How to Buy Firewood Without Getting Ripped Off
Most firewood complaints are not about bad wood. They are about short wood — loads that were called a cord and stacked out to two-thirds of one. A cord is a measurement, not a vehicle, and once you know the numbers, nobody can short you again.
A cord is 128 cubic feet — nothing else
A full cord is a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet deep, and 8 feet long: 128 cubic feet of stacked wood, bark and air gaps included. Every other name you will hear is smaller:
• Face cord — one row 4 feet high and 8 feet long, as deep as the pieces are long. With 16-inch pieces that is 1/3 of a cord. It is a legitimate unit if the seller says face cord. It is a rip-off when he calls it a cord.
• Rick — in much of the South, a rick means the same stack as a face cord: 4 feet high, 8 feet long, one row deep. But it is not true everywhere, and the depth still depends on how long the pieces are cut, so a rick is only a known quantity once the seller gives you his dimensions. Rack, tier, pile, and load have no standard size at all. If a seller quotes any of these, ask him to convert it to cords or cubic feet before you talk price.
• Loose or thrown cord — wood tossed loose takes up about 180 cubic feet to stack out to one cord. A loose load always looks bigger than it is.
What common delivery vehicles actually hold
Here is the part that settles most arguments. Measure any box: length × width × height in inches, divided by 1,728, gives cubic feet. Divide cubic feet by 128 and you have cords. Applied to the vehicles sellers actually show up in:
Vehicle / container | Box volume | What it really holds |
Toyota Tacoma (5 ft bed), level with the rails | ≈ 38 cu ft | About 1/4 cord stacked. A heaped load is still under 1/3 cord. |
Full-size short bed pickup (6-1/2 ft bed), level | ≈ 59 cu ft | A bit under 1/2 cord stacked. |
Long bed pickup (8 ft bed), level | ≈ 72 cu ft | About 1/2 cord stacked. This is the honest version of the classic 'pickup load.' |
Single-axle 4x6 trailer, 1 ft sides, level | 24 cu ft | About 1/5 cord stacked; roughly 1/4 cord heaped loose. |
6x10 dump trailer, 2 ft sides, level | 120 cu ft | Looks like a cord — and the box does measure just under 128 cu ft. But dump loads are thrown loose, so stacked out it is about 2/3 cord. |
7x14 dump trailer, 3 ft sides, level | 294 cu ft | About 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cords loose-loaded. Two honest cords in this trailer means heaped or side boards added. |
1-ton dump truck (10 ft body), level loose load | ≈ 160-190 cu ft | About 1 to 1-1/4 cords once stacked. |
1/3-cord firewood cage (IBC tote), stacked in the cage | ≈ 43 cu ft | Exactly 1/3 cord — what you see is what you get, because it was measured stacked, not thrown. |
The takeaway: no pickup bed on the road holds a full cord. If someone offers you 'a cord' delivered in a Tacoma, you are buying about a quarter of one. A real cord needs a dump trailer or dump truck — or three pickup loads.
Stack it and measure before the balance changes hands
Loose wood hides shortage. Stacked wood cannot. The fair routine: the seller dumps the load, you stack it (or it comes already stacked in cages), measure the stack, and do the math together. Length × height × depth in inches ÷ 1,728 = cubic feet; ÷ 128 = cords. A stack 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 16 inches deep is 42.7 cubic feet — 1/3 cord, not a cord. If the load stacks 10-15% light, that is settling and air gaps. If it stacks 30% light, that is a short load.
'Seasoned' is a moisture number, not a story
Seasoned firewood is 20% moisture or less. Everything else about the word is marketing. Wood that was 'cut last year' but left in a pile of rounds can still be 35% in the middle. Check it yourself:
• Buy a pin-style moisture meter (about $20) and test a fresh split face — split a piece and measure the newly exposed surface, not the weathered end.
• Green wood is heavy for its size, feels cool, and hisses or bubbles at the ends in the fire. Properly seasoned wood is noticeably lighter and sounds hollow when two pieces are knocked together.
• Green wood is fine to buy — in spring, at a green discount, when you have the summer to dry it. It is a rip-off at seasoned prices in October.
A cord is not a cord: species changes the heat
You are buying heat, and heat per cord varies by almost 2 to 1 across species. White oak runs about 29.1 million BTU per cord and red oak about 24.6, while common softwoods run 15 to 18. A 'cheap cord' of mixed softwood can cost more per unit of heat than a fairly priced cord of oak. Ask what species are in the load and in roughly what proportion — a real seller can answer that question.
Red flags
• The unit is a 'load' or 'truckload,' or a 'rick' quoted with no dimensions, and the seller will not convert it to cords.
• Wood delivered loose in a pickup bed and called a cord.
• Seasoned claims with no moisture number, and no willingness to let you meter it.
• Price far below every other seller in the area — the shortage is usually where the discount came from.
• Log-length loads sold by estimated cords with no scale ticket or agreed conversion.
The five questions that protect you
1. Is that a full cord — 128 cubic feet stacked — or a face cord? 2. What length are the pieces? 3. What species, and roughly what mix? 4. What is the moisture content, and can I check it at delivery? 5. If it stacks short, how do you make it right? A straight seller answers all five without blinking. We put our answers in writing on every load: full cords measured stacked, seasoned to under 20% moisture, mostly oak, cut up to 18 inches long. Premium Firewood Supply LLC — (336) 486-0313 — premiumfirewoodsupplyllc.com
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