When buying wood, how accurate should I expect the delivery to be?

[slate]

Obviously buying wood cannot be as accurate as buying oil. If I order a cord of wood split, how accurate should I expect it to be? I'm going to stack it in a single row 4' high and calculate what I got. What's a reasonable margin of error?

 

[Applesister]

Lol...how charitable do you feel like being?
You can feel very generous toward the poor guy whos out there sweating for a living...
Or live with the knowledge that your income is as "fixed" as the next guy's.

 

[Soundchasm]

Negotiate the stacked price with the seller - pay him for what he delivers. I had one guy who delivered decent cords but they weren't seasoned, and I had a kid show up with old wet frozen (but "seasoned"!) wood in a pickup truck that was generously 6/10 of a cord. Unless he or she shows up in a dump truck leaving a pile the size of a VW bug, you've got to have your stacking place ready so you can see if one cord increments have been delivered.

Until you have a working relationship with somebody you have to assume the worst in quantity, quality, and support.

 

[Poindexter]

As above, you got to get it stacked so you can see what you got. Then look at your oil or electric bill to see what the actual value of the wood you have is.

If you have a local vendor who promises in writing to bring more wood if you aren't satisfied, he is probably bring a bit more than a cord in every delivery; and probably making very very few make up deliveries, and he probably charges a tiny bit more than the going rate.

I prefer to deal with that guy myself.

 

[FIshing_Fool]

I'd hope the delivery vehicle is capable of holding a cord AND the wood in the truck measures out to a cord. If it looks good on the truck give the thumbs up to dump and don't feel bad if you stack tighter then the vendor.