Service · Repair
A repair line, not a scrap heap
Four stations, one standard, and a stubborn belief that most broken pallets are two boards away from another two years of service.
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RePallet Co. repairs damaged wooden pallets at 4890 Geneva St in Denver, returning cores to Grade A or Grade B against a written standard. Typical work is deck-board replacement, companion stringers, stringer plugging, de-nailing and re-squaring.
Repair runs roughly $1.75–$4.50 per unit depending on how much work each pallet needs. It is almost always cheaper than buying replacements, and it keeps 23 board feet of lumber per pallet out of the grinder.
What we repair, and how
A wooden pallet fails in a small number of predictable ways, and each one has a standard fix. The skill is in deciding quickly which pallets are worth which fix — a repair that takes four minutes on a pallet worth six dollars is not a repair, it is a hobby.
| Failure | Standard fix | Resulting grade | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cracked or missing deck board | Replace with reclaimed board, ring-shank nailed | Grade A if ≤2 boards | 40 – 70 sec |
| Split stringer along the nail line | Companion stringer, full length, glued and nailed | Grade B | 90 – 150 sec |
| Notch blow-out | Stringer plug, routed and fitted | Grade B | 2 – 3 min |
| Protruding or shiner nails | Shear, reset or replace fastener | No downgrade | 15 – 30 sec |
| Racked / out of square | Re-square on the jig, re-nail | Grade B | 60 – 90 sec |
| Missing lead board | Replace with matched-thickness reclaimed board | Grade A | 40 sec |
| Heavy staining, no structural damage | Wash, dry, re-grade | Grade B | batch process |
| Broken stringer, both sides | Not repaired — dismantled for lumber | Core | — |
Repair your own stock, or buy ours repaired
There are two ways to use a repair line, and which one suits you depends on whether your pallets are an asset you track or a consumable you replace.
Toll repair
You own the pallets. We collect, repair to the agreed grade, and return the same units. Best when your pallets are custom-sized, branded, or part of a closed loop you control. Priced per unit repaired.
Buy-and-swap
We buy your cores at buyback rates and sell you finished Grade A stock. No tracking, no return leg, and you are never short because the yard carries the inventory. Best for standard 48x40 users.
On-site repair
For operations above roughly 2,000 units a month we can run a repair crew inside your facility on a scheduled basis. It removes the freight leg entirely and suits sites with no yard space for accumulation.
Why repair is the highest-impact thing we do
Every sustainability conversation in this industry gravitates to recycling because grinding is visible and photogenic. But the carbon maths is not close. A repaired pallet avoids the manufacture of a new one — roughly 4.8 kg CO₂e and 23 board feet of lumber. A ground pallet avoids a landfill, which is worth having, but the lumber is gone.
The greenest pallet is the one that is already built. Everything we do at the yard is an argument for keeping it that way for one more cycle.
A well-repaired 48x40 core in a regional loop will typically see seven lives before the wood is genuinely spent. Without a repair step, that number is three. The ReLoop Ledger will show you what that looks like against your own volume.
The repair standard, written out
Every repair on our line follows a written specification. This is it, so you can check the work rather than trust it.
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Replacement deck boards | Reclaimed hardwood, thickness matched to ±1.5 mm of the original |
| Fasteners | Ring-shank or screw-shank only; no smooth-shank |
| Nails per board | Minimum 2 per stringer crossing, driven flush |
| Companion stringers | Full length, glued and nailed at 150 mm centres |
| Stringer plugs | Routed to fit, glued, minimum 2 fasteners |
| Shiners | Sheared or reset; none permitted to protrude |
| Squareness | Within 6 mm across the diagonals |
| Moisture content | Below 22% before dispatch |
| Finish | Swept; washed on request |
| Re-grade | Every repaired unit re-graded, not assumed |
Toll repair: how a run actually works
If your pallets are an asset you track — custom footprints, branded stock, a closed loop — toll repair keeps the same units in your system rather than exchanging them.
- 1
Sample assessment
We look at 50 to 100 units, or a photograph set, and estimate the repair mix and cost per unit.
- 2
Quotation per outcome
A rate for each repair type, plus the dismantle rate for units not worth repairing.
- 3
Collection
Our trailer, or yours. Units are counted and photographed at intake.
- 4
Repair run
Five to eight working days for runs under 1,000 units. Larger runs get a firm date before collection.
- 5
Rejection report
Which units could not be repaired, why, and what we paid for them as lumber.
- 6
Return
Same units, banded, with a repair summary and a batch reference.
| Toll repair | Buy-and-swap | |
|---|---|---|
| You own the pallets | Yes | No |
| Same units returned | Yes | No |
| Suits custom footprints | Yes | No — no recycled market |
| Suits branded stock | Yes | Only with plane/paint |
| Lead time | 5 – 8 working days | Same or next day |
| Working capital tied up | Yes | No |
| Typical cost per cycle | $2.40 average repair | $3.15 net of core value |
| Best for | Closed loops you control | Standard 48x40 in an open loop |
On-site repair crews
For operations above roughly 2,000 units a month we can run a repair crew inside your facility on a scheduled basis. It removes the freight leg entirely and suits sites with no yard space for accumulation.
- Two to four operators plus a supervisor, working to the same written specification.
- Portable benches and a re-squaring jig, set up in a bay you designate.
- Reclaimed lumber delivered in, so nothing new is consumed.
- Scrap and rejects removed on the same run, with a batch record.
- Your own safety induction and PPE requirements followed as standard.
- Typically two days a week, scheduled around your production rhythm.
It is not always cheaper per unit — you are paying for a crew rather than for a line — but it removes two freight legs and a scheduling problem, and for sites with genuinely no accumulation space it is often the only workable answer.
Questions people actually ask
Is it cheaper to repair or replace?
Will repaired pallets run on our conveyor?
Can you repair Euro pallets?
Do you repair plastic pallets?
How long does a repair run take?
How do I know the repair was done to spec?
What is your rejection rate on a typical toll run?
Can you repair to a higher grade than the core supports?
Do you repair non-standard footprints?
Is there a minimum run size?
Let's keep your pallets in the loop
Whether you have 40 broken cores behind the dock or need 4,000 Grade A pallets a month, the conversation starts the same way.