Firewood Cord Calculator — Wood Pile Volume to Cords + Cost

Real-world use cases

• Check a firewood delivery against what you paid for

  A truck just dumped a load and the driver said it was a cord. Stack it neatly against the garage at 4 ft high and 8 ft long, measure how deep it goes, and feed the three numbers in. If the depth comes out to 2.5 ft instead of 4 ft, the tool shows you have about 0.6 of a cord, not the full one you were charged for, and you have the number in hand before the truck leaves the street.

• Compare two sellers quoting different pile sizes

  One ad lists 280 for a stacked pile, another lists 240 for a smaller one. Enter each pile's length, width and height plus its price, read the cost per cord for both, and the comparison stops being a guess. The smaller cheaper pile often turns out to cost more per cord once you account for how little wood it actually holds.

• Plan a woodshed or tarp before the wood arrives

  You ordered two cords for the winter and need to know where it will go. Switch to cords mode, type 2, and the tool returns 256 cubic feet. That is a stack 4 ft high, 8 ft long and 8 ft deep, so you can mark out the footprint in the shed and buy a tarp the right size rather than discovering the pile spills into the walkway.

• Price your own firewood to sell by the cord

  You split a winter's worth and want to sell the surplus. Measure the stack, see how many cords it holds, then set a price per cord and read the total back from the asking-price field. Sharing the link lets a buyer open the exact pile dimensions and the cord count, which heads off the usual argument about whether a load was really a cord.

Common pitfalls

• Buying a face cord while picturing a full cord. The front face is identical 4 ft × 8 ft, but a face cord is only one log deep, so you get about a third of the wood. Always confirm the depth, not just the height and length.

• Measuring loose tossed wood as if it were stacked. A heaped pile holds far more air, so roughly 180 cubic feet of loose throw settles into 128 cubic feet stacked. Stack it neatly first, or you will overestimate how many cords you have.

• Comparing sellers on total price instead of price per cord. A cheaper pile can hold less wood and cost more per cord. Convert every quote to a cost per cord before deciding which load is the better deal.

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