Timber prices can look arbitrary because the visible board is only the final part of the calculation. Before it reaches a customer, somebody has bought or grown the raw material, sawn it, dried it, graded it, stored it, moved it, selected it and perhaps machined it. Some of those costs are inside the timber rate. Others appear as separate lines.
There is no single trade formula that every sawmill, importer and merchant applies. A mill selling full packs, a merchant breaking packs into single boards and a workshop machining a cutting list are providing different products. They can begin with the same timber and arrive at different honest prices.
This guide follows the calculation from specification to final amount. 7. Buying Timber by the Linear Metre, Square Metre and Cubic Metre explains the units themselves. 10. How to Compare Timber Quotes Properly explains how to put competing offers onto one basis, while 11. Why Two Pieces of Oak Can Cost Very Different Amounts looks closely at grade, yield and selection within one species group.
1. The short answer
A timber seller normally has to establish five things:
- What product is being supplied? Species, grade, condition, size, finish and any treatment or certification.
- How much is chargeable? Pieces, full lengths, linear metres, square metres, cubic metres, board feet, sheets or packs.
- Which work is included? Drying, selection, machining, cutting, treatment, packing and other services.
- What does fulfilment cost? Stockholding, handling, delivery, offloading and the business costs needed to provide the order.
- Which tax basis applies? Net price, VAT and the gross amount payable.
In compact form:
Material and processing + order services + delivery + business margin + VAT = amount payable.
That is an explanation, not a universal merchant formula. One supplier may combine several elements into a rate per metre. Another may show material, machining and delivery separately. A third may sell only complete boards or packs.
The calculation begins with the exact thing being sold, not with an average price for “timber”.
2. There is no meaningful timber price without a specification
“How much is timber?” is like asking how much metal costs. The material family is too broad to produce one useful number.
A rate belongs to a specification:
| Part of the specification | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|
| Species or product | Supply, performance, source and market differ |
| Grade | Changes permitted features and recoverable yield |
| Moisture condition | Drying adds time, energy, shrinkage and risk |
| Supplied size | Changes volume and whether the dimension is readily available |
| Length mix | Changes yield, pack use and stock selection |
| Finish | Rough, square edged and planed products contain different work |
| Treatment or modification | Adds a controlled industrial process |
| Certification claim | Requires qualifying material and paperwork through the supply chain |
| Quantity | Changes pack-breaking, handling and purchasing efficiency |
| Delivery | Depends on length, weight, distance, access and offloading |
Two prices cannot be compared merely because both descriptions contain oak, treated timber or 4 × 2. First make the product descriptions agree.
5. How to Specify Timber for a Quote gives the full enquiry fields. The price calculation can only be as precise as the specification it is answering.
3. The starting point is the seller’s timber cost
A merchant does not begin with the forest price and add a standard shop percentage. The immediate starting point is usually what it costs that business to obtain the saleable stock it carries.
Depending on the business, that may be:
- standing timber bought for harvesting;
- roadside logs bought by a sawmill;
- green boards bought for drying;
- kiln-dried sawn packs from a domestic mill;
- imported packs priced in another currency;
- finished sections bought from a manufacturer;
- panels, profiles or engineered products bought from a distributor.
Each point in that chain includes work and risk from the previous stage. A roadside sawlog price is therefore not a retail board price. Forest Research’s official timber indices measure particular upstream sales, such as coniferous timber standing and softwood sawlogs sold at roadside. They are useful market indicators, but they do not include conversion into boards, drying, grading, merchant handling, delivery or VAT.
An upstream price index can explain movement in one input. It cannot tell a customer what one finished board should cost.
4. The stock rate can follow replacement cost as well as historic cost
Suppose a merchant bought a pack six months ago. The invoice for that pack is a historical fact, but the merchant may need to replace every board sold from it at today’s price.
That creates two legitimate reference points:
- historic cost — what the stock actually cost when it arrived;
- replacement cost — what equivalent stock is expected to cost now.
Pricing only from an old invoice during a rising market can leave too little money to refill the rack. Pricing only from a peak replacement quote during a falling market may make old stock uncompetitive. Businesses make different decisions according to stock age, turnover, contracts, cash flow and the market in front of them.
This is one reason a price does not always fall on the same day an index falls. The yard may still hold expensive stock, its next shipment may not yet have landed, or the index may measure a different point in the chain.
