A cord is a volume, and it is 128 cubic feet
Not a weight, not a truckload, not a pile. A full cord is a stack four feet high, eight feet long and four feet deep — 4 x 8 x 4, which is 128 cubic feet of wood and the air between the pieces, stacked so the pieces touch and lie roughly parallel. That definition is old, it is written into law in most US states as the legal unit of sale for firewood, and it is the only firewood measurement that means the same thing to every seller.
To measure any stack, multiply length by height by depth in feet and divide by 128. A stack 8 feet long, 4 feet high, one row deep in 16 inch pieces is 8 x 4 x 1.333, which is 42.67 cubic feet, or 0.333 of a cord — one third. That is the arithmetic behind the most common firewood dispute there is.
Face cords, ricks, and other words for a third
A face cord is 4 feet high by 8 feet long — the same face as a full cord — but only one piece deep. Its volume therefore depends entirely on the piece length, which is exactly why the term is slippery. The fraction of a full cord works out to the piece length in inches divided by 48.
| Piece length | Face cord volume | Fraction of a full cord |
|---|---|---|
| 12 in | 32 cu ft | 0.25 — a quarter |
| 14 in | 37.3 cu ft | 0.29 |
| 16 in | 42.7 cu ft | 0.333 — a third |
| 18 in | 48 cu ft | 0.375 |
| 20 in | 53.3 cu ft | 0.417 |
| 24 in | 64 cu ft | 0.5 — a half |
"Rick" is used interchangeably with face cord in much of the country and has no fixed meaning at all. So when a price is quoted per face cord or per rick, the only question that turns it into a comparable number is: how long are the pieces? Two sellers at the same price per rick can differ by a factor of two. Ask, and then measure what turns up, because a 16 inch quote delivered as 14 inch wood is an eight percent shortfall nobody will mention.
Heat value: the species table matters less than you think
Published BTU tables rank species by density, because a cord of dense wood contains more wood substance and less air than a cord of light wood. The ranking is real. The bands below are for wood seasoned to roughly 20 percent moisture content.
| Class | Examples | Million BTU per cord |
|---|---|---|
| Top tier | Shagbark hickory, black locust, white oak, osage orange | 26-30 and up |
| Upper | Red oak, sugar maple, beech, yellow birch, white ash | 22-26 |
| Middle | Red maple, cherry, elm, white birch, tamarack | 18-22 |
| Lower | Pine, spruce, fir, hemlock, aspen, basswood, cottonwood | 12-18 |
Now the part the table hides. Every pound of water in the wood has to be evaporated before the wood burns, and that evaporation is paid for out of the fire. Freshly cut hardwood can be half water by weight. Burn it and a substantial fraction of its energy goes up the chimney as steam, the firebox runs cool, and the unburned volatiles condense in the flue as creosote — which is a chimney fire waiting for a hot night. Seasoned softwood beats green hardwood on every measure that matters, including safety. Split it, stack it up off the ground where wind can get through it, cover the top and leave the sides open, and give hardwood at least a year. If you want certainty, a moisture meter on a freshly split face costs very little.
What a stack does not tell you
Two stacks of identical dimensions can hold noticeably different amounts of wood. Large split pieces stack tightly with little void; small, gnarly, knotty or round pieces leave more air. Loose "thrown" measurements — wood tipped into a truck bed rather than stacked — occupy roughly a third more space than the same wood stacked, which is where a great many honest misunderstandings begin and a few dishonest ones hide.
Stack the delivery before you decide whether you were short-changed, because a tipped pile genuinely does look like more than it is. And measure the average height, not the peak: stacks settle, and the ends are usually cribbed higher than the middle.
Questions people ask
How many cubic feet in a cord of wood?
128, stacked. That comes from the defining dimensions of 4 feet high by 8 feet long by 4 feet deep. The volume includes the air gaps between pieces, which is unavoidable in a volume measure and is one reason the actual wood content of a cord varies — typically somewhere around 70 to 90 cubic feet of solid wood in those 128, depending on how the pieces stack. That variation is normal and is not what people are usually being short-changed by; short-changing happens on the outside dimensions of the stack.
Is a face cord the same as a cord?
No, and the difference is usually a factor of three. A face cord is 4 feet high and 8 feet long — the same face as a full cord — but only one piece deep, so its volume depends on the piece length. With the common 16 inch stove length a face cord is 42.7 cubic feet, which is one third of a full cord. With 24 inch pieces it is half. The fraction is simply the piece length in inches divided by 48. "Rick" generally means the same thing as face cord and is equally undefined without a piece length. If someone quotes a price per face cord or per rick, ask the piece length before you compare it with anything.
Will a cord of wood fit in a pickup truck?
Not in one trip in any normal pickup. A full-size 8 foot bed holds roughly 1.5 to 2 cubic yards level with the rails, which is around 40 to 55 cubic feet — under half a cord — and a cord of hardwood weighs somewhere in the region of two tons, well beyond a half-ton truck. Three trips in a full-size truck, or four or more in a short bed or compact, is the realistic figure. When a seller says "a truckload", that is not a unit; measure the stack afterwards.
What is the best firewood to burn?
Dry firewood. Species matters — dense hardwoods like hickory, oak and black locust hold roughly twice the energy per cord that pine or aspen does, so you handle half as much wood for the same heat — but moisture matters more. Green wood spends its own energy evaporating water, burns cool, produces far less usable heat than the species table suggests, and deposits creosote in the flue. Well seasoned pine outperforms green oak comfortably. Buy a year ahead if you can, split it, stack it off the ground with the top covered and the sides open to the wind, and check it with a moisture meter on a freshly split face if you want to be sure.
How do I know if I got a full cord?
Stack it and measure it. Length times height times depth in feet, divided by 128. Stack it before you measure, because a tipped pile takes up about a third more space than the same wood stacked and looks convincingly larger. Take the average height rather than the tallest point, and check the piece length with a tape — pieces two inches shorter than quoted cost you over ten percent of the volume in a one-row stack. In most US states firewood must be sold by the cord or a stated fraction of one, and a seller who will not give you a defined volume is telling you something.