2x6 Real Size and Actual Dimensions

Every nominal width from 2 to 7 inches dries and dresses to 1/2 inch under its name, and 6 is no exception: 5-1/2 inches across. The 2x6 is the widest of the four 2x pages here to keep that rule; at 8 inches the loss grows.

Its end grain covers 8.25 square inches where the name promises 12, 31% short.

One foot of 2x6 tallies exactly 1 board foot, which makes it the easy size to count: a 12 ft 2x6 is 12 board feet.

A dry 2x6 shows the same 5-1/2 inch face as a 5/4x6 deck board. The standard dresses nominal 1-1/4 inch stock to 1 inch thick, so the deck board is half an inch thinner and just as wide.

As a joist, a 2x6 falls below one deck maker's floor. Wolf's Perspective guide asks for joists of 2 by 8 inches or larger, so check the 2x8 actual size before framing for those boards. Spans are set by your local code, which this page does not cover.

A slab thicker than 3-1/2 and up to 5-1/2 inches takes 2x6 form boards, since the real width must cover the pour; the concrete slab calculator picks the board by that rule. A cedar rail or a bed edging board of this size has the same cross-section.

Lumber lists tally the nominal name: the board foot calculator counts a 2x6 as 6/12 foot wide, and the dimensional lumber sizes table puts it beside every other size.

Master Halco sells rough-sawn western red cedar 2x6 rails in 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24 ft lengths, reaching 24 ft, longer than any other rail we recorded from that book.

The cedar association lists a dressed 2x6 rail at 1-9/16 by 5-1/2 inches. The thickness is the standard's green figure and the width its dry one, and the association names no moisture, so we print its numbers as given and flag the mismatch.