The reverse can happen too: a merchant may keep a rate steady for a while even when the next replacement is dearer.
5. First calculate the chargeable quantity
Once the product is defined, the seller applies a rate to a measured quantity. Common bases include:
| Sale basis | The quantity normally charged |
|---|---|
| Per piece | Number of complete pieces at stated dimensions |
| Per linear metre | Total supplied length at a fixed section |
| Per square metre | Board-face area, installed coverage or declared pack coverage |
| Per cubic metre or cubic foot | Measured volume under the seller’s tally rules |
| Per board foot | The hardwood volume convention used in North American trade |
| Per sheet | Number of complete sheets |
| Per pack | The declared bundle or production pack |
For a rectangular board measured in metric units:
Volume in m³ = thickness in mm × width in mm × length in m ÷ 1,000,000.
The material charge is then broadly:
Chargeable quantity × applicable rate = material line value.
The important word is chargeable. It may be the requested quantity, the actual tally, the complete stock lengths needed, a minimum order or a full pack. 7. Buying Timber by the Linear Metre, Square Metre and Cubic Metre covers the arithmetic and conversions in detail.
6. The tally rules decide which quantity reaches the invoice
Natural boards do not all arrive in identical dimensions. A mixed hardwood parcel may therefore be tallied board by board, while a fixed planed section can simply be totalled by length.
A tally can differ according to:
- whether dimensions are recorded before or after drying;
- whether thickness is nominal sawn or finished;
- how widths and lengths are rounded;
- whether wane is included in the measured width;
- whether the invoice uses an estimated pack volume or a dispatch measurement;
- whether permitted over-supply is charged;
- whether whole boards must be bought.
American hardwood practice distinguishes net tally after kiln drying from gross or green tally before drying. AHEC notes that a buyer receiving kiln-dried lumber sold on a gross or green tally basis can expect less physical board-foot volume after drying because the timber has shrunk. That convention should not be copied onto an unrelated UK order; it shows why the measurement basis belongs on the quote.
Ask: Which dimensions and tally rules produced this quantity?
7. Recovery turns raw volume into saleable volume
A log’s full volume does not become prime rectangular boards. Bark, slabwood, saw kerfs, edging, defects, shrinkage and trimming all reduce the amount that reaches a particular product line.
The resulting recovery affects price. If a mill must process a larger raw volume to obtain one cubic metre of a tightly specified product, the cost of that finished cubic metre carries the material that did not qualify for it.
That remainder is not always waste. It may become:
- a lower grade;
- shorter or narrower stock;
- pallet, fencing or packaging material;
- chips for panel manufacture;
- pulp or animal bedding;
- woodfuel;
- genuinely unusable residue.
The value of those co-products matters to the mill’s economics. Even so, a long, wide, clear, accurately dimensioned product normally has a narrower recovery path than a mixed industrial grade.
At merchant level the same principle appears when boards are selected from a pack. If only a small proportion meets the customer’s special dimensions or colour requirement, that selected offer cannot be priced as though every board qualified.
8. Grade changes how much useful timber the buyer can recover
Grade affects price because it changes the promised features or clear yield, not because a higher name magically improves every fibre.
A furniture maker needing long clear components may obtain better economic yield from a higher grade even at a higher cubic rate. A project made from short pieces may cut efficiently from a lower grade and pay less for the same clear timber once the defects are removed.
The seller’s rate must also reflect how the stock was purchased and sorted. A pack bought as one commercial grade, a colour-sorted pack and a handful of individually selected boards are different offers.
11. Why Two Pieces of Oak Can Cost Very Different Amounts explains this relationship in detail. For the price calculation, the important point is:
Volume determines how much wood is charged; grade and dimensions help determine how much of that wood is useful for the job.
9. Unusual dimensions create a scarcity or production cost
For ordinary stock sizes, a merchant can buy packs, store common sections and spread handling over many customers. An unusual dimension may require a different route:
- selecting rare wide or long boards;
- buying a thicker, dearer starting size;
- ordering a full production run;
- resawing and machining oversize stock;
- accepting a larger minimum quantity;
- leaving slow-moving remainder stock;
- arranging special transport for long pieces.
A large section contains more volume, but volume alone may not explain the whole premium. Thick hardwood can be less available and harder to dry. Extra-long pieces reduce transport options. A narrow finished moulding may contain little timber yet require cutters, setup and careful handling.
