Dimensions of a Chord of Wood

There are a lot of people who love to buy firewood in order to fuel their fireplaces or wood burning stove. The old of doing this was to chop your own firewood and lay them up to store. This will take a lot of time and effort thus people today tend to buy firewood instead. However, you should at least understand how firewood is measured for trade. Hence comes the need to learn about the dimensions of a cord of wood.

Measuring the Volume of Wood

When you go to different places asking for firewood that you can buy, you’ll hear various terms used to describe how much firewood they have on sale. You’ll definitely hear about ranks, ricks, pickup loads, face cords, piles, and various fractions of a cord of wood. Non-standard measurements make determining how much wood you’re going to buy a bit difficult and confusing.

Like any consumer looking various forms of merchandise to purchase, all you ever wanted is to get the fair market value of the thing you want to buy. This is also the case if you want to purchase firewood. Everybody basically just wants to get their money’s worth. In order to protect consumers, some territories and states have regulated the sale of firewood. Part of the said regulations is setting the standard measure of dry volume for firewood. These regulations specify the dimensions of a cord of wood.

Dimensions of a Cord of Wood

In the United States and Canada, the dimensions of a cord of wood is used as the standard unit of measure. It is used to determine the volume of both pulpwood and firewood. Do take note that some states in the US regulate the sale of firewood while others do not. If you are in a state where the sale is regulated then you should remember that the dimensions of a cord of wood would basically amount to 128 cubic feet.

The dimensions of a cord of wood will basically be 4′ x 4′ x 8′. But sometimes you’ll find some guy selling cords of wood with different dimensions. There won’t be much of a problem with this as long as the volume of the said dimensions will add up to 128 cubic feet.

Purchasing Tips

Here are a few tips when buying cords of wood. Take note that certain factors affect the amount of energy you can get per cord of wood you purchase. Wood that isn’t cut and split will occupy more air space than firewood that has been split and stacked in tight bundles.

Avoid purchasing firewood that is not sold in cords or even fractions of cords. Cords are the legal measure by which to sell firewood. Always insist that the firewood you are buying should be cut and split to burning length. It should be uniformly stacked when you come over to pick it up.