What a cord actually is
A cordis a unit of stacked volume, not weight and not a count of logs. The standard, legally defined full cord is a stack measuring 4 ft high, 4 ft deep, and 8 ft long — 4 × 4 × 8 = 128 cubic feet — with the wood reasonably well-stacked so there isn't excessive air space between pieces.
It's not just a folk measurement, either. Most US states regulate firewood sales by the cord under weights-and-measures law, which is exactly why the 128 cubic foot definition matters: it gives buyers and sellers a fixed, checkable standard instead of a vague "truckload" or "pile." If a delivery doesn't stack out to 128 cubic feet, it isn't a full cord, whatever the invoice calls it.
Face cord vs. full cord vs. rick
A face cordshares the same 4 ft × 8 ft face as a full cord, but it's only as deep as one log is long, instead of the full 4 ft (48 in). At the common 16-inch log length, that works out to:
4 × 8 × (16 ÷ 12) = 42.7 cubic feet
Since a full cord is 128 cubic feet, 42.7 cubic feet is almost exactly one-third of a cord (42.7 × 3 = 128). But that one-third fraction only holds at a 16-inch log length — split your logs at 12 in, 18 in, or 24 in instead, and a face cord becomes a different fraction of a full cord, because its depth changed while the "full cord" depth (48 in) stayed the same.
A rickis a looser, regional word that usually means the same thing as a face cord — but it has no fixed legal definition anywhere, so its size depends entirely on who's selling it. The safest habit: never buy by the name alone. Ask for the stack's length, height, and log length (depth), then calculate the cubic feet yourself.
Worked example
A common stack size for one row of split firewood: 8 ft long, 4 ft high, with 16-inch logs.
8 × 4 × (16 ÷ 12) = 42.7 cubic feet
42.7 ÷ 128 = 0.33 full cords
That single row is also exactly 1 face cord, since it matches the 4 ft × 8 ft × 16 in reference size. Add a second identical row alongside it (two rows instead of one) and you'd double everything — about 85.3 cubic feet, or two-thirds of a full cord.
Buying tips
- Ask for dimensions, not names."Cord," "face cord," and "rick" get used loosely and inconsistently. The length, height, and depth (or log length) of the stack are the only numbers that actually tell you the volume.
- Stacked and loose volumes aren't the same. Wood dumped or thrown into a pile has a lot of air between the pieces. A loosely thrown load needs roughly 180 cubic feet to contain the same amount of wood as a properly stacked 128 cubic foot cord — about 40% more space for the identical quantity of firewood.
- Measure after stacking, not before. If wood is delivered loose, stack it neatly yourself and measure the resulting length, height, and depth before deciding whether you got what you paid for.