Firewood is sold three ways: by the cord, by the bundle, and by the pallet. The gap between a clean-burning load and a smoky mess comes down to moisture and honest measurement. Prices climb from October into November as local supply thins, so ordering in late spring costs less. Here is where to buy firewood online and in store, and what to check before you pay.
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Who Actually Needs Firewood
Firewood is split, dried lumber burned as fuel, whether the end use is home heating, a backyard fire pit, or cooking. Four buyer types cover almost everyone.
- Home heaters. A fireplace or a wood-burning stove needs cords of dense hardwood to clear a winter.
- Backyard hosts. Fire pits and chimineas, where a clean burn beats raw heat output.
- Campers and RV travelers. Certified packs approved for the region visited.
- Cooks. Flavored chunks for a smoker, a barbecue, or a pizza oven, where the wood changes how food tastes.
The EPA’s Burn Wise program, the federal effort promoting cleaner residential wood burning, puts the target under 20% moisture for the cleanest fire and the least creosote in a chimney. Wood fuel is renewable, and a cord from a sustainable local supplier keeps transport short.
Buying Criteria: What Separates Good Firewood From Bad
Good wood reads under 20% on a moisture meter, comes from a dense hardwood species, and arrives in a stated cubic-foot volume you can verify yourself.
Moisture content. Dry splits crack across the end grain, feel light for their size, and knock together with a hollow ring rather than a dull thud. A cheap pin meter settles the argument in seconds.
Species and heat output. Oak, hickory, sugar maple, ash, beech, and locust burn longest and hottest, which is why they dominate home heating. Pine and fir kindle fast and make good kindling, but softwood burns out quickly and leaves more creosote. Apple and cherry are the standard for smoking meat.
Seasoned or kiln-dried. Seasoning is wood drying in open air: six to twelve months for most types, 18 to 24 for the densest. Kiln-dried stock comes out below 20%, often nearer 15%, and USDA-certified heat treatment takes the core of each piece to 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes, which kills insects.
Volume and piece size. A full cord is a stacked pile 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet, or 128 cubic feet. A face cord, also called a rack or a rick, is one row off that stack. Grocery bundles hold 0.75 to 1.0 cubic feet. Pieces 14 to 18 inches long fit most fireplace inserts.
Three checks before money changes hands:
- Ask what dominates the load by name. “Mixed woods” with nothing named usually means softwood filler.
- Get the cubic feet, or the cord fraction, written on the receipt.
- Measure the stack after delivery, not the loose heap in a truck bed. Thrown wood takes far more room than the same amount stacked.
How Much Should You Pay for Firewood
Price tracks volume, species, and freight, and it swings hard by region. As of September 2026, these are the common bands.
- Budget: bundles. Roughly $6 to $12 for 0.75 to 1.0 cubic feet at a grocery store, gas station, or hardware aisle. Fine for one evening, brutal per cubic foot.
- Mid-range: face cord or half cord. Commonly $120 to $300 delivered locally, depending on species and stacking.
- Premium: a full cord, or shipped boxes. A full cord commonly runs $200 to $550. Boxed hardwood ships for about $80 to $160, since you pay freight on something heavy.
Paying the premium for a kiln is pointless if you have a dry spot and eight months of patience. Buy green in April, stack it off the ground, and it burns fine by the first cold night. The place to never economize is measurement. Under NIST Handbook 130, the model law most state weights-and-measures programs adopt, firewood must be sold by the cord or a fraction of one, never by “the truckload.”
Buying Firewood Online: Retailer Comparison
Online is where you go for a named wood type, a published moisture number, and delivery without owning a truck.
| Seller | What ships | Best for | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Bundles, totes, chunks, pallets | Speed | Mixes manufactured logs with real splits |
| Cutting Edge | Heat-treated boxes, 16-inch | Smokers, pizza ovens | Premium price, consistent product |
| Woodchuck Firewood | Barbecue wood by type | Cooking | Every box labeled |
| OneLogFire | Single-type boxes | Fireplace use | Narrower range |
Amazon
Shop the Amazon selection for bundles, totes, cooking chunks, fire starters, and pallets. Sort by cubic feet per pack, not by headline price, because listings mix compressed sawdust logs in with real wood.
Specialty and Bulk Shippers
Cutting Edge ships oak, hickory, cherry, and pecan nationwide in 16-inch lengths, which suits smokers and pizza-oven owners who want the same wood every time. Order a box direct. Woodchuck Firewood focuses on barbecue wood, OneLogFire sells single-type boxes for fireplace use, and a bulk-order specialist covers the big stuff. Searching by ZIP code turns up regional suppliers that beat national brands on freight.
Buying Firewood Locally: Store by Store
Local buying wins on cost per cubic foot, and it is the only realistic route to a full cord of hardwood firewood in a driveway.
