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What Is a Rick of Firewood? A Stack 4 ft by 8 ft, Any Depth

A rick is a stack four feet high and eight feet long. Its depth is whatever the log length is — which is why the word tells you almost nothing.

By Zakaria 3 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
Split logs stacked in a neat row against a weathered timber wall
Photo: LUM3N, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
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A stack 4 ft high by 8 ft long — depth unspecified. The depth is just the log length, which is why a rick can hold anywhere from a quarter to half a cord. Same thing as a face cord.

The arithmetic

This table answers the question on its own
Piece lengthCubic feet in a rickFraction of a cordRicks per cord
12 in32¼4
16 in~43⅓3
18 in48⅜2.7
24 in64½2

A full cord is always 128 cubic feet — 4 ft × 8 ft × 4 ft. Only the rick moves.

The gap this leaves

Two sellers quoting “a rick” can be offering twice as much wood as each other at the same price. In several US states only the full cord is legal for advertising firewood, precisely because of this.

How to compare two prices

  1. Ask the piece length. Without it, no price is comparable to any other.
  2. Convert to a cord. Multiply a 16-inch rick price by 3; a 24-inch rick price by 2.
  3. Then compare species. A cord of cottonwood holds about half the heat of a cord of oak, so a cheap cord is not automatically cheap heat.
  4. Then ask how long it has been split and stacked. Unseasoned wood is heavier to deliver and worse to burn.

Three questions settle most firewood deals

Piece length? Species? Split and stacked since when? A seller who answers all three plainly is usually selling honestly.

Where the word comes from

Old English rick, meaning a stack or heap — the same word as in haystack and hayrick. It described any orderly outdoor stack built to shed rain, and attached to firewood for the same reason. It describes the stacking, not a quantity, which is exactly how it became such a loose measure.

The other loose units

  • Face cord — identical to a rick.
  • Truckload / pickup load — meaningless without the truck. A half-ton pickup bed holds roughly a third to a half cord of seasoned hardwood, and it is usually heaped well above the sides.
  • Bush cord — an older term for a full cord.
  • Stove cord, running cord — regional variants of the same four-by-eight stack.

Only the full cord has a fixed definition. Everything else needs the piece length attached.

Common questions

What is a rick of firewood?

A rick is a stack of firewood four feet high and eight feet long, with the depth left undefined — it is simply the length of the pieces. That makes it the same thing as a face cord. The critical point is that two ricks can differ by a factor of two in actual wood: a rick of sixteen-inch pieces holds about a third of a full cord, while a rick of twenty-four-inch pieces holds about half. Always ask the log length before agreeing a price.

How many ricks are in a cord?

It depends entirely on the length of the pieces, which is why the question has no fixed answer. A full cord is 128 cubic feet, measured as four feet high by eight feet long by four feet deep. With sixteen-inch pieces you need three ricks to make a cord; with twenty-four-inch pieces, two; with twelve-inch pieces, four. A seller quoting a price per rick without stating the length is quoting a price for an unknown quantity.

Is a rick the same as a face cord?

Yes, in everyday use they mean the same thing — a four by eight foot stack of unspecified depth. Rick is the more common term in parts of the American midwest and south, face cord elsewhere. Both are informal, both have the same ambiguity, and in several US states only the full cord is legal for advertising firewood sales precisely because of that ambiguity.

Why is it called a rick of wood?

From the old English word rick, meaning a stack or heap — the same word in haystack and in hayrick. It originally described any orderly outdoor stack of harvested material built to shed rain, and it attached to firewood for the same reason. The word describes the stacking, not a quantity, which is exactly why it ended up as such a loose measure.

How much does a rick of wood cost?

It varies far too much by region, species and season to quote a figure, but the way to compare prices is fixed: convert everything to a full cord before comparing. Divide the rick price by the fraction of a cord it represents — a sixteen-inch rick is a third of a cord, so multiply its price by three. Sellers quoting in ricks, face cords, truckloads or pickup loads are quoting in units that are not comparable until you do that.

What should I ask a firewood seller?

Three things. What is the piece length, which converts the rick into a known fraction of a cord. What species, since a cord of cottonwood holds about half the heat of a cord of oak. And how long has it been split and stacked, since unseasoned wood is both heavier to deliver and worse to burn. A seller who answers all three plainly is usually selling honestly.

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