Firewood cord calculator
Enter a stack's length, height and log length. This says how much of a 128 cubic foot cord it is, how many face cords of that log length, and the other way round, how long a stack holds one cord.
The depth of one row
All the same size
Solid wood85 cu ft of wood in a 128 cu ft cord
80–90 is the published range; crooked splits stack looser
That is
0.67cords
16" face cords
2.00
Cubic feet
85.3
Solid wood
57 cu ft
Where the number comes from
- Volume16 ft × 4 ft × 16" deep
- 85.3 cu ft
- Full cords÷ 128 cu ft — 4 × 4 × 8 ft
- 0.67
- One face cord of 16" logs4 ft × 8 ft × 16" — its size is whatever the log length makes it
- 0.33 cord
- Solid wood85 cu ft in every stacked cord; the rest is air and bark
- 57 cu ft
- A full cord of 16" logs, 4 ft highHow long one row has to be
- 24 ft
What the seller's “rick” means
Nothing fixed. A cord is the only legal unit — 128 cubic feet stacked tight, enforced by state weights-and-measures offices — and a face cord is a 4' × 8' face of whatever length the logs are cut. A “rick” usually means a face cord, sometimes something else, and several states bar both words from sales for that reason. Ask how long the logs are and how high and long the stack is, then put those numbers in above.
Worked example: a 16 ft row of 16" logs
A stack 16 ft long and 4 ft high of 16" logs is 85.3 cubic feet: 0.67 of a 128 cubic foot cord, and 2.00 face cords of that log length.
A face cord of 16" wood is 0.33 of a cord, so a full cord at that height is a row 24 ft long. About 57 cubic feet of the stack is solid wood.
- Cubic feet
- 85.3
- Full cords
- 0.67
- 16" face cords
- 2.00
- One cord at this height
- 24 ft of stack
These are the figures the calculator above opens on. Change any field and it works the same problem for your numbers.
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About firewood measures
- How many face cords are in a cord?
- It depends on the log length, because a face cord is a 4' × 8' face one log deep. At 16" logs a face cord is 0.33 of a cord, so three make a cord; at 24" it is 0.50, so two do. A full cord is 4' deep, 128 cubic feet stacked.
- What is a rick of firewood?
- Usually a face cord — a 4' high, 8' long stack of whatever length the seller cuts — but the word has no legal definition, and several states bar both "rick" and "face cord" from sales for exactly that reason. The cord, 128 cubic feet stacked tight, is the only measure a weights-and-measures office will back. Ask how long the logs are and how big the stack is, and work out the cords yourself.
- How long is a stack that holds one cord?
- At 4' high, 24 ft of 16" logs or 16 ft of 24" logs — the cord's 128 cubic feet divided by the face of one row. Stack it higher and the row gets shorter in proportion.
- How much actual wood is in a cord?
- About 80 to 90 of its 128 cubic feet, according to the Maine Forest Service and University of Illinois Extension; the rest is air and bark. Straight, evenly split pieces stack tighter than crooked ones, which is why the calculator lets you change that figure.
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