This is why dividing a bespoke component’s price by its final cubic volume can produce an alarming rate. The customer is buying a scarce dimension and a manufacturing service, not an abstract cube.
10. Drying adds cost before any machining begins
Timber below fibre saturation shrinks as it dries. The seller therefore carries both the drying process and the loss or downgrade that can occur during it.
Drying costs can include:
- stacking and stickering;
- covered yard or kiln space;
- time and money tied up in stock;
- energy and plant operation;
- monitoring and moisture checks;
- conditioning or equalising;
- shrinkage in thickness and width;
- boards lost or downgraded through checking, distortion, staining or internal defects.
Air drying and kiln drying have different costs and results, and neither guarantees one universal moisture percentage. The target belongs to the species, section and intended use.
A green structural section, an air-dried decorative beam and kiln-dried furniture board are separate products. The visible dimensions may be similar while the time and risk already invested are not.
11. Machining is priced as material loss plus workshop work
Planing a rough board does two things: it removes timber and uses machinery, labour and consumables.
A machining calculation may need to cover:
- choosing starting stock large enough to clean up;
- straight-line ripping or edging;
- flattening and thicknessing;
- planing the edges;
- profiling, moulding or grooving;
- tool setup and test pieces;
- cutters, sharpening and replacement;
- extraction, energy and maintenance;
- inspection, bundling and labelling;
- the risk that a rough defect appears during machining.
The charge may be included in the finished linear-metre rate, shown as a separate machining line, or priced as setup plus a run rate.
Setup matters on a small order. Producing one metre and producing one hundred metres may require the same cutter installation, fence setting and trial piece. The setup cost is spread thinly across the large run and heavily across the small one.
A finished-section rate contains the timber that was removed as well as the timber that remains.
12. Treatment, modification and finishing add distinct processes
Preservative treatment is not one generic dip. The required penetration and loading depend on the timber, use class and intended service. The Wood Protection Association distinguishes, for example, timber used inside, outside above ground and in ground contact.
A treated price can include:
- transport to and from a treatment plant;
- drying or conditioning required before treatment;
- plant setup and treatment cycle;
- preservative or modification process;
- quality control and documentation;
- redrying or storage after treatment;
- minimum batch quantities;
- handling of cut ends or later machining requirements.
Thermal modification, acetylation, fire-retardant treatment, factory coatings and specialist finishing each have their own process and evidence. They should not be reduced to one treated surcharge.
If performance matters, specify the required product and use rather than choosing the cheapest item whose colour suggests treatment.
13. Selection and pack breaking are chargeable services
A full pack is efficient to handle because it can move as one unit. A small selected order may require the same pack to be opened, moved, checked, restacked and returned to storage.
Selection can include:
- finding minimum lengths or widths;
- choosing a specified face quality;
- matching colour or grain;
- excluding sapwood or particular features;
- optimising boards against a cutting list;
- photographing exact boards for approval;
- reserving the chosen pieces while the customer decides.
The cost may appear as a selection charge, a higher selected rate, a minimum order or a whole-board requirement. It may also be absorbed into a retailer’s per-board price.
There is no contradiction between a low full-pack rate and a higher one-board rate. The products include different handling and leave different stock behind.
The next guide, When Buying a Full Pack of Timber Makes Sense, will deal with that decision directly.
14. Storage, finance and handling sit behind the visible rack
Stock has a carrying cost even while it does not move.
A timber business needs space, racks, forklifts or handling equipment, stock systems, insurance and people able to identify and move the material safely. Money paid for a slow-drying or slow-selling pack is unavailable for something else until the stock is sold.
Timber also changes in storage. It can be damaged, stained, distorted or left behind as odd lengths and widths. Good storage reduces those losses but does not make the work free.
These costs are rarely itemised on a customer quote. They form part of the rate or margin because they are part of making the stock available at all.
Online retail can add photography, individual measurements, website operation, picking and protective packaging. A traditional yard may instead carry counter staff, saw service and local delivery vehicles. Different service models create different cost structures.
15. Delivery is calculated from the load and the destination
Delivery is not reliably predicted by the timber value. A low-value order of 5.4 m lengths can require a larger vehicle than a high-value parcel of short hardwood components.
A delivery calculation may reflect:
- distance and route;
- vehicle size;
- weight and length;
- driver and loading time;
- fuel and vehicle operation;
- timed or restricted access;
- mechanical offloading;
- failed-delivery risk;
- protective packing;
- whether the vehicle can combine several local orders.
