Face Cord vs Full Cord of Firewood: What You Are Actually Buying

The legal cord

Firewood is one of the few things homeowners buy by a unit most people have never measured. The cord is that unit. A consumer guide published by weights-and-measures officials through NIST explains that a cord must equal 128 cubic feet, and that the wood should be stacked neatly in a row, pieces touching and parallel, with as few gaps as possible before it is measured. If width times height times length comes to 128 cubic feet, you have a cord.

The classic shape is a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet deep and 8 feet long. Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture gives a second example that works just as well: 2 feet deep, 4 feet high and 16 feet long. Any arrangement that multiplies out to 128 cubic feet of tightly stacked wood counts.

What a face cord usually means

A face cord is a single row of wood with a face 4 feet high and 8 feet long. Its depth is whatever length the pieces were cut to. Because most firewood for fireplaces and stoves is cut somewhere around 16 inches, a face cord of that wood works out to roughly a third of a full cord. Cut the logs shorter and the same face holds even less.

The trouble is that nothing fixes those numbers. The NIST consumer guide says a seller may not legitimately use terms such as truckload, face cord, rack or pile, because they have no legally defined meaning and the buyer has no way of knowing how much wood is arriving. Pennsylvania's guidance tells buyers not to buy from sellers using those terms, and Delaware's Department of Agriculture has stated that selling firewood by truckload, rack, face cord or pile is not permitted under Delaware law.

How the common terms compare

Sellers use a handful of names for the same idea, and some of them are local habits more than measurements. The comparison below assumes neatly stacked wood; a loose pile tossed off a truck takes up more space than the same wood stacked.

Measuring a delivery

Ask the seller to stack the wood, or stack it yourself before you start burning. Build a straight, tight row with the pieces parallel and the ends roughly lined up. Then measure the height, the length of the row and the depth (the length of the pieces). Multiply the three numbers in feet. A full cord comes to 128; a half cord, 64. If the stack has gaps big enough to put your hand through, tighten it before measuring.

The NIST guide and Pennsylvania's guidance both say to measure before using any wood. If the delivery is short, contact the seller first. If that does not resolve it, they direct buyers to their state weights-and-measures office, again before burning any of the wood, because a half-burned pile proves nothing. A photo of the stacked wood with a tape measure in the frame helps.

• Get a receipt with the seller's name, address and phone number, the price, and the amount and kind of wood
• Note the license plate of the delivery vehicle
• Stack tightly and measure height, length and depth in feet
• Photograph the stack if it measures short, and call the seller before burning any

Volume is only half the question

A correct cord of wet wood is still a poor buy for a chimney. Freshly cut wood can hold a large share of its weight in water, and a fire spends its energy boiling that water off. The smoke runs cool and heavy, and that cool smoke is what lays creosote on the flue walls. EPA guidance sets the goal at under 20 percent moisture and recommends seasoning it for at least six months.

Ask when the wood was cut and split, and check a few pieces. Seasoned wood is lighter, has cracked, grayish ends and sounds hollow when two pieces knock together. A meter reading taken on the inside of a newly split piece settles it. Wood that hisses, foams at the ends or smells strongly of sap has more drying to do.

Species matters too, though less than dryness. A cord of dense hardwood such as oak, maple or ash holds more heat than the same stacked volume of a light softwood, because there is simply more wood fiber in the pile. That makes the hardwood cord last longer in the firebox. Both burn cleanly when dry; the softwood cord just goes faster.

Where to stack it

Storage keeps the wood you paid for dry. The EPA advises storing firewood outdoors, off the ground, with only the top covered, because covering the sides traps moisture. A pallet or rails under the stack, a gap between the pile and the house, and a simple top cover do most of the work.

Keep the main supply outside rather than in a basement or attached garage, where it brings insects and moisture indoors. Bring in only what you will burn in a day or two, and keep it at least three feet from the fireplace or stove, as the U.S. Fire Administration recommends for anything that can burn.

Buying local in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania

Moving firewood long distances spreads insects and diseases that kill trees. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation does not allow untreated firewood to be brought into the state, and limits untreated New York firewood to 50 miles from its source unless it carries the state's heat-treated label. The EPA also encourages buying and burning locally cut firewood. Pennsylvania and other neighboring states have their own firewood rules, so if you are bringing wood across a state line, check first.

How much wood the chimney sees

The amount of wood you burn in a season is one of the things a sweep asks about, because it shapes how much buildup to expect. A fireplace that goes through a face cord of dry hardwood over a winter of weekend fires is a very different flue from a stove burning several cords to heat the house. Mention the volume and the type of wood when you book.

If you burn heavily, an inspection before the first fire and a check partway through the season keeps the flue in step with your woodpile. Our crew can sweep, inspect and tell you what the deposits say about the wood you are burning.