White oak (Quercus alba) in numbers: hardness, weight, strength, shrinkage, movement and decay resistance, taken from the tables of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory’s Wood Handbook, followed by what the wood is like to work and what it is used for. The values are averages from small, clear, straight-grained test specimens; real boards with knots, sloping grain or a different moisture content will differ.
| Property | White oak |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 1,360 lbf (6,050 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 1,060 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 117 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 47.5 lb/ft³ (762 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 3.96 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.6 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.68 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 15,200 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.78 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 7,440 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 5.6% / 10.5% / 16.3% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 1.88 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.0018 / 0.00365 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 37 in. |
| Heartwood decay resistance | resistant |
The species in this group
Lumber is often sold under a group name. These are the species the Wood Handbook reports for this group, with the same properties side by side.
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Density (lb/ft³) | Bending (psi) | Stiffness (Mpsi) | Crushing (psi) | Shrink T/R (%) | Decay resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White oak Quercus alba | 1,360 | 47.5 | 15,200 | 1.78 | 7,440 | 10.5 / 5.6 | resistant |
| Bur oak Quercus macrocarpa | 1,370 | 44.7 | 10,300 | 1.03 | 6,060 | 8.8 / 4.4 | resistant |
| Swamp white oak Quercus bicolor | 1,620 | 50.3 | 17,700 | 2.05 | 8,600 | — | resistant |
| Chestnut oak Quercus prinus | 1,130 | 46.1 | 13,300 | 1.59 | 6,830 | 10.8 / 5.3 | resistant |
| Post oak Quercus stellata | 1,360 | 46.8 | 13,200 | 1.51 | 6,600 | 9.8 / 5.4 | resistant |
What it is
White oak is not one tree but a group. The lumber sold as white oak comes mainly from white oak itself (Quercus alba) together with chestnut, post, overcup, swamp chestnut, bur, chinkapin and swamp white oak, and on the West Coast Oregon white oak. Most of it is cut in the South, the South Atlantic and Central States, including the southern Appalachians. The sapwood is nearly white and only 1 to 2 in. wide; the heartwood is grayish brown.
What sets white oak apart from red oak is inside the pores. In white oak heartwood they are usually plugged with tyloses, so liquids cannot run through the wood. That is why white oak, not red, is the wood for tight barrels, and why its heartwood is in the resistant class for decay in the Handbook’s durability table, while red oak heartwood is not.
Working properties
White oak is somewhat heavier than red oak and has high shrinkage across the grain, so it needs to be dried slowly and given room to move. Quartersawing shows its broad rays as the familiar flake figure, and quartersawn boards move roughly half as much in width as flatsawn ones (compare the radial and tangential coefficients in the table).
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content white oak weighs about 47.5 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 3.96 lb. An 8 ft board of actual size 3/4 × 5-1/2 in. (a 1×6) holds 0.229 cubic feet and weighs about 10.9 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 13.9 lb. Green wood is much heavier because of the water it holds.
Density here is ovendry weight plus 12% water, divided by volume at 12% moisture content (Wood Handbook Eq. 4-12: density = specific gravity at 12% × 62.43 lb/ft³ × 1.12).
Wood movement
The Wood Handbook gives dimensional change coefficients for each species: the fraction of its width a board gains or loses for every 1% change in moisture content, between about 6% and 14%. For white oak they are 0.00365 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.0018 across a quartersawn face (radial).
Worked example: a flatsawn board 7-1/4 in. wide (a nominal 1×8) that goes from 6% moisture content in a heated winter house to 12% in a humid summer changes width by 7.25 × 0.00365 × 6 = 0.159 in. (about 5/32 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.078 in. (about 3/32 in.). Allow for this in panels, tabletops and floors; the wood movement calculator works it out for any size and moisture range.
How it compares
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Density (lb/ft³) | Bending (psi) | Stiffness (Mpsi) | Tangential shrink (%) | Decay resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White oak | 1,360 | 47.5 | 15,200 | 1.78 | 10.5 | resistant |
| Northern red oak | 1,290 | 44.1 | 14,300 | 1.82 | 8.6 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Sugar maple | 1,450 | 44.1 | 15,800 | 1.83 | 9.9 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Black walnut | 1,010 | 38.5 | 14,600 | 1.68 | 7.8 | resistant |
| Shagbark hickory | 1,880 | 50.3 | 20,200 | 2.16 | 10.5 | slightly or nonresistant |
| White ash | 1,320 | 42.0 | 15,000 | 1.74 | 7.8 | slightly or nonresistant |
Uses
Furniture, flooring, cabinets, doors and millwork; tight cooperage for wine and spirits; boat planking and steam-bent ship parts, where the decay-resistant heartwood is specified; truck and railcar floors, pallets, crossties and fence posts.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is white oak on the Janka scale?
The Wood Handbook gives a side hardness of 1,360 lbf (6,050 N) for white oak at 12% moisture content and 1,060 lbf when green.
Is white oak harder than red oak?
Only slightly. White oak averages 1,360 lbf and northern red oak 1,290 lbf, but white oak is heavier (47.5 vs 44.1 lb/ft³) and its heartwood resists decay, which red oak heartwood does not.
Is white oak good for outdoor use?
Its heartwood is classed as resistant to decay, so it lasts well above ground. The sapwood is not durable, and for ground contact the Handbook notes that even resistant species may need preservative treatment.
How much does white oak weigh?
About 47.5 lb per cubic foot at 12% moisture content, or 3.96 lb per board foot.
Sources
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 22 October 2026. Numbers are generated from our parsed copy of the Handbook tables, so every page uses the same data. Values marked * are estimates computed with the Handbook’s own equations. Spotted an error? Please let us know.