Will the truck take it? Enter board feet and pick a species — get the stack's weight in pounds, kiln-dried or green. Densities are rounded from USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook data.
A board foot is 1/12 of a cubic foot, so the math is just density ÷ 12. Dense hardwoods like hickory and ipe run 4–5 lb per board foot dry; pine and cedar barely half that. Green (fresh-sawn) wood carries its own weight problem — water — and runs 30–60% heavier, which matters a lot when you're loading a log-length haul or hoisting slabs onto a chainsaw mill.
| Species | Dry lb/ft³ | Dry lb/bf | Green lb/ft³ | 100 bf dry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red oak | 44 | 3.7 | 63 | 367 lb |
| White oak | 47 | 3.9 | 62 | 392 lb |
| Hard maple | 44 | 3.7 | 56 | 367 lb |
| Soft maple | 38 | 3.2 | 50 | 317 lb |
| Black walnut | 38 | 3.2 | 58 | 317 lb |
| Cherry | 35 | 2.9 | 45 | 292 lb |
| White ash | 42 | 3.5 | 48 | 350 lb |
| Hickory | 51 | 4.3 | 63 | 425 lb |
| Yellow birch | 43 | 3.6 | 57 | 358 lb |
| Poplar | 28 | 2.3 | 38 | 233 lb |
| Basswood | 26 | 2.2 | 42 | 217 lb |
| Beech | 45 | 3.8 | 54 | 375 lb |
| Eastern white pine | 25 | 2.1 | 36 | 208 lb |
| Southern yellow pine | 36 | 3.0 | 55 | 300 lb |
| Douglas fir | 34 | 2.8 | 39 | 283 lb |
| Western red cedar | 23 | 1.9 | 28 | 192 lb |
| Redwood | 28 | 2.3 | 50 | 233 lb |
| Spruce (SPF) | 28 | 2.3 | 34 | 233 lb |
| Red alder | 28 | 2.3 | 46 | 233 lb |
| Sapele | 42 | 3.5 | 55 | 350 lb |
| African mahogany | 32 | 2.7 | 45 | 267 lb |
| Teak | 41 | 3.4 | 52 | 342 lb |
| Purpleheart | 54 | 4.5 | 70 | 450 lb |
| Ipe | 62 | 5.2 | 78 | 517 lb |
Densities rounded from USDA FPL Wood Handbook (ch. 4); dry ≈ 12% moisture content. Real boards vary with moisture — check with a moisture meter before you trust a glue-up or a payload figure.
Wood is a sponge with structure. Freshly sawn ("green") lumber can be a third to half water by weight, which is why the green columns above run 30–60% heavier than kiln-dried — and why a green slab that felt heroic on the mill feels merely heavy a year later. Drying to the 6–12% range doesn't just shed pounds: it's when boards do most of their shrinking and warping, so weight and workability improve together. The density figures here are rounded from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook, the standard engineering reference; if a load's weight actually matters — trailer payload, floor loading, a lofted lumber rack — verify moisture with a meter rather than trusting the word "seasoned".
Estimating rules that survive contact with reality: hardwood averages ~3.5 lb per board foot dry and ~4.5+ green; construction softwood ~2.3 lb dry; and a full lift of anything is heavier than the truck manual would like. When the tally is big, weigh the plan first — 500 bf of green white oak is over a ton and a quarter.