Used wooden pallets, graded by hand

Most North American recycled pallets are mixed hardwood — oak, poplar, maple, gum — because that is what the new-pallet industry builds with in the east and midwest. Softwood pallets, mostly pine and fir, are more common in the west and on imported freight. The difference is not cosmetic.

Odd footprints come and go with whatever the yard takes in. If you need something unusual, tell us and we will watch for it — we hold a want-list and it works more often than you would expect.

• Confirm the orientation. A 48x40 with stringers on the 48" side behaves differently on a conveyor than the same pallet rotated. Ask which you are getting.
• Ask about fasteners. Ring-shank and screw-shank nails hold; smooth-shank nails back out and become shiners.
• Check the deck-board count. Seven-board tops are standard; five-board tops flex more under drum and roll loads.
• Specify moisture. If the pallets go into a cold store or a dry room, say so — wet wood will make itself known.
• Decide about banding. Banded lots of 20 or 25 unload faster but cost a little more. For high-volume receiving it pays for itself.

For the full inspection standard, including what should make you reject a pallet on arrival, see safety and inspection.

Almost every conversation about used pallets uses these words. Knowing which part is which turns a vague complaint into a specific, fixable one.

Board counts and what they mean

A seven-board top deck is the GMA standard. Five-board decks exist and are cheaper; they flex more under drums, rolls and any concentrated load, and they let small cartons drop through the gaps. Nine-board and butted decks show up on specialist pallets where deck coverage matters more than weight.

Deck coverage on a standard 48x40 is about 87%. If you are shipping anything small enough to fall through a 1.5" gap, you want a butted deck, a slip sheet or a plywood cap rather than a different grade.

A used pallet's remaining life is decided far more by how you store and handle it than by what grade it arrived as. Three or four cycles is typical in a careless operation; six to eight is normal in a careful one, on identical stock.

• Keep them off the ground. Four inches of air under the bottom pallet prevents the mould that destroys the bottom rows of an outdoor stack.
• Keep the sides of a tarp open. A wrapped tarp traps meltwater against the deck and is worse than no tarp at all.
• Stack square, same orientation. Leaning stacks collect snow in the gaps and freeze into one object.
• Train fork entry. On a stringer pallet, enter through the open faces where you can. Notch entry causes 14% of the damage we repair.
• Spread concentrated loads. Anything under about 12" square and over 400 lb wants a spreader.
• Do not rack Grade B. A companion stringer changes the load path and an unsupported span is unforgiving.
• Mark your grades. A painted stringer end costs nothing and stops a Grade B pallet reaching a rack beam by accident.