Plank and lumber weight calculator
Weight of a board, beam or panel from its size, species and moisture, per piece and for the whole stack.
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- Your own numbers, worked out as often as you like
- The full handling sheet you can print or save to My work
- 5 cited sources, linked, with the checks to make
- Every other tool for the same role, in the same plan
- A plain-words read of your result (a fuller AI read with the Bifrost AI add-on)
Included in these role plans
Example result · fictional numbers
What you get: handling sheet
Worked out by this tool from its default inputs. Its role plan lets you run your own numbers, print the sheet and save it.
786 lb in all: 1 forklift lift, 1 truckload, 17 psf on the floor
- Size used
- 1 1/2 x 9 1/4 in x 12.0 ft (actual)
- Volume per piece
- 1.16 cu ft
- Density at this moisture
- 34.0 lb/cu ft
- Weight per piece
- 39.3 lb
- Total for 20
- 786 lb (0.39 short tons)
- Board feet (nominal)
- 400 BF
Handling plan
- Carry each piece
- One person (39.3 lb, under 51 lb)
- Pieces per forklift lift
- 127 (4,993 lb of the 5,000 lb rating)
- Forklift lifts to unload
- 1
- Truckloads
- 1 at 10,000 lb payload
- Delivery cost
- $150.00 (1 load at $150.00)
Also on the sheet
- Stacking and floor load · 7 lines, starting with “Pieces per layer”
- Weight by moisture (same pieces) · 4 lines, starting with “At 12% moisture”
The plain-words read of this example
Each piece weighs about 39.3 lb and the 20 pieces about 786 lb, so the order is 1 truckload and 1 forklift lift. For hand carries: one person (39.3 lb, under 51 lb), against a 51 lb limit taken from the NIOSH lifting equation. Stacked 5 wide it stands 6 in tall; OSHA caps hand-handled lumber piles at 16 ft. It puts 17 psf on the floor, within the 40 psf design load. Use the supplier's shipping weight for crane picks.
5 cited sources
- Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) (USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory)
- 29 CFR 1926.250, General requirements for storage (OSHA)
- NIOSH lifting equation, worked example (ErgoPlus)
- IRC 2021, Chapter 3 Building Planning (R301.5 live loads) (International Code Council)
- 29 CFR 1926.602, Material handling equipment (OSHA)
Plus 5 step-by-step checks, a print layout and a link that reopens it with your numbers.