Selling firewood in Rhode Island: cords, delivery tickets and labels

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows Chapter 47-12, Firewood and Charcoal, of the Rhode Island General Laws as published by the Rhode Island General Assembly. No Rhode Island weights and measures office page on firewood was read for this page, so the statute is the main source, with the NIST model rule beside it.

The standard cord

In the General Laws, section 47-12-1 is titled standard cord. It says the cord measures 8 feet in length, 4 feet in width and 4 feet in height, including one half of the kerf, and is well stowed and closely laid together. That is 128 cubic feet by the dimensions given. The following section, 47-12-2, sets the fee for a person chosen by a town as a corder of wood at not more than US$0.12 per cord, paid by the purchaser of the wood.

Sale by cubic feet or cubic meters

Rhode Island words its sale rule differently from the national model. Section 47-12-3 says the following.

Cordwood sold or offered for sale is 4 feet in length.
The term firewood means wood cut to any length of less than 4 feet and more than 8 inches.
Cordwood and firewood are advertised, offered and sold only in terms of cubic feet or cubic meters, read as the closely stacked content to be delivered to the purchaser.
The terms cord, face cord, pile and truckload, or terms of similar import, are not used in advertising and selling cordwood or firewood.
Kindling wood means split wood, edgings, clippings or other waste wood averaging 8 inches in length, and its standard unit is the bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches.

Section 47-12-1 defines the cord, and section 47-12-3 bars the word in sales. This page does not explain how the two fit together, because the sources do not.

The delivery ticket and the fines

In the same chapter, section 47-12-4, titled fraudulent sale of firewood, a seller of cordwood or firewood causes a delivery ticket or sales invoice to be issued and handed to the purchaser or the purchaser's agent at the time of delivery. It carries these items.

The name and address of the seller and of the purchaser.
The quantity delivered, in cubic feet or cubic meters.
The date delivered.
The price of the quantity of wood delivered.

The same section sets fines for violating any provision of it or the sections before it: US$50 for a first offence, US$100 for a second, and US$200 for each later one. A person who alters a delivery ticket or sales invoice, or puts another in its place, with a fraudulent or deceptive aim is fined not more than US$250.

The model rule for comparison

Section 2.4 of the uniform regulation for the method of sale in NIST Handbook 130, 2026 edition, lets wood be sold by the cord, fractions of a cord or the cubic meter, and bars face cord, rack, pile and truckload. Rhode Island's chapter drops the cord as a selling unit, which sets it apart from the model. The chapter does not mention the handbook.

For the model rule and other places, see the firewood sale rules overview. The movement rules for wood across states are on the moving wood and firewood page.