A full cord of seasoned hardwood, delivered, runs roughly $200 to $400 across most of the United States. That range is wide enough to be almost useless on its own, and the reason is worth understanding, because it tells you how to judge your own quote.
Why firewood pricing is stubbornly local
A cord of green hardwood weighs between two and two and a half tons. Freight on two tons of anything is significant, and firewood is cheap per pound, so transport quickly costs more than the product.
The practical result is that firewood does not have a national price the way pellets almost do. It has hundreds of local prices set by how far the nearest yard is from the nearest woodlot, and by what that yard can sell it for.
This is also why we do not publish a firewood price comparison, and why you should distrust any site that does. Cord prices are quoted by phone, per delivery, adjusted for distance and species and what the yard cut that week. There is no price list to compare.
What moves the price
Species. A cord of hickory holds roughly twice the heat of a cord of cottonwood. Sellers price accordingly where buyers know the difference, and do not where they do not. Mixed hardwood is a legitimate product, but assume the cheap end of the mix when you price it.
Seasoning. Green is cheapest. Seasoned, meaning split and stacked for six months or more, carries a premium. Kiln dried carries another 30 to 60 percent on top of seasoned, because the seller paid for the kiln and carried the inventory.
Distance. Most yards quote a free delivery radius, then a per mile rate beyond it. Some publish this and most do not. It is the single most common hidden cost.
Stacking. Dumped in the driveway is standard. Stacked where you want it is usually an add on, and worth paying for if the alternative is moving two tons of wood yourself.
Season. Spring and summer are materially cheaper than midwinter. This is the largest saving available to anyone with somewhere to store wood.
Comparing quotes honestly
The trap is that a cheap quote is often a small quote. Before comparing two numbers, make sure they describe the same thing:
- Is it a full cord? 128 cubic feet stacked. If the answer is a face cord or a rick, get the cut length. See what a face cord is.
- What species? This changes usable heat by up to a factor of two.
- How long since it was split? Seasoned means split and stacked for months. Wood dries from the split face, not through the bark, so felled a year ago and split last week is green wood.
- What does delivery cost to my address? Ask for a total, not a rate.
- Is stacking included?
Then put both quotes through the firewood cost calculator. It converts face cord and half cord prices to a price per full cord and adjusts for species heat content, which is the only way to see which one is genuinely cheaper.
What a fair price looks like
Rather than a national average, which is misleading, here is how to establish the fair price where you are:
- Ring three yards within your likely delivery radius and ask each for a full cord of seasoned mixed hardwood, delivered, to your address.
- Discard any quote that will not specify the species or the cut length.
- The middle of the three is your local going rate.
If one quote is dramatically below the others, that is the one to ask more questions about. It is usually green wood sold as seasoned, a face cord quoted as a cord, or a delivery fee that appears at the end.
The cheapest legitimate route
Buy green, in spring, from a local yard, and stack it properly until winter. You will pay perhaps 30 to 40 percent less than for seasoned wood in October, and by November it will be the same product.
That requires somewhere dry to stack it and the discipline to buy fuel six months before you need it. If you have both, it is by far the biggest saving in this entire market. If you do not, buy seasoned in spring instead, which still beats buying anything in January.