What's a cord nowadays?

[grizz55chev]

From us, roughly 1 7/8" by 2 7/8"

Dimensional lumber should be approximately 3 5/8x 1 5/8, or close. Is your lumber dry or green?

 

[krc2019]

@krc2019 where are you at in Minnesota? I’m south of International Falls.

I'll be up in your neck of the woods in a few weeks. I go up to the Orr/Buyck area every October and spend a few days grouse hunting up there. I almost never see anybody else in the woods up there, but I tend to go during the week when most folks are working.

I live a few hours south. Most of the trees on my property are oak and maple.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I’ve heard anywhere between 160-180

And it's a best guess too.

I've hauled several loads of loose wood to my house and have had it vary almost .25 cord when I was trying to be nuts on to 1.5 cords. All depends on how it falls in the truck.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Dimensional lumber should be approximately 3 5/8x 1 5/8, or close. Is your lumber dry or green?

Both.

 

[al-k]

2"x 4" is the dimension when rough cut and after they plane it you have around 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 pt is a bit bigger because of moisture.

 

[svk]

The only time I ever actually measured was in my old short box truck. 61 CF tossed, 68 cf stacked.

At that ratio it would be 143 cf to a tossed cord.

 

[chucker]

160 cubic feet of -16", 170 cf of 18"+, and 180 cf for 20"+ cut, split and loosely thrown in for delivery... longer blocks are all boiler wood unsplit which is another story!

 

[sevensandeights]

Here's my 6'x12'-1"x29" (175 cu. ft.) trailer loaded with the stacked equivalent of 130 cu. ft. of 18" lengths. I massaged the pile a bit to make sure all the corners were full in the trailer.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Krc I am sorry that you are disappointed with your recent wood transaction, but for sure you have to claim at least some of your own disappointment. You are a veteran wood user so you know many of the short falls of the local businesses. I do agree that you do not have very many fire wood suppliers to choose from. At any one time we have a hundred. One thing that most around here do is pile a loose bunch of wood into a pickup and head for the customer. The customer hands them cash and away they go off to next victim. Often a pickup load is stated as a half cord or a trailer load as 2 cords. That is how guys with pickups can get excess of a $1000 a cord. It takes for most part a pile two and a half times what the stacked amount is. For you you could ask folks at your church who that they might recommend. Why did you not use the person that you bought from the last few years. If you have researched the best you could then you have done all you could do to get the best value. I have never heard of the Department of Weights and Measures ever get involved with an selling process of wood products in fifty years. We are in California the most regulated place in the world I think. We can go to jail for selling unseasoned damp wood, but not for short changing a customer. The regulation does exist, but it is some thing that never gets looked into. Every one here does what they can to purposely short change customers in every way possible. Loose stacking, mixing in off size wood, criss crossing wood to take up space and so on. I stack my wood in what ever way I am going to deliver and insist the the customer evaluates load before unloading. When I start unloading if there are any complaints I stop immediately. I try to cover all problems over the phone before I set off for customer. You could get involved with your procurement process maybe getting a trailer to haul it over to your house. You could go to the supplier to check out what will be delivered to you. There are other ways to be better protected against problems as you describe. Thanks

 

[turnkey4099]

A cord is defined as 128 cubic ft, 4x4x8=128, 3rows ,8’ long , 4’ high.

And that is whether it is split to firewood size of 'in the round'. If I am buying I want it 'in the round as it will be over a cord after split/stack. so I get a bit more volume wise.

