1m³ ton bag Explained
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If you've bought firewood, aggregate, or building materials in a ton bag, builder's bag, or "cubic metre bag" before, you've probably assumed it's a metre cube — 1m x 1m x 1m or it weighs 1 ton. It usually doesn't, and the exact size & weight varies more than you'd expect — which matters if you're comparing prices between suppliers.
The bag size isn't standardised — so check before you compare
Here's the thing most people don't realise: there's no single fixed size for a "ton bag" or "builder's bag." Depending on the manufacturer and supplier, they typically range anywhere from about 70cm to 90cm cubed. That's a genuinely significant difference in actual capacity from one bag to another, even though both might get called a "1m³ bag" or a "bulk bag."
This means that when you're comparing a price per bag between two suppliers, you're not necessarily comparing the same volume at all. Always check the actual bag dimensions (or better, the litre/volume specification) before assuming two "1m³" bags are the same amount of wood.
Our bag pictured is 80cm on each side, we filled it with exactly 20 of our 30-litre nets — 600 litres of neatly packed, stacked logs — and tipped them in loose. As you can see, it fills the bag and bulges well above the rim.
That bulge isn't guesswork. There's an industry-standard "loose multiplier" of around 1.7x used to convert stacked or packed volume into loose, tipped volume, since loose material has air gaps between randomly settled pieces that neatly stacked logs don't. Run the numbers: 600 litres stacked x 1.7 works out to just over 1,000 litres — in other words, just over 1m³ loose. That's exactly what you see bulging out of the bag in the photo.
Our nets vs. a loose ton bag
We supply exactly the same 1m³ equivalent, just split differently: 20 of our 30-litre nets works out to the same volume as one loose ton bag.
The difference is what you actually get for it. Buying loose means dealing with one enormous bag that's impossible to move without a machine. It'll also take up much more space when tipped out loose like this. Our nets are the same total volume, but split into easy-to-carry 30 litre bags that you (or we) can stack neatly exactly where you want them, a few at a time if that's easier.
No filler wood taking up space
This is the bit that really matters when you're comparing volume for volume: when you order from us, every net is exactly what it says — Ash, Birch, Oak, or a mix of those three, and nothing else. No cheaper softwood or off-cuts bulking out the bag to hit the volume, and no guessing what you're actually getting once it's tipped into one big pile.
With a loose ton bag from elsewhere, it's much harder to see (or control) what's actually in there — and there's no way to know if some of that "1m³" is lower-grade wood taking up space that could have been proper hardwood. Ordering nets means every single one is a specific, known type, so you always know exactly what you're burning.
Better value, not just more convenient
Splitting the same volume into manageable nets doesn't cost more — if anything, we work out cheaper overall than buying the equivalent loose from other local suppliers.
You may wonder how we can do this cheaper? Just one of the reasons is we don't need heavy machinery like a Hiab on the back of a truck to deliver, it all comes in nets packed in the back of our compact electric van.
(We've broken down exactly how to compare firewood prices properly in this post if you want the full picture on what to check before comparing on price alone.)
So next time you see "1m³ bag" advertised, you'll know exactly what that means — and why a stack of nets is the easier, better value way to get the same amount of wood.
Kiln Dried Logs Jersey delivers Woodsure Ready to Burn certified firewood free across all 12 parishes.