South Jersey buyer's reference
Did you get
a full cord?
A cord is a fixed volume you can check with a tape measure. This is how to check it, what it should weigh, whether it will fit in your truck, and what New Jersey says you can do if it comes up short.
Step one
Measuring what turned up
in your driveway
A cord is 128 cubic feet, stacked and well stowed. Four feet high, four feet deep, eight feet long. That is the legal definition in New Jersey and it is not a matter of opinion.
If it was stacked
Measure it. Height × depth × length in feet, multiplied together. If it comes to 128 cubic feet you got a cord. 64 is a half cord, 32 is a quarter.
If it was dumped in a pile
This is the situation almost nobody writes about, and it is how most loads actually arrive. You cannot measure a cone of wood. Stack it, then measure — and stack it before you pay if you possibly can.
Loose, thrown wood takes up roughly 30–40% more space than the same wood stacked. A pile that looks like a cord in the driveway is routinely two thirds of one once it is stacked. Most of the time nobody is lying: the seller eyeballed a heaped truck bed, and a heaped truck bed is not a unit of measurement.
Stack it the way a measurement expects
Rows roughly parallel, pieces roughly level, gaps closed up the way you would stack it to burn it. You are not trying to cheat it tight and the seller is not entitled to the air. Then run the tape.
The sizes, in cubic feet
| Size | Stacked | Dimensions |
|---|---|---|
| Full cord | 128 cu ft | 4′ × 4′ × 8′ |
| Half cord | 64 cu ft | 4′ × 2′ × 8′ |
| Third cord | 42.7 cu ft | 4′ × 16″ × 8′ |
| Quarter cord | 32 cu ft | 4′ × 1′ × 8′ |
Any stack shape counts as long as the three measurements multiply to the right number. A 2′ × 4′ × 16′ row is still a cord.
Packaged bundles under an eighth of a cord are the exception and sell by the bundle, which is why a roadside stand prices the way it does.
Before you drive over
Will a cord of firewood
fit in my truck?
No. Not in a half-ton pickup, and usually not a half cord either. And the reason is not the one most people check.
The volume fits before the weight does
This is the whole trap. A six-and-a-half-foot bed loaded level with the rails is almost exactly a half cord by volume. It looks completely reasonable. It is also, on most half-ton trucks, over the payload rating.
Everybody checks whether the wood will physically go in the bed. Almost nobody does the subtraction that actually matters:
A cord of seasoned hardwood: about 3,000–3,900 lb depending on species.
A half-ton pickup's payload rating: roughly 1,400–2,400 lb.
And that rating includes you, your passengers, the toolbox, the fuel and anything else in the truck. Subtract two adults and you have perhaps 1,100–2,100 lb left for wood.
So a full cord is roughly one and a half to three times everything a half-ton can legally carry. A half cord of oak, around 1,800 lb, is over the limit for a good number of them.
Mid-size trucks run out of room first
A Ranger, Tacoma or Colorado with a five-foot bed holds roughly 43 cubic feet level with the rails. A quarter cord is 32 of those, so it fits with room to spare and lands around 800–1,000 lb — comfortably inside any rating on the market. A half cord is 64 cubic feet and simply will not go in, whatever the payload sticker says.
What actually works: a quarter cord fits almost anything. Beyond that, take a trailer and know what it is rated for, or pay for delivery. Delivery is usually cheaper than a rear axle.
What a cord weighs, by species
Air-dried to 20% moisture — the condition wood should be in when you buy it as seasoned.
| Species | Per cord |
|---|---|
| White oak | 3,863 lb |
| Red oak | 3,609 lb |
| Sugar maple | 3,577 lb |
| White ash | 3,370 lb |
| Red maple | 2,970 lb |
| Shortleaf pine | 2,713 lb |
University of Maryland Extension FS-926, air-dried to 20% moisture content.
Green wood is far heavier. The same cord of red oak weighs about 4,988 lb before it dries — nearly 1,400 lb of water. If somebody hands you a "mixed hardwood" figure without saying green or seasoned, it is not a number you can use.
If it doesn't measure up
You think you were shorted.
Here's what New Jersey says.
This is the part almost nobody publishes, and it is the part with an actual remedy attached.
The order it goes in
- Stack it and measure it. Write down the three dimensions and the date. Photograph the stack with something in frame for scale.
- Find your delivery ticket. On a delivered load of loose firewood the seller is required to give you one, and it carries their name and address, yours, the date, the quantity, the price and any quality claim they made. What it must contain →
- Call the seller first. Most shortfalls are honest — somebody eyeballed a heaped bed. A seller who tops it up has solved it, and that is the outcome everybody should want.
- If they won't fix it, call Weights and Measures. They are the people with the legal authority to re-measure the load and act on it.
Who to call in New Jersey
State Office of Weights and Measures — 732-815-4840. They will point you to the county office that handles your town, and enforcement is largely county-level.
The state also publishes a county office finder at njconsumeraffairs.gov. We deliberately don't reprint county phone numbers here — a stale number on a page like this is worse than none, and theirs is the list that stays current.
What a delivery ticket must show
Required on a delivered load of loose firewood in New Jersey. Ask for it before you pay.
- The seller's legal name and address
- Your name and address
- The date of delivery
- The quantity, in cords or a fraction of a cord
- The price
- Any quality claim they made — including the word “seasoned”
- A serial number on the ticket or invoice
That last one matters more than it looks. If they wrote “seasoned” on the ticket, that is a claim on paper, and a moisture reading either supports it or it doesn't. How to check the moisture →
How short is short enough to complain?
There is no published tolerance, and anyone who quotes you one is guessing. What we would say: a few percent is stacking technique and honest variation. A third of a cord missing is not stacking technique.
If you are within a hair of it and the seller is straight with you, let it go and buy from them again. If it is a third light and they shrug, that is what the phone number above is for.
Know what you're buying
before it's in the driveway
The four questions worth asking, and 37 South Jersey sellers with their own phone numbers.