A merchant may use a fixed delivery zone, a mileage band, a carrier tariff or an individually planned vehicle rate. Free delivery usually means the cost has been absorbed elsewhere or a threshold has been met; the vehicle is not free to operate.
For a consumer-facing price, current UK price-transparency guidance requires unavoidable charges to be made clear and normally included in the total where they can be calculated. On a bespoke timber quote, confirm the actual delivered amount rather than relying on a headline material rate.
16. Margin is not the same thing as pure profit
After direct material and order costs, a business still has to cover its operation and the risk of trading.
The margin contributes to costs such as:
- staff and employer costs;
- premises, rates and utilities;
- machinery, vehicles and maintenance;
- insurance and professional services;
- card, banking and software charges;
- bad debts, mistakes and replacements;
- waste and unsaleable remnants;
- compliance and certification;
- the return needed for the business to remain viable.
Net profit is what remains after all relevant expenses, not the difference between the supplier’s pack rate and the customer’s board rate.
Nor is every price produced by applying one fixed percentage. Market competition, stock age, availability, volume commitments and the services included all matter. A high percentage on a tiny low-value order may barely cover the transaction; a lower percentage on a large pack can produce a viable return because handling is efficient.
A merchant’s margin pays for the route between a wholesale pack and a usable customer order.
17. Quantity breaks and minimum charges reflect efficiency
Larger orders can earn a lower unit rate when they reduce cost per unit. The seller may be able to:
- buy or release a full pack;
- machine one continuous run;
- make one set of paperwork;
- load one vehicle;
- avoid awkward remainder stock;
- plan labour and production more efficiently.
A smaller order can have a minimum material, machining, delivery or invoice charge because some work occurs once regardless of quantity.
Do not assume every large order deserves a discount. A large order with tight selection, many individual sizes, phased deliveries or complex packaging may require more handling than a simple pack sale.
Ask which change would genuinely lower cost. It might be accepting stock lengths, relaxing colour matching, combining sections into one machining run or taking a complete pack. Arbitrary haggling does not reveal the calculation; changing a costly requirement does.
18. Imported timber adds currency, freight and timing exposure
Imported timber may be bought in euros, dollars or another currency. The sterling cost can therefore change even if the overseas supplier’s price does not.
The Bank of England’s explanation is straightforward: when sterling strengthens, imports generally become cheaper; when it weakens, they generally become dearer. The effect on a particular pack depends on when currency was bought, the seller’s contracts, freight, stock already held and replacement timing.
Imported cost can also include:
- inland transport at origin;
- port handling and documentation;
- sea or road freight;
- insurance;
- customs and compliance work;
- UK port and onward haulage;
- finance tied up while stock is in transit.
ONS maintains an import price index specifically for sawn and planed wood. Its movement shows that imported wood prices change over time, but an index is not a merchant price list and does not distinguish every species, grade, dimension and service.
This is why a quote normally has a validity period. The supplier is fixing a price against a particular stock position and purchasing environment, not promising that the same cost will exist indefinitely.
19. VAT changes the amount payable, not the timber underneath
Timber rates in trade-facing lists are often shown net of VAT. Consumer-facing prices are normally shown including applicable VAT. A mixed trade-and-public supplier may display both.
The calculation is:
Gross price = net selling price + VAT.
At the current standard UK VAT rate of 20%, a net subtotal of £500 becomes:
- VAT: £100;
- gross amount payable: £600.
VAT is collected by a VAT-registered business and passed through the tax system. It is not an extra margin earned by the merchant.
Delivery and other services also need the correct VAT treatment. For an ordinary buyer, the safe comparison is the complete gross amount actually payable. A VAT-registered business may compare net figures for accounting purposes, but it must still compare the same included services.
20. A worked price build-up
The following example is invented to show the structure. It is not a current timber rate or a quotation from Hawksbury Timber.
A customer needs twenty-four kiln-dried hardwood rails, each supplied at 38 × 90 × 2.4 m, planed all round. The supplier must begin with larger rough stock, select enough sound lengths, machine the rails, bundle them and deliver them locally.
The finished order contains 57.6 linear metres. Its finished volume is:
0.038 m × 0.090 m × 57.6 m = 0.197 m³.
