Wood purchase - do I ask where the missing 15% is?

[torpesco]

I just paid a price like those mentioned in the thread on ridiculous prices for 1/2 a cord of wood. (Claimed seasoned, but two pieces I tested were 23%. Close enough?)

Dumped in my driveway, then I stacked it up.

Measuring generously, I get 54 cubic feet. Google tells me I should have 64.

Worth calling to ask about the difference? Or then am I just being an annoying customer? 15% seems not insignificant. Do I just cut my losses and buy somewhere else next time?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I'd consider 23% excellent for recently purchased wood. Itll burn much better than 30% wood. Sun and wind blowing through it may take another % or 2 off. Did you split the wood and take the measurement from the inside?

15% short might be your stacks being tighter. Call them and see if they'll make good. It can't hurt.

In my opinion, 23% wood is way more important than 15% short.

 

[rwh63]

i would, esp. on a meager 1/2 cord.

 

[Simonkenton]

23 percent is quite good on purchased wood. I would not worry about the shortage.

 

[stoveliker]

You probably save more wood (as compared to 30% moisture content, if indeed you measured on a freshly split face), by burning this dry wood, than the 15% of wood you did not get.

Note that a cord is not a fixed amount of wood; it's stacked splits in a volume of 128 cubic foot. It does not specify how tightly one has to stack. So legally, it's a tough thing to deal with.

 

[torpesco]

Thanks, all!

Mixed responses but mostly in favor of leaving it. My stacks are probably pretty tight. Maybe I’ll just try to innocently ask how they measure, depending on how I feel in a couple hours.

Glad to hear 23% is quite good for freshly purchased wood. Yes, I measured on a couple freshly split faces.

 

[gzecc]

If you want more I would definitely make the seller aware. He may make good on it. Probably not.

 

[Riverbanks]

I would also mention it, it will help them and you in the future. Rule of thumb for us is... Stack so that a mouse can travel thru but a cat can't follow

 

[Ashful]

@gzecc beat me to it. If you think you might use this seller again, and at 23%MC I certainly would, I'd just let them know they shorted you. Tell him not to worry about making a special trip now, but to remember to comp it on the next load.

 

[peakbagger]

Odds are they delivered a volume of randomly stacked wood which can differ from a tight stack by 15%

 

[Simonkenton]

Yes. There is no regulation on how tightly it has to be stacked.
What is the quality of the wood? Is there any rot? What kind of wood is it?

 

[ridemgis]

I just paid a price like those mentioned in the thread on ridiculous prices for 1/2 a cord of wood. (Claimed seasoned, but two pieces I tested were 23%. Close enough?)

Dumped in my driveway, then I stacked it up.

Measuring generously, I get 54 cubic feet. Google tells me I should have 64.

Worth calling to ask about the difference? Or then am I just being an annoying customer? 15% seems not insignificant. Do I just cut my losses and buy somewhere else next time?

In ten years of burning wood from a variety of sellers, I have yet to receive a full cord. One guy told me he measures based on the size of his loader bucket. And inevitably that includes a pile of spitter trash not big enough to save for kindling.

 

[Riverbanks]

We have one guy that hand stacks it on his truck, been that way for 25 years or so, God bless him

 

[rwh63]

i have a neighbor who orders two cords. they stack it, and if short, they call to get more. i've never done that, but maybe i should. if it is acceptable to deliver less than the two cords you pay for, shouldn't you get that missing 1/4 cord? you buy a dozen donuts, not 11!

 

[Riverbanks]

I don't know if it's a law here, probably, you have to say "approximately a cord" when you advertise. This way you eliminate the anal stacking practices of some people, seems like some just want to beat the seller up

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The extra time for the seller costs too. They could help themselves out by putting a little extra in. The good will would go a long way toward being able to charge a premium. And what seller wants to be the low cost provider? Thats a race to bankruptcy.

 

[Riverbanks]

From what I see, some sellers around here are heap venders. I don't deal with anyone that advertises that. They get the check and no repercussions.

 

[DonTee]

There was a Russian guy I used to work with that would restack any fire wood he got very tightly, and then tell the seller he shorted him.
You can take full stack and make it smaller if you work at getting all the pieces to fit together. Tetris style. I’m not saying that’s what the OP was doing, just saying it’s possible.

Most of the small time sellers in my area have the wood split and stacked. It’s easy to get a face cord or whatever. The big time sellers use “seasoned” logs right from the processor into the dump trailer.

There’s a guy down the road from me that’s a Heap vendor. He’s one of the ones that has it all split and stacked though. About 200 face cords in his front yard.

 

[Riverbanks]

Firewood guy in Wilton? That's who comes to my mind in this area

 

[gzecc]

In ten years of burning wood from a variety of sellers, I have yet to receive a full cord. One guy told me he measures based on the size of his loader bucket. And inevitably that includes a pile of spitter trash not big enough to save for kindling.

What a coincidence, I bet its alway short of a cord!

 

[Max W]

My dealer is a one man operation from stump to delivery. The wood goes from the splitter to a dump trailer that holds a cord, loose tossed. State of Maine allows that a loose tossed cord is 180 cubic feet for 16 inch wood. It does stack to somewhat less but the price and quality are both very satisfactory. My saw has somehow gained weight. My splitter sits mostly idle and I’m glad for the work he does.

 

[peakbagger]

There is local operation with a processor and a cleaning drum that tumbles the wood before going to a final conveyor. It's nice looking wood but processed in the spring and piled in the open. He sells it in metal dumpsters sold by volume and its just dumped in there with a bucket. He seems to sell every bit of it and I think he sells it a premum as clean uniform wood. Far nicer than my "boiler chow" which is everything that I cut over 2". My boiler doesnt care, It just burns fast and hot.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Firewood guy in Wilton? That's who comes to my mind in this area

I looked at that guy’s site. He’s more of a boutique firewood guy. He’ll split up the species so you get a cord of hop-hornbeam or whatever! I bet that’s expensive, lol. It’d burn forever once you got it lit though! Or maybe just char forever.

 

[Sawset]

Wood will shrink 10% between freshly split and dry (20% moisture). If you had gotten it from one of the seasoned wet wood guys, it would have been near a full cord. I can tell when the wood here is nearly done drying - the stacks stop heaving and leaning from all the uneven shrink going on, and will have dropped from 60" high to about 6" less.

 

[DonTee]

I watch a guy on YouTube who does a bunch of firewood in Wisconsin. He stacks his cords at 52” tall to account for shrinkage. I’ve started doing the same.