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Firewood Cord Value Calculator

Measure your stacked wood, enter what you paid, and see whether the load was really a good deal.

How it is calculated

Measure the stack you received: length, height and depth in feet, where depth is the log length. One full cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood, so cords = length × height × depth / 128. The tool then gives price per cord = price / cords and, using the heat value you enter in million BTU (MMBtu) per cord for your wood species, total heat = cords × MMBtu per cord and cost per MMBtu = price / total heat. The heat value is not looked up by species, so take it from a table for your wood and its dryness. Measure the stack as it stands, not the truck bed, and keep delivery charges in the price. A price of 0 is accepted and gives zero cost.

Worked example

You get a stack 8 ft long, 4 ft high and 2 ft deep (2 ft logs) for $150, and your wood is rated at 24 MMBtu per cord. Volume = 8 × 4 × 2 = 64 cubic feet. Cords = 64 / 128 = 0.50. Price per cord = 150 / 0.50 = $300.00. Total heat = 0.50 × 24 = 12.00 MMBtu. Cost per MMBtu = 150 / 12 = $12.50, which you can compare with other fuels or other sellers.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Treating a face cord or rick as a full cord: depth is the log length, so 16-inch logs give a stack only about a third of a full cord when it is 4 by 8 feet.
  • Measuring a loosely thrown truckload instead of a tight stack: only a neatly stacked pile measures its real volume.
  • Entering the heat value in BTU instead of million BTU per cord: 24,000,000 would make the heat 1,000,000 times too large.
  • Comparing prices per cord between species: a cheaper cord of soft wood often costs more per unit of heat.
  • Using the heat figure of well-seasoned wood for green wood, which loses much of its heat drying out.

About this calculator

A standard (full) cord of firewood is a stack measuring 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet, equal to 128 cubic feet of stacked wood — including the air gaps between logs, not 128 cubic feet of solid wood. Firewood sellers frequently deliver a “face cord,” “rick,” or loosely stacked truckload that is only a fraction of a full cord, so calculating the actual stacked volume from measured dimensions and dividing the price paid by that volume reveals the true price per cord, which is the only number that lets you compare offers from different sellers on an apples-to-apples basis.

Buyers run this calculation because firewood pricing terminology is notoriously inconsistent from one seller and one region to another, and because different wood species carry very different heat values (measured in BTU per cord) — dense hardwoods like oak or hickory deliver roughly twice the heat output of a cord of soft woods like pine — so a “cheap” load of low-density wood can actually cost more per unit of heat than a pricier load of dense hardwood.

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