Ask A Scientist© Environmental Science Archive

Author:      night owl
How many trees it takes to build an average home (say 1500 square foot)?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      mortis
That is a good question, and a hard one to answer, because "it depends."  A 
house made of straw or bricks uses no trees, of course.  Assuming you mean a 
typical "stick-built" wooden frame house of 1500 square foot, with one story 
and a basement, I figure it would take roughly 10,000 board-feet of lumber 
(just a rough guess, I did not look it up but if you really want to know, an 
architect would be the best person to ask).  I also figure that 10,000 board
feet could be obtained from two trees that are 51 inches across and 76 feet 
long, or 24 trees that are 17" across and 35' long, or 100 trees that are 8.5" 
wide and 20' long.  It would take about 110 years to grow two of the large 
trees, 34 years to grow 24 of the mid-sized trees, and 17 years to grow 100 of 
the small trees.  Again, please do not quote me because these are just 
guesses:  you could confirm my information with builders and foresters if you 
like.  (Metric conversions are left as an exercise for the reader).