Face Cord of Wood vs Rick vs Full Cord

Face cord dimensions by piece length

A face cord is the front of a stack: 4 ft high and 8 ft long, one row deep. The University of Wisconsin’s forestry extension describes it as 4 ft high and 8 ft wide with pieces shorter than 4 ft, commonly 16 inches, and also calls it a short cord. The depth is whatever the piece length happens to be, so a face cord has no single volume, and extension guides describe a wide spread. Nebraska puts face cords at about 12 to 18 inches deep and Maryland at 16 to 24 inches. Utah State gives 32 to 48 cubic feet, and Penn State says a face cord can hold a quarter to half the wood of a full cord.

The volume is 32 square feet of face times the piece length in feet. Set against the full cord of 128 cubic feet, the common lengths work out like this:

Worked through for 16-inch wood: 4 ft × 8 ft × 1.333 ft = 42.67 cubic feet, and 42.67 ÷ 128 = one-third of a cord. With 18-inch pieces it’s 4 × 8 × 1.5 = 48 cubic feet, three-eighths of a cord. With 24-inch pieces it’s 4 × 8 × 2 = 64 cubic feet, exactly half.

The calculator above opens on a 16 × 4 ft stack, which is two faces and so two face cords. If you tap a different piece length, the full cords change and the face cords stay at two.

What is a rick of wood?

A rick is a regional name for a stack of firewood, and what it means depends on where you buy. Indiana’s Division of Forestry treats “face cord” and “rick” as one thing: a 4 × 8 ft face cut to the length you want. A University of Minnesota extension bulletin says the rick and the fireplace cord commonly refer to a third of a cord, which matches a face cord of 16-inch wood. Maryland Extension says a rick is any pile of wood.

The same 4 × 8 ft stack goes by other names too. Arkansas Extension mentions the stove cord and the furnace cord, and the University of Wisconsin uses short cord. None of them changes the arithmetic, since every one is a face whose volume depends on the piece length.

A rick has no fixed dimensions. When it means a face cord, it’s 4 ft high by 8 ft long by the piece length. When it means something else, ask the seller for the length, the height and the piece length, then enter them in the Measure a stack tab. The University of Minnesota bulletin gives the reason these words never became legal units: their definitions vary and they are widely misunderstood.

Firewood measurements: cord, face cord and rick

Firewood is measured by the volume of a stacked pile, not by weight or by the number of pieces. The full cord, 128 cubic feet, is the unit NIST Handbook 130 allows sellers to use, along with fractions of a cord. A face cord and a rick are names for a 4 × 8 ft face whose depth is the piece length, commonly 16 inches according to the University of Wisconsin’s forestry extension, so they are measurements only once you know that length.

Of the three, only the full cord has a fixed size. Cord of wood covers the legal definition and how much solid wood a cord holds.

Half cord, quarter cord and the face cord

A half cord is 64 cubic feet and a quarter cord is 32. Both are fractions of the legal cord, so they mean the same amount of wood wherever a state follows NIST Handbook 130.

Two face cords happen to line up with them. A face cord of 24-inch wood holds 64 cubic feet, the same as a half cord, and a face cord of 12-inch wood holds 32 cubic feet, the same as a quarter cord. With the usual 16-inch wood, nothing lines up: a face cord is 42.7 cubic feet, between the two. A half cord of 16-inch wood is one and a half face cords, a row 12 ft long and 4 ft high. A quarter cord of 16-inch wood is three-quarters of a face cord, a row 6 ft long.

If you order a half cord of 16-inch wood and receive one 4 × 8 ft face, you’re 21.3 cubic feet short (64 − 42.7), a third of what you ordered.

How much is a rick of wood?

In our October 2026 survey of firewood sellers, a full cord bought a cord or more at a time had a median price of $415, so a rick of 16-inch wood, a third of a cord, works out to about $138. Small orders cost more per cord: listings under half a cord had a median of $700 per full cord, about $233 for the same rick. The cord of wood price guide has the survey by region and order size.

The fair way to compare firewood prices is per full cord, whatever unit the seller uses. For a face cord or a rick that is one 4 × 8 ft face, the price per full cord is the quoted price × 48 ÷ the piece length in inches. The 48 comes from 128 cubic feet ÷ 32 square feet of face, which is 4 ft or 48 inches: the depth one face would need to hold a full cord.

A worked example without prices: two sellers each quote “a face cord.” Seller A cuts 16-inch wood and Seller B cuts 12-inch wood. A’s face cord holds 42.7 cubic feet and B’s holds 32, three-quarters as much wood (32 ÷ 42.67 = 0.75). B is the cheaper wood per cord only if its price is under 75% of A’s. The Compare prices tab above does this conversion when you enter the quote and the piece length.

If a seller can’t say whether the rick is a single face, measure the stack, find its full cords in the Measure a stack tab, and divide the price by that number. For what firewood is selling for, see how much is a cord of wood.

Why some states don’t allow “face cord” or “rick” on a receipt

NIST Handbook 130, the model regulation states can adopt for selling firewood, says the terms “face cord,” “rack,” “pile,” “truckload” or terms of similar import shall not be used when advertising, offering for sale or selling wood. The National Conference on Weights and Measures explains why in its flyer for buyers: those terms have no legally defined meaning. Connecticut’s consumer protection department reproduces the prohibition word for word.

Handbook 130 doesn’t name “rick,” and states differ on it. The weights and measures office in Hamilton County, Ohio, lists rick with rack, face cord, pile and truckload as prohibited when selling firewood. Minnesota’s Department of Commerce says truckload, face cord, rick, fireplace cord and pile have no legal definition there. Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture goes further and advises buyers not to buy from sellers who use those terms.

Where the old words are still in use, ask the seller to write the quantity on the receipt as a fraction of a cord. One face cord is 1/4 cord with 12-inch wood, 1/3 with 16-inch, 3/8 with 18-inch and 1/2 with 24-inch. A receipt in cords gives you a number you can check with a tape measure. The firewood calculator checks a stack against that number in a few seconds.