Hardwood waste for pricing joinery

[Harry Hare]

Forgot to answer this earlier, but:

For rough sawn stock I calculate the the rough sawn board requirement that will yield the finished dimensions. For example, ten pieces at a finished size of 800 mm X 44 X 18 (31-1/2" X 1- 3/4" X 3/4") will come out of ten pieces of rough timber 36” X 2” X 1” = ~0.42 cubic feet. Add an additional waste factor even though you've calculated using fairly generous board sizes, so for waney edged English oak use an additional waste factor of 100%, so calculate 0.42 ft³ X2 = 0.84 ft³. Typical waste factors for rough sawn square edged boards are 50% for walnut and 30% for cherry, and 20% for poplar, ash, beech, etc: sapele generally fits within the ~20% extra category because there tends to be not a great deal of waste.

Accoya, as others have said comes in pre-machined sizes of length, width and thickness so it's essentially just a case of working out what standard width and thickness you can work with and what you can get out of the standard lengths available. Typical standard lengths range from 2.4 m up to 4.8 m long. What's available between 2.4 and 4.8 m length depends upon your supplier. Slainte.

Thanks v much, great info there.

 

[Harry Hare]

An accurate cutting list is key
Talk to the supplier to get an idea of the sizes available including lengths
Break down the item you are making into its component parts, I have used graph paper in the past to visualise how I will lay my planks out
A slightly different example is how i build decking, I have built a large number of decks for many customers over the last 25 years some being repeats customers who have moved house or had a major garden make over
example look at the length of a required joist look at the standard or stock available lengths, it may not be best to but the closest length possiable but may work out better to buy longer so as you can the start to use the offcuts for the nogins or boxing round drain covers etc.
It is also worth looking at the overall dimensions of the finshed item.
On a number of occasions I have saved customers hundreds of pounds by altering the size of the deck slightly, granted it might not work for your gates but just a squeeze or stretch of a dimension can have a big impact of the total amount of timber required

Good Luck

Thanks v much.