Anonymous wrote:Linear feet by definition does not take into account the width or height. Just the length.
If your rail is 12 feet long then it is 12 linear feet.
Nothing else would be taken into account.
If you are trying to make sure you have enough rail to go from point A to point B, then you would need AB linear feet. You would not care if the rail was 2 feet wide or 6 inches thick, you just need a certain length.
If he is trying to cover the area of a deck (and not just buying a rail), of course the width is important. Let's take the oversimplified example of a deck which is 2 feet white by 10 feet long. He would need 10 linear feet of 2 foot wide board. He would need 20 linear feet (i.e., 2 10 foot lengths) of 1 foot wide board. He would need 40 linear feet (4 10 foot lengths) of 6" wide board, and so on. The square footage (20 feet) has not changed, but the linear footage varies depending on the width of the material.