How Many Pine Boards Should I Order for My Project?

This is a great starting place. It can get confusing and confusion can leave you short a few boards on your project. 

Let's say you need enough boards to cover a 12X20 porch. 240 square feet (just simply multiply your length times your width of your ceiling to get your square feet).  You will need to convert that number into lineal feet. 

Lineal Feet is how you will get pricing and order pine boards from a lumber yard or dealer - Lineal feet is calculated by your square footage X Area/Width. The area and width are determined by 12" divided by the actual face width (the height of the board you will be using).  Synergy Wood uses a 5" face. So that would be 12/5 = 2.4 so our equation will look like this: 240 X (12/5) = 576. If you are not sure how to calculate square footage into lineal feet, ask your dealer or lumber yard. They will gladly convert your numbers for you. 

It is important to know that the price and the amount of boards you will need will be done in lineal feet and not usually in square feet.  But that is just the bare amount of wood you will need. This number does not factor in any of your mistakes, bad spots of wood, damaged pieces, undesired pieces, mechanical defects or wood defects that will most likely present themselves in your project.  We call this waste. If you are dealing with unfinished t&g wood planks, you need to factor in at least 20-30% waste. If you use Synergy Wood, we recommend a 5% waste. Waste can increase based on complexity of the installation and skill level of the installer.