Firewood cord and price calculator
How many cords are in my woodpile, and what should I charge per cord or per bundle?
Showing for United States
Cords
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- Cubic feet
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- Cubic meters
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- Face cords at this piece length
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- One face cord, as a share of a cord
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Measure a stack that is tight and even, with the pieces parallel and touching. A loose or thrown pile holds less wood in the same space.
This calculator counts a face cord as a stack 4 feet high and 8 feet long, one piece deep. How much wood that is depends on the piece length, so it is shown as a share of a full cord.
NIST Handbook 130, the model law many US states adopt, says firewood is sold by the cord, part of a cord or the cubic meter, and that terms such as "face cord", "rack" and "pile" are not used to sell it. Ask your state's weights and measures office what applies where you sell; in the UK, your local Trading Standards office.
Bundles per cord (or per cubic meter)
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- Price per cord (or per cubic meter)
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- Bundles per cord (or per cubic meter)
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The same handbook says packaged firewood under 16 cubic feet states its quantity in liters, and may add cubic feet.
Prices and charges are rounded up to the cent, so you never charge less than your rate.
NIST Handbook 130, the model law many US states adopt, says firewood is sold by the cord, part of a cord or the cubic meter, and that terms such as "face cord", "rack" and "pile" are not used to sell it. Ask your state's weights and measures office what applies where you sell; in the UK, your local Trading Standards office.
Charge for the job
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- Charge per cord (or per cubic meter)
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- Hours for the job
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- Fuel and wear in the charge
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Enter the job, your hours and your fuel and wear for the same unit: all per cord, or all per cubic meter.
Prices and charges are rounded up to the cent, so you never charge less than your rate.
Enter your numbers to see the result.
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"Use TallyTill: How many cords are in my woodpile, and what should I charge per cord or per bundle?"
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How this is worked out
A cord is 128 cubic feet of wood ranked and well stowed: pieces parallel, touching and stacked tight (NIST Handbook 130, 2026, Method of Sale of Commodities 2.4.1.2, doi.org/10.6028/NIST.HB.130-2026). Cords are the stack's length times its height times its depth, in feet, divided by 128; in meters, the cubic meters divided by 3.624556363776, since a foot is exactly 0.3048 m. This calculator counts a face cord as a stack 4 feet high and 8 feet long, one piece deep, so it is the piece length in inches divided by 48 of a cord, and the face cords in a stack are its cords times 48 divided by the piece length. A bundle's price is the price per cord times the bundle's cubic feet divided by 128, plus any wrap, rounded up to the cent; in meters, the price per cubic meter times the bundle's liters divided by 1,000. A charge to split or stack is the cords times your hours per cord times your rate, plus fuel and wear per cord, rounded up to the cent.
A worked example
Example numbers only; use your own. A stack 8 feet long, 4 feet high and 4 feet deep is 128 cubic feet, which is 1 cord, or 3.625 cubic meters. In pieces of 16 inches, that is 3 face cords, each a third of a cord. At 300 a cord, a 0.75 cubic foot bundle comes to 1.76. A bundle sold at 7.00, less 1.00 for the wrap, comes to 1,024.00 a cord. Splitting 4 cords at 2.5 hours a cord and 30.00 an hour, with 10.00 a cord for fuel and wear, is 340.00.
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