Reality though is that the difference between round, and split isn't enough to really matter

That excerpt of the reg is wierd "sawn wood"

 

[capetrees]

KRC I am glad you are not my customer. When I encounter any problem with a customer I smile at them and say wood will be loaded up immediately for removal. After trucks or trailers are loaded I again smile please do not call me again. Or you could say I do not take complaints well. If I beleive that there are any issues with the initial phone call I let customer know that we will not have any agreement. What does all this mean? When you call some one on CL you know that they are not likely pros. I am sure you have a phone book that lists people who have been in business for many years. If you tell them that you want a full measured seasoned cord you will get it. They in turn will tell what the cost will be likely twice as much as some one from CL will quote you. So who is right? If you shop around you will make the best decision that will give you the best value. Seeing that you made a post in September likely means that your transaction occurred recently. Your concluded transaction for wood should be completed in April or May. When customers call now I know they are much more desperate than earlier in the year. Last winter wood sold for in excess of $1200 a cord here as a result of a long cold winter. If you called asking for 16'' wood that means paying an extra $100 a cord. Yes my biggest seller is good seasoned Oak. My normal size is 18'' with some times 24''. Cutting selling and delivering wood for wood stoves or fireplaces is not very lucrative so after 50 years I know that I am not going to give my effort for free. The competitors throw a pile into their pickup and deliver away. It is rare that any one sells a full cord regardless of price. Maybe 1/2 cord for a cord. Now and then a customer calls telling me that they tried the rest and never got any where near a cord of junk. I am glad you are here welcome. I am looking at at reality from a vendors point of view. You are responsible for getting the best value possible from your hard earned money. Thanks

$1200/cord???

 

[thumbilly]

Oh boy people get wound up by firewood. I'm not a professional seller. Do it just to supplement some income. I sell pretty much just boiler wood. To much drama with the guys that ironically just burn wood in a little wood stove because they like to. I sell strictly by the load not by the cord. I bring the load. They know the price for the load. I tell them the approximate cordage take it or leave it. If a potential customer brings up a moisture test or exact cut length I recommend they buy elsewhere. That's not the market I'm after. Maybe I'm not a pro seller but I have alot of happy repeat buyers. I always throw an extra bit after I think the truck is full. I rather give away half a facecord than not sell them any more wood.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[krc2019]

Back when I was buying my wood, I always measured before they unloaded. If it was loosely thrown, I sent them away. If it was a stacked load, the tape measure and calculator came out. When they brought .85 cord, I offered them .85 x $/cord. If they complained, I patiently explained that they had set the price, I was just determining how much they had brought. All this was done before unloading. In California a cord is 128 cu/ft stacked. The only legal units of sale are cords, fractions of cord and cu ft. Face cords, ricks, pick-up loads and other undefined units are not allowed.

When I buy wood I usually buy 10 cords at a time and that lasts me for a few years. The guys selling firewood in my area show up with a truck and a regular trailer (not a dump trailer) loaded to the gills. The wood is stacked in the back of the truck and in the trailer (surplus military trailers are popular here). They call it a cord and I can quickly calculate that, yes, in fact that is a cord. Oak is usually $100-$150 per cord cut/split/delivered. They do a lot of work by hand, so they can't produce too many cords per year, so it's hit and miss if you can buy from them.

This is the first time I've bought wood from someone with a much larger operation and he's about an hour away. He buys logs, has a firewood processor, heavy equipment, dump trailers, etc. I might catch some heck for this, but I wonder if the guys that have all the big equipment and never actually touch any wood really know how much they are selling. Load the logs with a machine, cut/split them with a machine into a trailer and dump deliver them. Very efficient, albeit capital intensive. I can't eyeball a dump trailer load of random firewood and tell how much volume it is. The big load make it harder too.

In the past I've also hired local guys to cut up trees on my property. I tell them the area they can cut and let them pick out 50 trees of a minimum size. They fell, limb, and block the trees and I take care of splitting the wood and getting it back to the house. Two guys can process 50 trees in a couple days. I pay them $10 per tree and there are no disputes. They process 50 trees they get $500.

I was just at the local hardware store tonight, and a guy has a new sign out advertising cords of oak cut/split/delivered and stacked for $125 per cord. I'll give him a call tomorrow and hope I have some better luck.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

$1200/cord???

