A face cord is a stack of firewood 4 feet high and 8 feet long. That is the whole definition. Nothing in the term says how deep the stack is, and the depth is what determines how much wood you get.
A full cord is fixed: 128 cubic feet, stacked 4 feet high, 4 feet deep and 8 feet long. A face cord shares the height and the length but leaves the depth open, which means it can be anywhere from a quarter of a cord to a half, depending on how long the pieces were cut.
The number that changes everything
The depth of a face cord is the cut length of the pieces. Here is what that does to the volume:
| Cut length | Stacked volume | Fraction of a full cord |
|---|---|---|
| 12 in | 32.0 cu ft | 0.25 |
| 14 in | 37.3 cu ft | 0.29 |
| 16 in | 42.7 cu ft | 0.33 |
| 18 in | 48.0 cu ft | 0.38 |
| 20 in | 53.3 cu ft | 0.42 |
| 24 in | 64.0 cu ft | 0.50 |
Sixteen inches is the most common cut in the United States, because it suits most stove fireboxes and it divides a full cord neatly into three. That convention is why people casually say a face cord is a third of a cord. It often is. It is not by definition.
The practical consequence: two sellers can both advertise a face cord at $150, and one of them is charging you 33 percent more per unit of wood. A 12 inch face cord at $150 works out to $600 per full cord. A 16 inch face cord at the same price is $450 per cord. Same advertisement, same price, materially different deal.
Why sellers use the term at all
Partly convenience, partly convention, and partly because a face cord is a realistic quantity for a household with a fireplace. Not everyone wants two and a half tons of wood in the driveway.
But it also suits a seller for a quote to be hard to compare. A buyer ringing round three yards for a full cord price gets three numbers that sit side by side. A buyer collecting face cord quotes gets three numbers that cannot be compared without asking a follow up question most people do not know to ask.
That question is: what length are the pieces cut to?
What to do instead
Ask for a price per full cord, even if you intend to buy less. It gives you a number you can compare across suppliers and against the local going rate. Then buy the fraction you want.
If a seller will only quote in face cords or ricks, get the cut length and convert it yourself. The maths is simple: multiply 4 by 8 by the cut length in feet, then divide by 128. A 16 inch cut is 1.33 feet, so 4 by 8 by 1.33 gives 42.7 cubic feet, which over 128 is a third of a cord.
Or use the cord of wood calculator, which does the conversion and also tells you what price per full cord you are actually paying.
Other terms you will meet
Rick. Same thing as a face cord, more common in the Midwest and South. Same ambiguity.
Stove cord or furnace cord. Also a face cord, sometimes implying a shorter cut suited to a small firebox.
Truckload. Not a unit of measurement in any sense. A half ton pickup bed holds well under half a cord. If someone quotes you a truckload, ask for the bed dimensions and the stack height, then work out the cubic feet yourself.
Bush cord or standard cord. Both mean a full cord, 128 cubic feet. The extra word is there to distinguish it from a face cord.
Measuring what arrives
Measure after stacking, never from the pile in the driveway. Loose wood occupies roughly one and a half times the space of the same wood stacked, so a heap that looks generous can stack down to considerably less than you ordered.
Stack it tightly with the pieces parallel and the ends roughly aligned. Measure the height and the length of the face in feet, and the depth, which is the cut length. Multiply the three and divide by 128.
Some variation is normal, because stacking tightness genuinely differs. A few percent is not worth a phone call. Twenty percent short is not a stacking difference, and it is worth raising with the seller before you burn any of it.
If you were shorted
Most states regulate firewood sales through their weights and measures office, the same body that checks petrol pumps and supermarket scales. Many require firewood to be sold by the cord or a stated fraction of one, with an itemised receipt showing the quantity.
Keep the receipt, photograph the stack with a tape measure in the frame, and raise it with the seller first. Yards that intend to stay in business generally sort it out. If not, the state agriculture department or weights and measures office is where a complaint goes.