To learn more about lumber dimensions for all sizes of boards, posts, beams, etc., see the American Softwood Lumber Standard. In the case of a two-by-four, industry standards require the finished board to be 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches). This reduces the actual lumber dimensions even further, as well as allowing the producer to be certain that the final product has the dimensions required by industry standards.

This is done to ensure that when the lumber is finished and sold its dimensions will be stable, and it won’t shrink significantly (which would change the actual lumber dimensions) after somebody uses it.Īfter being dried, the pieces of lumber are planed, smoothed, and have their corners rounded. This causes the lumber to shrink as it loses its moisture volume, reducing the actual lumber dimensions. Actual Size Online Ruler (inches, cm/mm) measure something on-screen measuring tool in inches/centimeters Calibrate If you want to measure the actual size of a small object in inches or centimeters and you don’t have a real ruler at hand, this virtual on-screen online ruler will help you. The next step in the production process is to either air-dry or kiln-dry the green lumber, in order to reduce the moisture content of the wood. My laptop has a wide screen, size 13.6x7.6 inches, and resolution is 1366x768 pixels, we can calculate this, 1366 divided by 13.6 is 100.44, so the pixels per inch is 100.44 Search 'display by pixel density' online, i am lucky and found my screen has 100 pixels per inch. Well, when a piece of lumber is first cut from the log, the board after that rough cut actually does have the approximate width and depth (the nominal lumber dimensions) by which the piece will be referred to from then on.Īt that point, a two-by-four is, in fact, about two inches by four inches.

Why is a two-by-four called a “two-by-four” if it’s not two inches by four inches? Why is a Two-by-Four Called a Two-by-Four?

3.5 inches actual size