Home Depot
Home Depot carries seasoned bundles, heat-treated packs, cooking chunks, and sometimes half-pallet quantities. Check the outdoor garden area year-round, or the front-entrance display once the weather turns.
Lowe’s and Walmart
Lowe’s stocks bundled splits and compressed logs at similar pricing, so confirm stock on their site first. Walmart runs the budget end, on the shelf and through the Walmart selection online, where some listings are pickup-only.
Ace Hardware, Grocery, and Gas Stations
Ace Hardware, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, and many gas station chains sell single-night bundles near the entrance from fall through winter. Convenient, and the priciest way to buy by the cubic foot. Check any bundle left outside for dryness, and grab a fire starter or lighter fluid while you are there.
Tree Services and Farms
Tree removal outfits and family farms sell seasoned hardwood by the cord well under big-box pricing, advertised on community boards, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist. Many farms that sell real Christmas trees move split cords the rest of the year. Call ahead after the first cold snap; stock turns over in days. Cutting your own? Keep ethanol-free gas on hand and check your splitting tools early.
Red Flags When Shopping for Firewood
Green stock sold as seasoned. Fresh-cut lumber can sit above 40% moisture. It hisses, wastes heat boiling off water, and packs creosote into the flue. Pale end grain and unusual weight are the tells.
A price far below every other quote in town. When one seller undercuts the local market by half, the load is short-measured, partly rotted, or mostly softwood.
Hauling wood a long way from home. Moving unprocessed logs spreads emerald ash borer and spotted lanternfly, and quarantine rules vary by state, so check yours before crossing a line. Buy near where you burn, or buy certified heat-treated packs.
Treated or painted scrap. Never burn pressure-treated decking, MB-stamped pallets, railroad ties, or painted lumber. Combustion releases arsenic, methyl bromide, or lead.
Volume judged by eyeball. A loose heap in a truck bed looks bigger than it stacks. Plan storage before delivery day: a pallet or a rack, well away from the house rather than piled against the siding, tarped on top with the sides open.
Best Firewood Right Now
These five were picked on labeling, published moisture, and cost per cubic foot rather than brand recognition.
Best overall: Cutting Edge Ultra Kiln-Dried Hardwood Box. White oak and hickory dried into the low teens for moisture, in a consistent 16-inch length. Around $80 to $160 depending on box size. Order direct from the company.
Best budget: Duraflame Firelogs 6-Pack. Compressed sawdust and wax that lights with one match and burns for a few hours per log. Typically $15 to $25. Check the Amazon listing.
Best for camping: Pine Mountain Traditional Firelogs. Manufactured logs rather than cut wood, which is why they travel without running into movement rules, in sealed packaging that stows easily in an RV. Roughly $5 to $9 each. Confirm your campground allows them. Browse Pine Mountain options.
Best real-wood bundle: Timber Tote Kiln-Dried Tote. A reusable mesh tote holding about 0.75 cubic feet of mixed hardwood, carry handle included. Usually $25 to $40. See Timber Tote on Amazon.
Best for smokers: Western Premium BBQ Cooking Chunks. Post oak, hickory, mesquite, and apple chunks sized for offset smokers and kamado grills, where they sit on top of charcoal. Low ash, clear labeling. Typically $10 to $18 per bag. View cooking chunks on Amazon.
Start with the use case, not the price tag. A stove wants dense splits by the cord, a fire pit wants bundles, a smoker wants labeled chunks. Then confirm the moisture spec, get the cubic feet in writing, and buy firewood in late spring if you can wait, because the same cord costs less before the first cold night.
Firewood Questions, Answered
How much is a 1/2 cord of firewood?
A half cord is 64 cubic feet, a stack roughly 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet, and it commonly costs $120 to $300. Expect a higher price per cubic foot than a full-cord buyer pays, because the delivery fee does not shrink with the order. A half cord is not a face cord, which has no fixed volume until the seller states the piece length.
What does $100 actually buy you?
At bundle pricing near $8 for 0.75 cubic feet, $100 buys about 9 cubic feet, roughly 7% of a cord. Put the same $100 toward a $350 full cord and it covers about 36 cubic feet, four times the wood.
Do warehouse clubs and big-box stores sell full cords?
Rarely. Costco, Sam’s Club, and the home centers stock bundles, manufactured logs, and occasional pallets in cold months. For a full cord, the reliable channels are local dealers, tree services, and farms that deliver and stack.
Is it legal to haul firewood across state lines?
It depends on the states involved, and several enforce quarantines against emerald ash borer and spotted lanternfly. The Don’t Move Firewood campaign, run by The Nature Conservancy, advises buying within 50 miles of where you will burn it. USDA APHIS-certified heat-treated bundles are the exception, and they are what most campgrounds accept.
In September 2026, our editorial team re-verified pricing bands, retailer availability, and the picks in this guide.