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Firewood Cord Calculator

Convert a stacked firewood pile's dimensions into cords, the standardized 128-cubic-foot volume unit firewood is sold by.

Stacked volume
128.25 ft³ (3.63 m³)
Full cords (128 ft³ each)
1.002

How it works

A "cord" is a legally standardized firewood volume — exactly 128 cubic feet of racked, well-stacked wood, traditionally pictured as a 4ft × 4ft × 8ft pile but really just any stack whose length × height × depth multiplies out to 128 cubic feet. This calculator simply multiplies your entered stack dimensions to get a volume, then divides by 128 cubic feet to report it in cords.

Metric stack dimensions are converted to feet internally before dividing, since the cord itself is defined in cubic feet — the volume math (length × height × depth) is otherwise identical regardless of unit.

FAQ

Does the shape of the stack matter, only the volume?

Only the total volume matters for the cord measurement itself — a 4ft × 4ft × 8ft stack and, say, a 2ft × 4ft × 16ft stack are both exactly one cord, since both multiply out to 128 cubic feet. What does matter is that the wood is actually racked and stacked tightly (pieces roughly aligned and touching) — a loosely thrown, unstacked pile of the same footprint holds more air gaps and less actual wood than a properly stacked cord of the same outer dimensions.

Why doesn't this calculator also give me 'face cords'?

A face cord (sometimes called a 'rick') is usually defined as a 4ft × 8ft stack that's only as deep as a single piece of firewood is long — but that piece length commonly varies from about 12 to 24 inches depending on the seller and what fits your stove or fireplace, so a face cord isn't a fixed volume the way a full cord is. Rather than assume a specific piece length, this calculator sticks to the standardized full-cord (128 cubic foot) measurement; if you know your own piece length, you can compute a face cord yourself as length × 4ft × piece-length.

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