its actual dressed size, so what you see is what you will measure at the yard. These are the sizes it stocks.
Updated
Dimensional lumber and hardwood
North American lumber, dressed on four sides and kiln dried. Hardwood is sold by the quarter inch of rough thickness (5/4 is five quarters) and surfaced on both faces. Board feet are counted on the nominal size, as the yard charges them.
European planed timber
A European yard names a piece by the section it really is, so 45 × 95 is 45 by 95 millimetres. It is sold by the cubic metre. Switch a project to millimetres and these are the sizes on offer.
Standard lengths
The shopping list buys boards at the lengths a yard cuts: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 feet, or 2400 to 5400 mm in 600 mm steps. Parts are packed into those lengths with a ⅛ inch (3 mm) kerf for every cut and ½ inch (10 mm) of end trim.
Sheet goods
A sheet is named by its nominal thickness but is often thinner: sanded ¾ inch plywood is ²³⁄₃₂ inch, and Baltic birch is metric under its inch name. Mortise uses the real thickness, so a dado sized to a sheet fits it.
Pressed boards come oversize, 49 × 97 inches, so a clean 48 × 96 can be trimmed from them. Smaller panels (half sheets, 2 × 4 and 2 × 2 foot project panels) are cut from the full sheet; bigger ones are bought whole.
Species
Prices are rough Canadian retail per board foot, for an estimate of what the wood costs. They are not quotes.
Questions
- What are the actual dimensions of a 2×4?
- 1½ by 3½ inches (38 × 89 mm). A 2×6 is 1½ by 5½, a 4×4 is 3½ by 3½.
- How thick is a 1×6 board?
- ¾ inch, and 5½ inches wide. Every 1× board is ¾ inch thick.
- How thick is 8/4 hardwood?
- Mortise draws 8/4 surfaced on both faces at 1¾ inches, 6/4 at 1⁵⁄₁₆ and 5/4 at 1¹⁄₁₆.
- How thick is ¾ inch plywood really?
- Sanded ¾ inch plywood is ²³⁄₃₂ inch. MDF and particleboard are the full ¾ inch.