Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) 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 | Loblolly pine |
|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% moisture | 690 lbf (3,069 N) |
| Janka side hardness, green | 450 lbf |
| Hardness rank | harder than 58 of the 168 woods with a 12% hardness value in our database |
| Density at 12% moisture | 35.7 lb/ft³ (571 kg/m³) |
| Weight per board foot (12%) | 2.97 lb |
| Specific gravity (ovendry weight, green volume) | 0.47 |
| Specific gravity at 12% moisture | 0.51 |
| Bending strength (modulus of rupture), 12% | 12,800 psi |
| Stiffness (modulus of elasticity), 12% | 1.79 million psi |
| Crushing strength (compression parallel to grain), 12% | 7,130 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial / tangential / volumetric | 4.8% / 7.4% / 12.3% |
| Tangential / radial shrinkage ratio | 1.54 |
| Dimensional change per 1% moisture (radial / tangential) | 0.00165 / 0.00259 |
| Impact bending (drop height to failure), 12% | 30 in. |
| Heartwood decay resistance | slightly or nonresistant |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loblolly pine Pinus taeda | 690 | 35.7 | 12,800 | 1.79 | 7,130 | 7.4 / 4.8 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Longleaf pine Pinus palustris | 870 | 41.3 | 14,500 | 1.98 | 8,470 | 7.5 / 5.1 | moderately resistant (old growth only); otherwise slightly or nonresistant |
| Shortleaf pine Pinus echinata | 690 | 35.7 | 13,100 | 1.75 | 7,270 | 7.7 / 4.6 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Slash pine Pinus elliottii | — | 41.3 | 16,300 | 1.98 | 8,140 | 7.6 / 5.4 | moderately resistant (old growth only); otherwise slightly or nonresistant |
What it is
Southern Pine is a lumber group, not one tree. The four major species are longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), shortleaf pine (P. echinata), loblolly pine (P. taeda) and slash pine (P. elliottii), grown across the South from eastern Texas to the Atlantic and Florida. Lumber from all four is graded as Southern Pine. The sapwood is yellowish white and usually wide in second-growth stands; the heartwood is reddish brown and begins to form when a tree is about 20 years old.
Working properties
Longleaf and slash pine are heavy, strong, stiff and hard with moderately high shock resistance; shortleaf and loblolly are usually somewhat lighter. All the southern pines have moderately high shrinkage but are dimensionally stable when properly dried. The Handbook notes that making preservative-treated lumber from Southern Pine is a major industry; untreated, the wood is in the slightly or nonresistant decay class.
Weight and density
At 12% moisture content loblolly pine weighs about 35.7 lb per cubic foot, so one board foot (144 cubic inches) weighs about 2.97 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 8.2 lb; an 8 ft piece 1-1/2 × 3-1/2 in. (a 2×4 size) weighs about 10.4 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 loblolly pine they are 0.00259 across a flatsawn face (tangential) and 0.00165 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 × 0.00259 × 6 = 0.113 in. (about 1/8 in.). The same board quartersawn moves 0.072 in. (about 1/16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loblolly pine | 690 | 35.7 | 12,800 | 1.79 | 7.4 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Douglas-fir (Coast) | 710 | 33.6 | 12,400 | 1.95 | 7.6 | moderately resistant |
| Eastern white pine | 380 | 24.5 | 8,600 | 1.24 | 6.1 | moderately resistant (old growth only); otherwise slightly or nonresistant |
| Western hemlock | 540 | 31.5 | 11,300 | 1.63 | 7.8 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Northern red oak | 1,290 | 44.1 | 14,300 | 1.82 | 8.6 | slightly or nonresistant |
| Western larch | 830 | 36.4 | 13,000 | 1.87 | 9.1 | moderately resistant |
Uses
Framing lumber, roof trusses, beams, posts, joists and piles; stringers for factories, warehouses, bridges and docks; plywood and engineered wood; and, treated with preservative, railroad ties, poles, piles and exterior decking.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is southern yellow pine?
Loblolly pine averages 690 lbf on the Janka test at 12% moisture content, about the same as coast Douglas-fir (710 lbf), and longleaf pine 870 lbf.
Is southern pine stronger than Douglas-fir?
Clear longleaf pine is stronger in bending (14,500 psi) than coast Douglas-fir (12,400 psi); loblolly is close to Douglas-fir. Graded lumber has its own design values, which your building code uses.
Can I use these numbers to size joists?
No. These are small clear-specimen averages. Size joists and beams from your local building code or with a licensed professional.
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.