Species by Relative Cost
Where do species fall on the cost scale? Below is a general guide from typically lower-cost to higher-cost lumber. No prices—just relative position. Actual cost depends on size, grade, and market.
Order is a general guide only. Adjust for your project by browsing our catalog or requesting a quote.
What Is a Lineal Foot?
A Lineal Foot (LF) is simply one foot of board length, regardless of width or thickness. When you order 100 LF of 1×6, you're ordering 100 feet of that board laid end to end.
At Timberline, we price most finish lumber and decking per Lineal Foot. This makes ordering straightforward—measure the total length of material you need, add your waste factor, and you have your quantity.
Board Feet vs. Lineal Feet
You may also encounter Board Feet (BF), which is a volume measurement used widely in the lumber industry:
For example, one 1×6 board that is 8 feet long:
(1 × 6 × 8) ÷ 12 = 4 Board Feet
That same board is simply 8 Lineal Feet.
We quote in Lineal Feet because it's the most intuitive way for builders and homeowners to calculate how much material they need for a project.
Square Feet to Lineal Feet
If you know the square footage of your project (a deck, floor, or wall), you can convert to Lineal Feet using the exposed face width of the board:
Common face widths:
- 1×4 Flooring/Decking = 3.0″ face
- 1×6 Tongue & Groove / Pre-grooved = 5.0″ face
- 1×8 Tongue & Groove or Nickel Gap = 6.75″ face
- 5/4×6 Decking = 5.5″ face (standard) or 5.0″ (pre-grooved)
We recommend adding a 10% waste factor for flooring, siding, and decking projects.
Pricing FAQ
Strip flooring is traditional solid hardwood tongue-and-groove flooring milled in narrower, fixed widths—typically 2¼″ or 3¼″ face widths (nominal 3/4″ thick). It’s the classic unfinished flooring format designed for site-applied stain and finish.
Strip flooring differs from plank flooring, which uses wider boards (5″ and up). Because the strips are narrower, they’re more dimensionally stable and produce a timeless, linear pattern on the floor.
We carry strip flooring in Red Oak, White Oak, Maple, Hickory, and Southern Yellow Pine. Browse our Interior Flooring page for full details on available profiles and species.
Random Lengths (RL) means your order will contain an assortment of board lengths rather than one uniform length. For strip flooring, a typical RL bundle averages 4′–8′ with some boards running 10′ or longer.
This is the industry-standard way lumber is packaged at the mill. Because logs naturally yield a variety of board lengths, bundling them as Random Lengths reflects the most efficient use of raw material and keeps costs as low as possible.
Random Lengths are common not just for flooring, but also for paneling, siding, tongue-and-groove, and decking products.
We price most finish lumber and flooring per Lineal Foot in Random Length bundles because that’s how the material comes from the mill. When you order 200 LF of Red Oak strip flooring, you’ll receive a mix of lengths that together total 200 lineal feet.
This approach keeps your cost lower because:
- No sorting premium — pulling only specific lengths requires extra labor and generates waste from the remainder.
- Better yield — a mix of lengths means very little usable wood is left behind at the mill.
- Faster lead times — RL material ships more quickly because it doesn’t require custom pulling.
If your project requires specific lengths (e.g., all 8-footers), we can often accommodate that—just know it may involve an upcharge due to the additional sorting and potential waste. Give us a call at (828) 654-9224 to discuss your needs.
Lumber grade is one of the biggest factors in price. Higher grades (e.g., FAS or Premium & Better) yield more clear, defect-free wood from each log, which means more raw material is consumed to produce the same amount of finished lumber.
Lower grades like #1 Common or #2 Knotty allow more natural character (knots, color variation) and are significantly more affordable—while still delivering a beautiful result for many applications.
For a full breakdown of what each grade means and which species are available in each, see our Lumber Grading Guide.