Lumber weight runs roughly 2 to 4 pounds per board foot depending on species and moisture. That spread is wide enough to matter — the same order can be a comfortable load or an overloaded truck.
Species and moisture
Kiln-dried softwood — pine, spruce, fir — is around 2.5 pounds per board foot. Oak and maple run 3.5 to 4.
Moisture is the bigger variable. Green or freshly pressure-treated lumber holds a great deal of water and can be 50 percent heavier than the same piece after a few months of drying.
Length is usually the real limit
Sixteen-foot boards do not ride in a pickup bed regardless of weight. Anything overhanging more than a few feet needs a flag and, in many states, is limited by law.
Two trips or a delivery fee is almost always cheaper than the alternative outcome.
Stack it flat when it arrives
Lumber left leaning against a wall or stacked on uneven ground bows as it dries, and bowed framing lumber is scrap.
Stack flat on stickers with weight on top, out of direct sun, and let it sit a week before using it if you can.
Green, kiln dried, and pressure treated
The same board can weigh very different amounts depending on how it was processed. Kiln dried lumber sits around six to twelve percent moisture content. Green lumber straight off a saw can be over fifty.
Pressure treated is the heavy one. The treatment process forces a waterborne preservative into the wood under pressure, and boards often leave the yard soaking wet — sometimes twice the weight they will settle at after a few months.
That is why a bundle of treated decking is so much harder to handle than the same bundle of dry framing lumber, and why the weight you calculate for a delivery should assume the wet figure.
Why the weight matters beyond the trip home
Weight decides more than whether the tailgate closes. A stack of lumber on an upper floor during construction is a real point load, and a full unit of plywood in the middle of a span is a lot of concentrated weight.
It also decides how the material has to be handled. Beyond a certain weight a board stops being a one-person lift, and long boards are awkward before they are heavy.
And for treated lumber, the weight is water. It will dry, shrink, and change dimension after installation, which is the reason treated decking is installed tight and ends up with gaps.