A face cord carries no legal definition; a cord does. Enter your quote to see what it is really worth in cords.
Two sellers, two units, two species. Price per cord is not enough — oak carries nearly twice the heat of white pine. This compares dollars per MMBtu (one million British Thermal Units — a fixed unit of heat, not a brand or a volume).
Going the other way is where buyers lose money. A face cord is 42.7 ft³ — you need 3 of them before you have the 128 ft³ a cord requires. Because the depth is whatever the saw decided, a face cord is the one unit here whose volume you cannot know from the name alone.
You are almost certainly here holding a face cord quote and trying to work out whether it is fair. The conversion is the easy part — the useful step is turning both numbers into a price per cord, because that is the only figure a second seller can be honestly compared against.
Three face cords at $110 each is $330 for 128 ft³ — 1 cord, so $330 per cord. Quoted against a $300 cord, the face cord deal is the worse one.
Common log lengths against a 4 ft × 8 ft face. Your pair is highlighted.
| Sold as | Stack | Cubic feet | Cords | Defined by law |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cord | 4 × 8 × 48″ | 128 | 1.000 | Yes |
| Bush cord | 4 × 8 × 48″ | 128 | 1.000 | Yes |
| Stove cord, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Face cord, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Rick, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Face cord, 12″ cut | 4 × 8 × 12″ | 32 | 0.250 | No |
| Cubic feet (1) | Any | 1 | 0.00781 | n/a |
There are 3 face cords in a full cord, at the standard 16 in cut. A face cord is 42.7 ft³ — one third of a cord's fixed 128 ft³ — so three of them make up one full cord exactly.
A face cord of wood is a stack 4 ft high and 8 ft long, with a depth equal to whatever length the logs were cut to — commonly 16 in. Unlike the full cord, "face cord" has no legal definition, so the actual volume depends entirely on that cut length.
In most states, no. Weights-and-measures law is written around the cord; a receipt naming only a face cord gives an inspector no defined quantity to test against. Ask for the cord-equivalent, or the cut length, written on the receipt.
It means a deeper cut, usually 18 to 20 in rather than 16. That is a genuine 12 to 25 percent more wood, so the claim can be honest — but only if the number is stated. "Big" on its own is not a measurement.
Because that is the unit a price comparison — and a dispute — has to be settled in. The cord is the only firewood measure most states will enforce. NIST Handbook 130, which nearly every state weights-and-measures office adopts, fixes it at 128 cubic feet of ranked and well-stowed wood.