Absolutely $1200 a cord. There were guys driving all over the place renting Uhauls to buy wood then driving it up the mountain. This guy sold at least five pickup loads going for between $300 and $500. How much is in the pickup not stacked. Some suckers paid even more I am sure. Thanks

 

[krc2019]

Krc I am sorry that you are disappointed with your recent wood transaction, but for sure you have to claim at least some of your own disappointment. You are a veteran wood user so you know many of the short falls of the local businesses. I do agree that you do not have very many fire wood suppliers to choose from. At any one time we have a hundred. One thing that most around here do is pile a loose bunch of wood into a pickup and head for the customer. The customer hands them cash and away they go off to next victim. Often a pickup load is stated as a half cord or a trailer load as 2 cords. That is how guys with pickups can get excess of a $1000 a cord. It takes for most part a pile two and a half times what the stacked amount is. For you you could ask folks at your church who that they might recommend. Why did you not use the person that you bought from the last few years. If you have researched the best you could then you have done all you could do to get the best value. I have never heard of the Department of Weights and Measures ever get involved with an selling process of wood products in fifty years. We are in California the most regulated place in the world I think. We can go to jail for selling unseasoned damp wood, but not for short changing a customer. The regulation does exist, but it is some thing that never gets looked into. Every one here does what they can to purposely short change customers in every way possible. Loose stacking, mixing in off size wood, criss crossing wood to take up space and so on. I stack my wood in what ever way I am going to deliver and insist the the customer evaluates load before unloading. When I start unloading if there are any complaints I stop immediately. I try to cover all problems over the phone before I set off for customer. You could get involved with your procurement process maybe getting a trailer to haul it over to your house. You could go to the supplier to check out what will be delivered to you. There are other ways to be better protected against problems as you describe. Thanks

Lot of good stuff in there I can't disagree with. I live in a relatively poor socioeconomic area that is sparsely populated. A big turnout for an election at my township (townships are 36 square miles) is 44 voters. A lot of the land in the area is owned by people from Minneapolis/St. Paul and is used as recreational/hunting land. Most the guys I've bought firewood from are doing it by hand. It's usually a dad and his teenage boys. They have a chainsaw but still split with axes. The wood is "free" off their property, so their costs are low. Their annual output is also low, so it makes finding wood more difficult. The turnover is pretty high too. Three people I've bought wood from have passed away over the years. The younger guys tend to do it for a short period until they find something that pays better. I can't blame them.

I expanded my search because I'm feeling the pressure to get wood drying so it's ready by 2021. As I've gotten older I have less time available to put up firewood, and I'm slower doing it. Perhaps I should have been more patient. I still believe I received less than 2.5 cords.

 

[NSMaple1]

I was just at the local hardware store tonight, and a guy has a new sign out advertising cords of oak cut/split/delivered and stacked for $125 per cord. I'll give him a call tomorrow and hope I have some better luck.

$125/cord?? And stacked? That can't be a full cord. If it was me, just the stacking of a cord alone would factor in at least $25, very minimum. I think about the least you could expect to pay around here is $175/cord, and that is buying by a 3 cord dump truck load that just gets dumped where you tell them to dump it.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Lot of good stuff in there I can't disagree with. I live in a relatively poor socioeconomic area that is sparsely populated. A big turnout for an election at my township (townships are 36 square miles) is 44 voters. A lot of the land in the area is owned by people from Minneapolis/St. Paul and is used as recreational/hunting land. Most the guys I've bought firewood from are doing it by hand. It's usually a dad and his teenage boys. They have a chainsaw but still split with axes. The wood is "free" off their property, so their costs are low. Their annual output is also low, so it makes finding wood more difficult. The turnover is pretty high too. Three people I've bought wood from have passed away over the years. The younger guys tend to do it for a short period until they find something that pays better. I can't blame them.

I expanded my search because I'm feeling the pressure to get wood drying so it's ready by 2021. As I've gotten older I have less time available to put up firewood, and I'm slower doing it. Perhaps I should have been more patient. I still believe I received less than 2.5 cords.

