Comparing firewood pricing and volume…questions to ask before buying.

Hi everyone

It’s a busy time of year for us and we like it, my apologies for the delay since my last blog.

We often get calls asking for pricing of our firewood and try to explain what we have available but some folks are just interested in price. While price is definitely a factor it isn’t the only factor, you should also make sure that you’re comparing “apples to apples” when you comparing the volume of firewood you get delivered. Now everyone please take your seats as we’re about to do a little math…

Question 1:

A firewood dealer, let’s call him Cletus is selling a cord of firewood for $295. His cords equal 180 cubic feet of loose thrown firewood as he doesn’t want to stack every cord he delivers. He’s calculated that 180 cubic feet loose firewood equals just over 128 cubic feet of stacked firewood as firewood that is thrown loosely takes up more space than neatly thrown firewood. What is he charging per cubic foot of loose firewood?

Answer: $295 divided by 180 cubic feet = $1.64 per per cubic foot of loose thrown firewood

What is he charging per cubic foot of stacked firewood?

Answer: $295 divided by 128 cubic feet = $2.30 per cubic foot of loose thrown firewood

 

Question 2:

A firewood dealer, let’s call him Stanley is selling a cord of firewood for $275. His cords equal 128 cubic feet of loose thrown firewood as he doesn’t want to stack every cord he delivers and he thinks that 128 cubic feet of loose thrown firewood equals a cord. What is he charging per cubic foot of loose firewood?

Answer: $275 divided by 128 cubic feet = $2.15 per per cubic foot of loose thrown firewood

 

What is he charging per cubic foot of stacked firewood? Careful, this is where we have to fire up the abacus:

Answer: If we assume that 180 cubic feet of loose thrown firewood = 128 cubic feet of stacked firewood then 128 divided by 180 = 0.71. So if we multiply 0.71 x 128 = 91 which means you’ll get 91 cubic feet of stacked firewood if you start off with 128 cubic feet of loose firewood. So….$275 divided by 91 cubic feet = $3.02 per cubic feet of stacked firewood.

 

Bonus question:

Now convert that to stacked cubic metres….I’ll await your answers and the first person to email the correct answer to clint@firewoodmanitoba.ca gets a free 36″ circular firewood rack ($95 value)

 

So from the math above, even though Stanley advertises to be charging less per cord he is actually charging more because he put 128 cubic feet of loose thrown firewood in his truck to equal a cord while Cletus puts in 180 cubic feet in.

So back to the title of this blog post “Comparing firewood pricing and volume…questions to ask before buying.” before you purchase your firewood please ask:

1. How many cubic feet of stacked firewood will I get per cord if I buy from you? (that answer should be 128)

2. How many cubic feet of loose firewood equals a cord on your delivery truck, trailer, donkey etc? (that answer should be 180)

and the bonus question:

3. Can you guarantee your firewood is dry (less than 20% internal moisture content) and if it’s not then what?