The supplier does not buy exactly 0.197 m³ of perfect finished rails. In this hypothetical example it allocates 0.288 m³ of rough starting stock to allow for the larger sawn section, machining and selection.
| Price component | Hypothetical amount |
|---|---|
| Rough kiln-dried stock: 0.288 m³ at £1,200/m³ | £345.60 |
| Selection and pack handling | £30.00 |
| Planing setup and machining | £72.00 |
| Bundling and protection | £18.00 |
| Local delivery | £95.00 |
| Net subtotal | £560.60 |
| VAT at 20% | £112.12 |
| Gross amount payable | £672.72 |
The gross equivalent is about £11.68 per supplied linear metre, but that rate only describes this complete invented order. Removing delivery, changing the species, accepting rough stock, ordering a longer run or requiring tighter selection would change it.
The finished volume is smaller than the chargeable starting volume because the quote includes the timber removed or rejected to make the specified rails. That is not double charging. It is the material route required to deliver the finished section.
21. Questions to ask about a timber price
- What exact product does the rate describe?
- Are the dimensions nominal, sawn or finished?
- Which grade and moisture condition are included?
- What is the sale unit?
- Will I be charged for requested quantity, full lengths, actual tally or a complete pack?
- Which tally or rounding convention is being used?
- What starting size is required to produce the finished section?
- Is selection included, and against which acceptance rule?
- Is machining included, and to what tolerance?
- Are treatment, certification and documentation included?
- Is there a setup, minimum-order or pack-breaking charge?
- Are packing and delivery included?
- Does delivery include offloading?
- Is the figure net or inclusive of VAT?
- How long is the price valid?
22. Quick reference
| Price movement | Likely question to check |
|---|---|
| More material | Did thickness, width, length or quantity increase? |
| Higher unit rate | Did species, grade, drying or scarcity change? |
| More chargeable volume than finished volume | Is oversize stock needed for machining and yield? |
| Separate machining line | Does it include setup as well as run time? |
| Selection premium | How tight is the minimum length, width, colour or feature rule? |
| Small-order surcharge | Which one-off handling cost is being recovered? |
| Full-pack discount | Does the pack avoid selection and remainder stock? |
| Delivery difference | Are the vehicle, length, weight, distance and offload comparable? |
| Price changed since last month | Did replacement cost, currency, freight or availability move? |
| Net price looks cheaper | What is the gross amount including VAT and unavoidable charges? |
Calculation order: specification → chargeable quantity → material rate → recovery and processing → order handling → delivery → net subtotal → VAT → amount payable.
Where these numbers come from
The worked order in section 20 is entirely hypothetical. The stock rate, charges and delivery figure were chosen to make the calculation transparent; they are not current market prices and should not be used to estimate a real order.
Forest Research’s Timber Price Indices cover coniferous standing sales and softwood sawlogs sold through the public forestry bodies in Great Britain. This guide uses them only to distinguish an upstream market indicator from a finished retail price.
The Office for National Statistics series for imported sawn and planed wood is likewise an index, not a price list. It supports the narrower point that the sterling price of imported wood products changes over time. The Bank of England source explains the direction in which exchange rates affect imports.
The explanation of American hardwood tallying follows AHEC’s measurement guidance, including board-foot measurement and the distinction between net and gross or green tally. Those rules are identified as a specific trade convention, not a universal method for all UK timber.
The treatment discussion follows Wood Protection Association guidance that treatment specification depends on species, use class and desired service. The VAT and consumer-price sections follow current GOV.UK and Competition and Markets Authority guidance.
Technical references
- Forest Research: Timber Price Indices
- Office for National Statistics: import price index for sawn and planed wood
- Bank of England: who sets exchange rates?
- American Hardwood Export Council: hardwood measurement
- Wood Protection Association: preservative treatments
- Competition and Markets Authority: clear and accurate pricing
- GOV.UK: current VAT rates
- GOV.UK: where VAT appears in prices
Related
- Timber Buying Guides
- 3. How to Order Timber When You Don’t Know the Correct Size
- 4. How Much Timber Do I Need
- 5. How to Specify Timber for a Quote
- 7. Buying Timber by the Linear Metre, Square Metre and Cubic Metre
- 8. How Timber Lengths Are Sold
- 9. Random Length Timber Explained
- 10. How to Compare Timber Quotes Properly
- 11. Why Two Pieces of Oak Can Cost Very Different Amounts