What does lumber weigh?

[Bucket]

Hello!

What is the weight of wood, like studs, tongue and groove boards etc. per cubic meter? Approximately?

 

[jocke1990]

Spruce about 450kg per cubic and pine about 520kg per cubic. A bit on the upper side. But I have always calculated with those when I have loaded trucks.

 

[Allmänobildad]

"The typical value for dry timber is 510 kg/m3." From the Wikipedia page on pine.

 

[ArneTW]

510-520 kg/m3 sounds a bit too dry. When I play with planks in water, I think they probably lie a bit deeper than 50%...
and if it's pressure-treated wood, it sometimes wants to sink...

It also depends on how much air you pack between the planks/logs/lumber.

/ATW

 

[jocke1990]

510-520 kg/m3 sounds a bit too dry. When I play with pieces of wood in water, I think they sit a bit deeper than 50%...
and if it's pressure-treated wood, it sometimes wants to sink...

It also depends on how much air you pack between the boards/logs/lumber.

/ATW

I don't know how moist the wood you usually handle is. But when the wood leaves a sawmill/planing mill, they have about 16-18% moisture content. Depending on the product. But as mentioned, pressure-treated wood is significantly heavier.

 

[Janus82]

510-520 kg/m3 sounds a bit too dry. When I play with planks in water, I tend to think they lie a bit deeper than 50%...
and if it's pressure-treated wood, it sometimes wants to sink...

It also depends on how much air you pack between the boards/logs/timber.

/ATW

I agree. When you drop a piece of a stud in a tub of water (and you do that often when you have kids...) it’s probably not more than 25% that sticks up above the surface. That should give a weight closer to 750kg per cubic.

 

[Björn Melander]

Just over 500 kg/m3 is accurate for dried wood.
I think this cheat sheet for the density of different materials is good. Here it is for wood:

http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_wood.htm