I live about one and a half hours East of Los Angeles and about one and a half hours West of Palm Springs. About ten million people near by. I do like my mountain community living with only about twenty full timers living in a few blocks in every direction. I charge between $20 to $40 for every half hour of stacking. With a helper I often do not make any money on that endeavor. One time I charged $800 for stacking which really wore me out, customer gladly paid it. One thing that might work for you is going to your supplier and investigating what they do with their log ends which might be inexpensive. Also investigate a time when your supplier would be willing to give you the best value. On a normal basis I get at least $450 a cord of Oak cut 18'' with special small cuts bringing in about $600 a cord. That is not a piled cord, but a stacked cord. There was a time when I only stacked a full measured cord for every delivery. Not any more with pretty all suppliers selling creative amounts of wood. Pallet loads, pick up loads and so on just no where near a cord. Several companies sell 24'' wood with 12'' stuff tucked into the mix which short changes customer at least 25%. As time moves on pretty much no one knows what a cord is or how to measure. At 67 I am definitely not able to produce what I did twenty years ago. Thanks

 

[JeffHK454]

I live about one and a half hours East of Los Angeles and about one and a half hours West of Palm Springs. About ten million people near by. I do like my mountain community living with only about twenty full timers living in a few blocks in every direction. I charge between $20 to $40 for every half hour of stacking. With a helper I often do not make any money on that endeavor. One time I charged $800 for stacking which really wore me out, customer gladly paid it. One thing that might work for you is going to your supplier and investigating what they do with their log ends which might be inexpensive. Also investigate a time when your supplier would be willing to give you the best value. On a normal basis I get at least $450 a cord of Oak cut 18'' with special small cuts bringing in about $600 a cord. That is not a piled cord, but a stacked cord. There was a time when I only stacked a full measured cord for every delivery. Not any more with pretty all suppliers selling creative amounts of wood. Pallet loads, pick up loads and so on just no where near a cord. Several companies sell 24'' wood with 12'' stuff tucked into the mix which short changes customer at least 25%. As time moves on pretty much no one knows what a cord is or how to measure. At 67 I am definitely not able to produce what I did twenty years ago. Thanks

I can’t even understand how there’s a market for firewood where your describing...my buddy lives in Riverside and his house doesn’t even have a furnace. When I go off-roading I stay with him and swears it never gets below 50° , even in the dog days of winter.

Edit: I did see you’re in Twin Peaks..I guess that elevation makes a big difference.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Yes sir we had a colder longer winter than previous winter especially considering 17-18 was like 50 every day for the entire winter. 18-19 was a little cooler with the highs 25 F for high for almost three months. Then the snow and ice was still here into June. People who had wood who could get around did very well probably making a 1000 % profit. In April my car were still covered with ice. Every now and then I deliver to Riverside, but not a big market for sure. Thanks

 

[svk]

When I buy wood I usually buy 10 cords at a time and that lasts me for a few years. The guys selling firewood in my area show up with a truck and a regular trailer (not a dump trailer) loaded to the gills. The wood is stacked in the back of the truck and in the trailer (surplus military trailers are popular here). They call it a cord and I can quickly calculate that, yes, in fact that is a cord. Oak is usually $100-$150 per cord cut/split/delivered. They do a lot of work by hand, so they can't produce too many cords per year, so it's hit and miss if you can buy from them.

This is the first time I've bought wood from someone with a much larger operation and he's about an hour away. He buys logs, has a firewood processor, heavy equipment, dump trailers, etc. I might catch some heck for this, but I wonder if the guys that have all the big equipment and never actually touch any wood really know how much they are selling. Load the logs with a machine, cut/split them with a machine into a trailer and dump deliver them. Very efficient, albeit capital intensive. I can't eyeball a dump trailer load of random firewood and tell how much volume it is. The big load make it harder too.

In the past I've also hired local guys to cut up trees on my property. I tell them the area they can cut and let them pick out 50 trees of a minimum size. They fell, limb, and block the trees and I take care of splitting the wood and getting it back to the house. Two guys can process 50 trees in a couple days. I pay them $10 per tree and there are no disputes. They process 50 trees they get $500.

I was just at the local hardware store tonight, and a guy has a new sign out advertising cords of oak cut/split/delivered and stacked for $125 per cord. I'll give him a call tomorrow and hope I have some better luck.

I’d honestly be wary at that price. His cord might be a face cord so you’d be spending 375 a true cord.